Closet Spaceship Part 5

(Here's the latest installment of how I introduced myself to Captain Lamont and his crew. While you read it, think about what makes a good or bad leader. That's one of the big themes in Another Shot.)

I wasn’t too happy about leaving Outsider, not only because I didn’t get to see the looks on their faces when I vanished. I was also a little worried about my reception if I ever went back … and I fully intended to go back.

Would they shoot me on sight? No, I knew enough about them to trust that they wouldn’t do that. But how would they react?

And when should I go back? I mean, when in their time: right after I left?

After mulling it over for a few days, I decided to give them a day or two to think it over. Then I gave Mac specific instructions before we set out.

When Captain Lamont decided to turn in that evening, he found me in his cabin, sitting on the sofa. He hesitated in the doorway, but I did my best to appear non-threatening so he entered the room. He left the door ajar, though.

“I see that having armed guards in the corridor wasn’t effective,” he said as he took a seat at the desk across the room. He set his radio on the desk, within reach.

“Sorry,” I said. “Listen to me: if you tell me never to come back, I’ll do what you ask. But here’s the thing: I just won’t be visible. I’ll still be around, but you won’t be able to see me.”

He frowned.

“Oh, come on,” I said. “Obviously not when anyone’s in the shower or stuff like that. And I don’t do sex scenes.”

That much is true, I’m sorry to say. That’s probably why sales aren’t a little better.

His frown was still there.

“I don’t like spies,” he said.

“Yes, I understand,” I said, “but authors don’t really have a choice, do they? They have to watch someone or what will they write about? You’re just unfortunate that I discovered you and your crew, that’s all.”

 

       He thought it over and I sincerely feared he was going to tell me to never come back.

(Remember to tell your friends and family about Outsider and Another Shot. Spread the word about my blog and Facebook page. I'm counting on you!)

Closet Spaceship Part 3

I know it's been a while since I posted some fiction, so here you go.

(Okay, I'll admit it: I'm too busy to have much news right now. It's amazing how busy December can be, isn't it? I don't do all that much for Christmas but I still seem to be swamped. How did that happen? There is good news, though: I'm nearing the end of double-checking the proof copy of Another Shot. I have a few more corrections to make and then I'll resubmit it to CreateSpace. Then we'll see what happens!)

As promised, here’s my account of what happened when I was first spotted aboard Outsider.

Mac dropped me off right in the main corridor. I’d seen it before, of course, so I knew where I was: somewhere between the conference room and the dining room. I didn’t have my watch (it doesn’t work well when I’m traveling) so I had no idea what time it was there.

I didn’t see anyone at first, so I thought I’d check the clock in the dining room. As I turned to walk that way, though, a man appeared in the corridor. He’d just come from the dock area. I recognized him as Reggie Hawkins, the ship’s mechanic.

I resisted my impulse to say, “Hi, Reg!” I’m sure that would have really freaked him out. As it was, a stunned expression crossed his face when he saw me. Then his instincts kicked in: he drew his pistol and pointed it at me while yelling, “Hey, we’ve got an intruder here!”

Before I knew it, there were at least five guns pointed in my direction. It certainly wasn’t the reception I’d hoped to get. I raised my hands while I identified the gun wielders, who’d sprung from the dining room: Martinez, O’Connor, Blaine and Thompson, as well as Hawkins.

“Um, hi,” I said. Yeah, I’m a writer and I’m supposed to command the English language, but it kind of got away from me for a while there.

Hawkins pulled a radio from his belt and spoke calmly. “Intruder aboard. What do you want us to do?”

I heard a male voice say, “Wait a moment.”

Oh, boy, I thought. I get to meet the captain!

Sure enough, a minute or so later, I heard that same voice behind me say, “Who are you and how did you get aboard my ship?”

He had one of those voices that doesn’t need to be raised to make an impression. It sounded calm, confident and controlled. Forgive me the alliteration, but that’s how it sounded.

I turned around slowly and wasn’t surprised to see that he wasn’t holding any weapons. Of course he’d trust his crew to take care of that, and besides, he probably wanted to be courteous until he learned my motives.

