RoustWriter: Blog

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

..."Lobo, Lila. I can show you a place where you can go," he said as he tried to project what "go" meant. Both wolves were instantly attentive.

"Instead of going back to the snow, let's try somewhere else. Okay, guys?" he said as he gave a command to Ship and turned to walk down a corridor, the wolves on his heels. "It's through here," he told them a little later. "But, before we go through the hatch, you need to realize that you're going to feel a little odd." After dropping to his knees, he put a hand on each wolf's head, all the while trying to project where they were about to be.

Finally, Lila whined and licked his face. He didn't know whether she understood or was trying to tell him to go ahead, anyway. Regardless, he ushered them through a hatch/doorway which closed behind them. There was a shimmer, and his ears popped from the slight change in air pressure. Both wolves slung their heads from side to side as they cleared their ears while Jeff yawned and swallowed to clear his. They were now standing at the edge of great rolling plains spotted with bushes and an occasional tree. The area seemed to go on practically forever. Behind them was a forest with trees even bigger, if possible, than the ones around Morales and Jasmine's cave. The sky, a faint blue/green was clear other than a few puffy white clouds high up. Something that flew low overhead had what appeared to be at least a six foot wingspan and a long tail. It turned its equally long neck to scream down at them as it went on its way.

"Welcome to one of Ship's pocket worlds." Jeff motioned with his hands, "There are bushes everywhere, guys. Pick one and do your thing."

The wolves glanced at him, then ran side by side for about ten yards before each picked a bush. Lobo watered the leaves of his bush, while Lila watered her bush's roots.

Bathroom break over, it was obvious that both wolves wanted to explore, but after a quick look around, they returned to Jeff, who had finished watering his own bush. Both sat side by side to stare at him, totally quiet other than one very timid-sounding whine from Lila.

"This is another whole world quite similar to the one you two live on." Again, Jeff bent down slightly as he put a hand on each of the great beasts' heads. "I'll have Ship try to explain it to you, but if you're on Ship, you can come here any time you wish, with permission from Morales or Jasmine, of course. Jasmine is distraught just now, so I didn't bother her this time, but Morales will be in good shape before the day is out."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...The big man, with the help of his new wives, had managed to prop himself into a sitting position against a tree with six inches of a crossbow bolt protruding from his coats, the bolt obviously buried in his chest.

Morales turned his head to spit blood, before wheezing, "Who the fuck was he?"

"I don't know, but the bastard will never shoot anybody again," Jasmine absently returned as she tried to determine exactly where the bolt had struck her husband. With all the clothing he had on, and not wanting to move any of it which would have jarred the bolt, it was hard to tell, but she thought it had hit somewhere on his left chest.

No, no, she kept screaming in her mind, He can't die. He just can't.

The wolves, their muzzles bloody, came dashing over to push Ashley and Christine aside so they could lie against Morales sides, whining so loudly that it was distracting. "Hush," Jasmine told them. "He's going to be all right. We just need to get him out of the cold."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...At least with the sound equipment Jeff had left with them, Junior's morning wake-up screams/crows didn't bother the humans, but… they certainly irritated the wolves. Oh, they could put up with a couple of his broken crows, but he didn't stop with only a couple. He was hell-bent on waking the humans so he could be fed, and even more to ensure that they could admire his mighty prowess as a rooster. Even Gertrude had given over to him and no longer woke everyone with her squawking for breakfast. He, of course, had no idea that his mighty announcements of the new day couldn't be heard by the humans due to Jeff's sound equipment.

Finally, Lila had enough of his "serenade" of the new day and stomped over to stare the arrogant fowl eye to eye while thinking really bad things about him. Junior aborted his last squeaky crowing with a chicken's equivalent of a gasp soon after receiving a vivid mental image of a giant wolf's mouth snapping a rooster in half.

Knowing the chicken was trying to awaken the humans, and still irritated, Lila stomped over, grabbed the curtain in her mouth and yanked it open. Stepping a little inside, she growled.

Morales, almost covered with females, open one eye to glare at Lila, but after seeing Junior standing behind her, quickly put things together. "Just eat him," he ground out...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...While the target practice had been going on, there were always at least two interceptors with their tractor beams spread wide, catching and gathering up the debris from the exploded asteroids. Eventually, all ten ships working together pushed the debris cloud into an orbit that would ultimately spiral it into the sun.

The debris removed from the range, the interceptors formed up and headed back toward Earth at a quarter light.

Aboard the alien craft, the Second Officer finally relaxed in his seat. "Our tractor beams would never spread that wide and still have enough energy to gather up the destroyed asteroids," he said with a sigh that he barely managed to hold in check. As far as our AI could tell at this range, they missed only a few times, if any, and their approaches were at enormous velocities, even though they frequently changed direction or even reversed course. Course changes seem to make no discernible difference in their speed. They are instantly going in a different direction at seemingly any speed they have chosen.

"If they are going to change directions without slowing, and in the process, they can also instantly change their speed should they want to, there is no real way to determine where our weapons are to fire. By the time we can track and fire, they will be somewhere else. It would be suicide to enter into combat with them."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...While Jeff was talking to Aiko, Arlene, Ann and the nine other teams were completing their final checks in their interceptors. (One interceptor team - the little squadron now totaling twelve interceptors - was in their scout craft spying on the alien ship as it lumbered toward Earth, while White and Martin were preparing to be married.)

Ship was already a couple of thousand miles up when Arlene, as Squadron Commander, told Ship, "Activate both launch doors." Then to the teams, "Prepare for combat-launch." A couple of seconds later, "Go for launch," she told Ship.

Inertialess drives activated, and her ship, along with four others, was guided toward the left launch bay door while the other five interceptors were directed to the right doors. In seconds, they were in space and away, which meant that they basically disappeared to the naked eye.

Ship had already programmed in their course for Ceres, which pleased all the pilots, even though the computers would have had the course on screen in seconds if they had to compute the course themselves. Selina may enjoy computing courses manually, but none of the pilots on the interceptor teams did.

They quickly formed into their combat formation, but were spaced far enough apart to prevent the whole squadron from being destroyed by a single nuclear blast. Ship had told them that their shields should hold up to that type of blast and would keep the radiation down to livable levels, but she never did tell them at what distance or how large the device. And… no one really wanted to know...

Have a goodun;

Roust