by Michael La Ronn | Jun 27, 2017 | Novel Snippets
Reflection in the Darkness
He snuck into the kitchen, crouched low to the ground. Gen and Rina had cut the lights off, so he had to navigate the darkness by memory. The tiled floor hurt his knees, even with the padding in his suit.
He drew his handcoil, ready for anything.
The kitchen had looked suspect to him earlier—just a little too pristine. He hated hindsight. Always made him feel stupid.
A flame-shaped air freshener plugged in above the stove puffed, letting out a quick burst of a lavender scent.
Clean criminals. It pissed him off.
He opened one of the cupboards. It was empty.
Then he noticed the bowl of fruit next to the first aid kit.
It was fake.
He ran a hand over a lacquered apple and cursed. Why hadn’t he noticed?
His mother always told him he was too trusting. She would have been shaking her head at him right now.
When he told her he was called into active duty, she didn’t tell him to be careful, like most mothers did. She didn’t even say a prayer for him. She knew he’d be careful and that God would look out for him.
What she worried about was Grayson’s good nature.
He shipped off on his birthday. He’d listened as his mom stood in the kitchen over a German chocolate cake that she always made for him every year. In her pink frock and hair still in rollers, she’d shaken a spoon at him.
“Boy, I don’t know anybody in the galaxy that can’t trust you with their life.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing, Ma?”
“Not everybody needs saving. That’s your problem. What’s wrong with letting somebody fall down and hurt themselves every now and again?”
She hated the idea of him in the Galactic Guard. She’d balked when he signed up for the reserves.
“Too dangerous.”
“It’s only one weekend a month, Ma.”
“Still too dangerous!”
But boy was she proud when he came home for the first time in a uniform. The decision never sat with her, but she learned to respect it.
He thought of his mom. Whatever time it was back home, she probably wasn’t going to sleep. A few hours ago, when he’d phoned her from the deck of the cutter to say he was embarking on his last mission, and that he’d be home soon, she’d scolded him and said she wished he hadn’t told her that.
“Rotten luck,” she said. “Gawd awful rotten luck.”
“It’s cool, Ma. Just a couple of ship inspections, maybe a rescue or two, and I’ll be back to teaching backstrokes and one hundred meters before you know it. And living at home and eatin’ dinner with you and Pop every night. Just for a little while, until I find a place, and the Guard benefits kick in.”
He told her he loved her, and had just hung up when Beau spotted Gen and Rina’s ship.
He pulled his thoughts back to the present and opened another cupboard. It was filled with bottles of water. Big, ten-liter containers, like the kind used in office water coolers.
Another cabinet. More water. And cylindrical containers with starship fuel.
The entire kitchen was stocked with water and fuel.
He’d expected to at least find weapons. Or drugs.
He crawled into the salon, where the television was unplugged and the couches unused, still with the tags on them.
He kicked himself again.
It was all there, right in front of him. And he hadn’t seen it.
***
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by Michael La Ronn | Jun 25, 2017 | Novel Snippets
The Chase
Grayson spotted a tongued groove in the floor. He dove, reaching for it. His fingers were nearly on it when the bay doors opened and sucked him out.
The world spun around him. He reached out, not knowing where he was. Will passed him, screaming.
And then Grayson twirled out into space, the Galactic Cutter above, then below.
He tumbled, and the passenger ship was in front of him.
He reached out his hand again…
He caught the lip of the bay door. He pulled with all his might as the vacuum sucked his legs. He yelled as his fingers burned.
Another tongued groove.
Just ahead.
He heard Will screaming again.
His friend was floating in space, far away, flipping and twirling through the darkness.
“Will!” Grayson cried.
“Grayson, Will, what’s going on?” He heard Beauregard’s voice in his helmet.
“Turns out they’re smugglers,” Grayson said. “There’s at least a dozen people in there!”
“Jesus,” Beauregard said.
Grayson inched forward and dug his fingers into one of the grooves.
“Let go,” Beauregard said. “I’m calling the fleet. They’ll give chase.”
Grayson grimaced. “Like hell I’m letting go!”
“Stand down,” Beauregard said. “It’s too dangerous, Gray—”
Grayson pulled himself forward, groaning.
“Stand down,” Beauregard said. “Stand down! They’re activating the ship’s engines!”
A mechanical rumble shook the bay door and it began to lift upward.
Grayson looked up and cursed. He was on a collision course with the roof of the ship. The doors would squash him if he didn’t climb inside or let go.
“Let go, man!” Will cried through his helmet, still in range.
Grayson saw him floating in space.
“Those SOBs aren’t worth it,” Will said.
Grayson scowled. He didn’t respond. Instead, he clawed his way further up the door.
“Grayson, you’re freaking crazy!” Will said.
The ship rumbled again.
The engines were starting.
Still, he moved forward. He found another groove.
“You’re going to rupture your suit!” Will screamed. “Dude, let go!”
Grayson dragged himself further.
The bay door inched closer and closer to the ceiling.
Closer…
Closer…
He roared as he threw his weight forward…
***
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by Michael La Ronn | Jun 23, 2017 | Novel Snippets
Mysterious Ship Inspection
From the bridge of the Galactic Guard Cutter Horizon, Petty Officer Grayson McCoy shone a spotlight into dark space, onto a lone starship slowing as it cut its engine. Two white, blinking lights appeared on the roof. A yellow gravity ring rotated clockwise around the center of the ship.
“I’ve got a visual,” Grayson said, locking the ship in his sights. “Engine’s off.”
He kept his eyes on the ship and swept the light up and down the hull. It was a sleek passenger ship, leisure grade, big enough for fourteen people. Most private passenger ships usually had salons, living quarters, kitchens, and bathrooms. This one looked like it had all of that, plus a hyperdrive. Its long white wings gave it the look of a dove floating among the stars.
He scanned the side of the ship where the name and port of call should have been.
There was nothing—the side of the ship was blank.
He glanced over at a black-haired, tanned man in a headset and an olive green flight suit who was bent over an instrument panel.
“What do you think?” Grayson asked.
Petty Officer Romeo Beauregard radioed to the base. “We’ve located an unidentified starship near the nebula border. No name or port of call.”
Beauregard waited for a response. A voice crackled in his headset. “Base says to proceed with boarding.”
It wasn’t every day that Grayson came across a ship like this. Most of the time, boarding a regular private passenger vessel was boring. But boarding one with no name or I.D.—you never knew what to expect. He preferred search and rescues, but this might be interesting.
He stopped the spotlight on the ship’s bridge, a large glass bubble on the front of the ship. A man and a woman put their hands over their faces.
“We’ve got a male, late thirties, maybe six-two, salt and pepper beard. A woman that looks like his wife, late twenties, black hair.”
He heard a computerized chime behind him. The rotunda-shaped bridge of the Galactic Guard ship was quiet.
Petty Officer Will Stroud, the flight mechanic, was sitting at his instrument panel, its green lights illuminating his face and red hair. “I charted their path. They’re not from our galaxy, guys.”
Outsiders. Or travelers returning home. In any case, they were still subject to the laws of the Rah Galaxy, and to searches from the Guard.
Beauregard swiveled in his chair and motioned to Grayson. He wore his trademark calm expression, the look of wisdom and experience. He was probably only a few years older than Grayson. He was an active duty petty officer, first class. As the only original active duty Guard on board, he took it as his responsibility to train Grayson and Will. He used everything as a learning experience.
“Grayson, what do you think?” Beau asked.
Grayson glanced back out at the ship. Things were quiet in space. “Looks fairly innocuous to me, but you never know.”
“Let’s see if you’re right.”
Beauregard activated the communicator and established a transmission with the ship. “This is Petty Officer Romeo Beauregard with the Galactic Guard. Please identify yourselves.”
Silence.
Grayson watched as the woman scrambled to the communicator.
“Hello.”
“Identify yourselves.”
Silence again.
“Do they speak English?” Will asked. “Don’t you speak a couple of languages, Beau?”
Beauregard considered the remark, but then the woman spoke.
“My name is Rina.”
Beauregard frowned. He took his finger off the radio. “Guys, go ahead and suit up.” He pressed the radio button again. “Hello, Rina. How many are on board with you?”
Silence.
“Just me and my husband.”
“You have entered Rah space and are subject to boarding and inspection. Please make ready to accept our boarding party.”
Silence. This time, the woman’s shadow turned to the man before answering.
“Very well.”
The radio went quiet.
Grayson watched the two silhouettes disappear into the bowels of the starship.
“Looks like they speak English just fine,” Grayson said, shutting off the spotlight.
“Give them a thorough search, gentlemen,” Beauregard said. “They’re awfully quiet.”
***********************
So big news.
I haven't blogged in almost 2 years, and I'm going to try this again. But I'm going to do it differently.
In the past, I did writer-focused blogging. But this time around, it's going to be reader-focused.
On this blog, I'm going to post snippets of what I'm writing. Probably around once a week.
I'm doing it because honestly, I haven't done a good enough job connecting with my readers—you wonderful people out there who buy my books.This will be a glimpse into what I'm currently writing, with some other fun things thrown in. Plus, it will be a good way to keep up with what I'm doing, as I work fast!
In the meantime, click here to grab your copy of Honor's Reserve.