Captain Lamont was tall, a little taller than me, with a nice face and blue eyes. He was in his late thirties, but he had silver-white hair. His expression was neutral, although I’m sure he must have been baffled about how I’d been able to get aboard.

 

Then I realized I had a problem: I wasn’t at all sure how to explain that.

Closet Spaceship Part 2

      Let me tell you a little about my travels into the future. As I mentioned in my first Closet Spaceship post, this was thanks to my trusty ship Macintosh SE, which carried me unimaginable distances in very little time. I can’t explain how it could do that, but I suspect others could find the same capabilities in their own computers, laptops or notepads.

Anyway, the first time we tried anything long-distance, I found myself on a spaceship that was transporting prisoners. One of the quirks of travel with Mac is that sometimes I’m invisible to the characters (so I can watch the action without influencing it in any way) and other times I’m visible to them (so I can interact with them). The majority of my earliest trips were unobserved. I guess that made it easier for the people there, who already had more than enough to keep them occupied.

Take Sean Foster, for example. Here’s a twenty-four-year-old who’s been sentenced to twenty years in prison and has to spend it on a planet outside our galaxy, where he’s pretty sure he’ll be forgotten by everyone on Earth. It’s a bleak future, so he didn’t really need me popping into the picture and trying to explain how I got there. Instead, I was able to observe his third day of captivity aboard the prison spaceship, which turned out to be quite different than he expected. He certainly didn’t think the spaceship would be attacked and he’d end up floating in space as the only survivor. He also didn’t think he’d meet a crew as interesting as the one under Captain Lamont’s command aboard the ship Outsider.

But that’s where he found himself—and so did I.

I only had to spend a few hours there to realize that this was a place I’d want to revisit. Mac accommodated me and we spent many hours aboard Outsider and on the surfaces of other planets as the years went by.

 

     In my next CS post, I’ll tell you a little about what happened when I first appeared aboard Outsider—that is, when the crew first laid eyes on me.

Closet Spaceship Part 1

(NOTE: This is the first of several fictional snippets I plan to include in my blog, to give you a better idea of my writing style and what my characters are like. I plan to title all of them Closet Spaceship with a number so it's easier for you to read them in order. They should all appear on the page The Crew if you want to catch up without going through the whole blog.  Enjoy!)

I have a spaceship in my closet. Actually, it’s better than a spaceship because it can travel through time as well as space. How fun is that?

The official name of my spaceship is Macintosh SE and it’s taken me into the future more than once to meet a fascinating set of people there. Sadly, it’s in the closet because it died a quiet death last year (2012), after over twenty years of service. It’s also in the closet because it will be a while before I can bear to get rid of my trusty companion for so many years. Its replacement, Dell, is proving that it can travel just as well as its predecessor, but it has yet to win my heart in quite the same way.

For one thing, Macintosh SE used to offer a smiley face to me every time I fired it up. This puts one in the right frame of mind for travel, let me tell you. For another, in those ancient days, the Word program didn’t presume to tell me how to spell or punctuate, unlike the somewhat arrogant version we have these days. If there was a typo, it was my fault and my fault alone, but at least I didn’t have to grumble at some colored underline trying to make me feel bad even when I knew I was right. Word never met Reggie Hawkins, so how could it know how he talks?

I went on a few short trips with Mac first, so we could get used to each other. I learned how the controls and instruments worked, while it learned how I fly, so to speak. We were compatible, it seemed, so it wasn’t long before we went on our first long journey together. The time-travel component of Mac let me do it without anyone here noticing my absence (my husband had some concerns once in a while about how long he went between sightings of me, but he thought I was in our computer room so he didn’t worry too much).

And what a journey it was! I saw things I never expected, such as space colonies, a diamond mine and a lot of gun battles. I met some rather remarkable characters, too, and I’m happy to say I’m going to continue to spend time with them for a few more years.

If you’d like to meet them, I suggest you read my first novel, Outsider, where I make introductions and also share what I witnessed on my journey.

I’m working on the sequel now, but in the meantime, I hope to share some of the conversations I’ve had with the crew between their adventures. We can get to know them a little better together. What do you say?