Copperfox
Well-known member
THE FOLLOWING SINGLE-ARC STORY THREAD, CONCEIVED IN THE SPIRIT OF STAR TREK, IS CO-AUTHORED BY ME AND SIR TOM THE DRAGON KNIGHT. THERE WILL BE NO CONFUSION OVER WHICH EARTH IS >THE< EARTH; AS IN STAR TREK, >ONE< EARTH IS THE STARTING POINT.
WE WILL TAKE TURNS WRITING POSTS / CHAPTERS, DEPICTING ASSORTED CHARACTERS HAVING SEPARATE EXPERIENCES IN DISTANT LOCATIONS; THERE CAN EVEN BE CHRONOLOGICAL REWINDS OR FAST-FORWARDS. BUT NO ENTRY WRITTEN BY ONE OF US WILL CONTRADICT ANYTHING THE OTHER SAID. I MAY RESORT TO INTERMITTENT REVIEWS OF PREVIOUS EVENTS, JUST TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE.
============ NOTE TO SELF, THE FAITHLESS WIFE'S NAME IS VALTIRA. GOES NOW BY MAIDEN SURNAME (or "self-love name") OF TAPLEY. ======================================================================
PART ONE: HARD TO SURPRISE AN OLD SOLDIER
"Easy now. You're overcompensating. Remember the gravity difference. You don't need AS MUCH impact cushioning. No change to your stepping sequence, just ease off in raising each leg." The human Star Cavalier gently caught hold of two legs on one side of his low-slung, ten-legged Yozrish friend.
"This is embarrassing, Henry Quint," chittered Bahibku, a sort of sapient giant centipede. "We're hatched already able to walk, but here I need to be propped up. I would have expected NO inconvenience with lighter gravitation, but this latest attempt felt as if I became a tidal wave with an exoskeleton. Almost makes me wish I were internally cushioned."
"No sweat. Call it a rite of passage. Vertebrate Cavaliers usually do the same over-pushing. Whereas all races are equal when it comes to that first interstellar cruise, ESPECIALLY a top- acceleration hyper- sprint."
Bahibku nodded with his antennae. "Same on one's first inter-PLANETARY cruise."
Three standard leagues away, a human civilian powerplant overseer was clocking in for a shift. Just as General Quint saw nothing odd about conversing with a Yozrish, Sally Wade was unperturbed by the worker she relieved being a Mimlug, shaped like an enormous cucumber.
"Any change in those fluctuations?"
As with Bahibku, Jeblok was unable to nod. His equivalent of nodding was done with his mandibles.
"Reactor Three has improved enough to be put back on line. Reactor Eight is the only one likely to take more than ten days to stabilize completely."
Four days later, General Quint was playing racquetball with one of his aides, Corporal Veronica Borden. They were in plain sight of more than thirty human or demihuman personnel; Henry NEVER allowed himself to be in private with ANY woman below the age of seventy unless she was a blood relative. Henry had just caught up with a long point lead ))))
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WE WILL TAKE TURNS WRITING POSTS / CHAPTERS, DEPICTING ASSORTED CHARACTERS HAVING SEPARATE EXPERIENCES IN DISTANT LOCATIONS; THERE CAN EVEN BE CHRONOLOGICAL REWINDS OR FAST-FORWARDS. BUT NO ENTRY WRITTEN BY ONE OF US WILL CONTRADICT ANYTHING THE OTHER SAID. I MAY RESORT TO INTERMITTENT REVIEWS OF PREVIOUS EVENTS, JUST TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE.
============ NOTE TO SELF, THE FAITHLESS WIFE'S NAME IS VALTIRA. GOES NOW BY MAIDEN SURNAME (or "self-love name") OF TAPLEY. ======================================================================
PART ONE: HARD TO SURPRISE AN OLD SOLDIER
"Easy now. You're overcompensating. Remember the gravity difference. You don't need AS MUCH impact cushioning. No change to your stepping sequence, just ease off in raising each leg." The human Star Cavalier gently caught hold of two legs on one side of his low-slung, ten-legged Yozrish friend.
"This is embarrassing, Henry Quint," chittered Bahibku, a sort of sapient giant centipede. "We're hatched already able to walk, but here I need to be propped up. I would have expected NO inconvenience with lighter gravitation, but this latest attempt felt as if I became a tidal wave with an exoskeleton. Almost makes me wish I were internally cushioned."
"No sweat. Call it a rite of passage. Vertebrate Cavaliers usually do the same over-pushing. Whereas all races are equal when it comes to that first interstellar cruise, ESPECIALLY a top- acceleration hyper- sprint."
Bahibku nodded with his antennae. "Same on one's first inter-PLANETARY cruise."
Three standard leagues away, a human civilian powerplant overseer was clocking in for a shift. Just as General Quint saw nothing odd about conversing with a Yozrish, Sally Wade was unperturbed by the worker she relieved being a Mimlug, shaped like an enormous cucumber.
"Any change in those fluctuations?"
As with Bahibku, Jeblok was unable to nod. His equivalent of nodding was done with his mandibles.
"Reactor Three has improved enough to be put back on line. Reactor Eight is the only one likely to take more than ten days to stabilize completely."
Four days later, General Quint was playing racquetball with one of his aides, Corporal Veronica Borden. They were in plain sight of more than thirty human or demihuman personnel; Henry NEVER allowed himself to be in private with ANY woman below the age of seventy unless she was a blood relative. Henry had just caught up with a long point lead ))))
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