This is a rough of something, I think… *pokes story*

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“They found her in a room tied to a chair watching this whole bank of tvs; sports channels, pay per view matches, everything and anything you can bet on.” The officer shook his head as he led them through the hallways. “She had a stack of paper on this desk in front of her and there was this godawful tape repeating ‘Who will win?’ over and over… damned creepiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“And they seriously thought she could tell them?” The detective was two seconds from turning around, going back to the real work waiting for him.

“Didn’t think,” the cop finally stopped by one of the doors, “knew.”

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There is sound and there is noise and this hovers at the brink, their voices still a distinct thunder, not yet the overwhelming flood of full migration. By midmorning she’ll need her headset, earplugs, earmuffs, and other layered defenses against her prey, but for now she can just watch them pass unprotected.

There are few worlds that allow the luxury of size, most life is more akin to mice than elephants, but on the world they haven’t gotten around to naming, life started with elephant and worked up.

Only the outliers of the herd are up and moving with the sun, the core is still asleep, blanketing the grasslands in a patchwork of black and tan hide. It still takes her a bit each time she sees them to wrap her mind around the fact that the herd literally goes on to the horizon. They’ll strip the ground bare by the time the last of them passes, but less than a day after that everything is green again. No ecosystem should be able to support such overabundance, even temporarily, and the cycle of feast and famine seems too delicately balanced for her comfort. But this is Big World and they’ve just started digging into all it’s quirks and biological oddities.

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Fantasy

The mud is deep this time of year, cold from the ice melt and thick as paste it tugs us back at every footstep. The king had wanted a omen, and apparently for once the mountain was happy to provide.

Whatever cheer the party had started with was long gone by the time they reached the sun rest. Only the king’s driving desire to see his questions answered by something more than mere mortals keep them climbing. Not that they hadn’t briefly debated the merits of letting him climb his own damn mountains without them, but the honor guard was the honor guard, little things like mud and weather weren’t supposed to slow them down.

There was the traditional petition of the mountain, followed by the traditional offering, followed by the traditional long ass wait as forces beyond their ken pondered the question. Or were just lazy. Right now the soggy, cold, and thoroughly bored honor guard was betting on lazy. It wasn’t completely unexpected for the mountain to take days deciding on a response, so they had already begun setting up camp at the base of the monument when the king came barreling down from the sun rest.

Apparently the mountain wasn’t too keen on the idea of railroad tunnels.

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Fantasy

I hate stories with a twist. I especially hate stories where you can see the twist coming three words in, and this looked like it was going to be one of those stories.

“But he’s cute!” Sandy was right, the puppy was cute, but normal dogs don’t have magical auras that spark and fizzle in chaotic rainbows. I flattened my ears and rowled my opinion of of the demonic fluffball.

“Words!” She chided.

“I think this is a very bad idea.” I glared at the puppy who looked up at me with misplaced adoration. “There’s something wrong with it.”

“Wrong how?” To her credit, she did ratchet up her shields, if only a smidgen. Thankfully the pup seemed oblivious to the changes.

“It tastes of young magic,” the wild unpredictable sort that had popped up since the war. “I don’t think we found it.”

“You think it found us.” Sandy was the youngest of the company, both in terms of years in service and years alive, but she learned significantly faster than most of the older recruits. Still, she hadn’t actually put the puppy down yet. “So,” there was a pause, “so if it found us doesn’t that mean if I put it down it will just find us again?”

I hate these sorts of stories.

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Fantasy

“Life is pain!”

“Good morning to you to.” Yoni rolled her eyes as Wilson died dramatically in the corner, apparently succumbing to the mind numbing horror of facing another day in the simulators. It would have been slightly more impressive if he wasn’t wearing what she could only assume was his best attempt at a red shirt costume from Star Trek. The clothing production capacities on the alien ship were impressive, but still required detailed descriptions for manufacture. This had left them with only basic clothing options, although those were rapidly expanding as the designers on board released new lines.

The rest of her team weren’t any more thrilled at the prospect of yet another day spent in virtual training, but at least they tended away from dramatics. Keller was decked out in his traditional ‘annoyance’ colors of line green and hot pink, while Anderson had opted for the more traditional pajama pants and bathrobe of indifference. Yoni was the only one who had bothered to wear anything vaguely mission appropriate, and she had only gone as far as jeans and a t-shirt.

Of course it didn’t matter what they wore, since the simulators would deck them out in the appropriate gear, but the remnants of Earth took a perverse joy in bucking the system as much as possible. Or they were just lazy, colorblind, and teenagers… Yoni wasn’t quite sure which.

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction