Flash Fiction Friday: Saving A Life

Prison Bars by Choney25 via www.deviantart.com

Prison Bars by Choney25 via www.deviantart.com

A little late but still on Friday. Enjoy.

Saving A Life

Emil and Teresa Gerhardt huddled with several hundred other humans in the camp the Aliens had put them in. Their children, fourteen- year-old Mikail and ten-year-old Ruth sat between them.

“Mom, what are they going to do with us?” Mikail whispered.

Teresa didn’t know. Their colony, founded three generations ago, was emptied yesterday by the aliens, the Krtit, who had let them settle here. The aliens, pink shaded, six legged hippopotamus looking creatures with eyes like crabs and circular mouths like sea anenomes with razor sharp looking teeth herded them through the Alien city they called Rylab, and into this fenced area yesterday. “I don’t know, son.” She looked at her husband.

He shrugged. “If we knew why they rounded us up, we might make a guess.” He was worried. The Mayor was at the gate, talking to one of the aliens. Hopefully trying to get them all released.

A bell sounded and they stood up. The Krtit had prepared food and the humans lined up to get it. It wasn’t much, two dried bars each and a bottle of water. One bar was savory and hard to chew. The other was sweet and soft. Both of them made the people thirsty. The line at the tap to get water was always long.

#

Bice was at home in his pool. The Krtit were ocean creatures in their distant past. They were land creatures now, but still, a pool was an essential part of any Krtit home. He manipulated the controls of the communication device on the wall with the first pair of legs which had twenty fingers on each. He watched the news of the human round up as he floated in the pool. “It’s not right,” he told his spouse when she joined him. “We told them they could live here.”

“You know what happened. The government changed and the groups that didn’t want them here began to control the government. There’s been increasing anti-human sentiment for the last few years.”

“They want to exterminate them. It’s not right. Why don’t we just have them get on their ships and move away?”

She shrugged, a motion that caused her entire body to wave in the salty water. “What can we do, Bice? We’re just one couple.”

“Something has to be done. Look, they have young in the camp too.” He pointed at the screen.

She nodded. “I agree, but what?”

The next day he called the government office that was responsible for the round up. “I’d like to pay for some of the humans to leave Ytic. Can you arrange that?”

The official was stunned to silence. When he recovered he said, “I don’t know. It’s not been offered as an option. I’ll contact you when I know more.”

A few hours later Bice was called back.

“It seems that if a toll is paid, you can choose your humans and send them away.”

Bice worked out the details and closed the connection.

He began calling friends. This was going to take a lot of credit.

#

A week later, Emil, Teresa and their children were called to the gate along with four other families. Emil was nervous. Other families had been called to the gate in the last three days. The Krtit didn’t say what was going on and the other families had not returned. Rumors flew around the camp; humans were being killed, the families were being released, no one really knew.

Outside the gate they were loaded into a transport and Emil could see they were heading to the spaceport. “Maybe they’re releasing us,” he said.

Teresa’s face was grim. Two of the other wives were weeping. “I hope so.”

At the spaceport they were lined up beside the transport and handed plastic cards. An officious looking Krtit told them, “These are your identicards. They contain your personal history and one thousand credits each.” The Krtit, pointed at a space liner on the tarmac. “You have each received permission to leave Ytic. You are never to return.”

“But I had more than a thousand credits in the bank! I have a business, property” cried out one man.

The Krtit stared at him. “You may now board the ship.”

“But what about…,” another man began to say.

The Krtit cut him off. “Enough. You can leave. You’re passage has been paid.”

Emil put his hand on his wife’s back and urged her toward the ship. “Let’s go before they change their minds.” They grabbed their children’s hands and headed for the ship, the other families followed.

#

Three weeks later the Krtit government declared war on the Human race. The remaining families were slaughtered.

Bice stared at the communication screen from his pool, his wife beside him, the video of the slaughter on the screen. “You tried,” she told him.

“We saved some at least.” He turned the screen off. “What a waste.”

The End

817 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Cover Reveal for Hard Choices

Hard Choices  Cover art by Connie Cockrell

Hard Choices
Cover art by Connie Cockrell

 

Check it out! What do you think? The book itself will be out the end of May. I still have editing to do on it. Overall, it’s a very short novel and a four related short stories. It’s set in the Gulliver Station timeline between The Challenge (released end of March 2014) and Revolution, which is slated for release end of July 2014.  I’m still contemplating the arrangement of the short stories.  Here’s a blurb about the book:

A short novel with four short stories, Hard Choices looks at life on Gulliver Station in the time after The Challenge. Weather in the Biosphere is a tale about two cousins, who make an ill-timed mistake. Methane Breathers considers communications difficulties between two different species. Growing up is full of hard choices as Cassandra Madison in The Conversion discovers. Barrie has lost his job and must play the game for his family to survive as you’ll read in Dedication Day. The title story, a short novel, takes a look at life on Gulliver Station from an outsider’s point of view.  Between ships, Jolene Harris enjoys leave by herself when things go horribly wrong. Will she live to reach her new ship, The Adirondack?

April’s Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in  is in its third week. I’m plugging away on my novel, still unnamed. As of yesterday, I’m at 32,000 words, well on my way to my goal for 50K words. There’s still a lot of writing to be done but it looks as though I’ll meet the challenge!

My rhubarb has made it through the dry winter here in central Arizona. I think it needs at least another year before I cut any stalks.

The root canal took five shots of novocaine and two hours but the dentist was quite pleased with the results. I still have some jaw ache from the procedure but it’s slowly going away. It’s nice to take a drink of room temperature water and not wince from the pain.

My project to collect my mom’s history by using To Our Children’s Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come by Bob Greene and D.G. Fulford is ongoing. Not every phone call to my mom has time or opportunity to ask questions but it is moving along. My brothers and sister are going to like this.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

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The Challenge: A Gulliver Station Story released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Flash Fiction Friday: Prospector Cafe

The Challenge front cover by Connie Cockrell

The Challenge front cover by Connie Cockrell

This is a story set in my Gulliver Station world. I just released my second book in that series. If you like this story, check out Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Gulliver-Station-Challenge-Novel/dp/1497424860/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395972203&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Challenge%2C+connie+cockrell or Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/421755 to get the first and second books.

Prospector Cafe

Cai Cadwalader maneuvered his mining ship up to the kilometer diameter asteroid. This one scanned out as an S Type with a high percentage of gold and platinum along with the usual iron, nickel and magnesium. After he’d set his ship down and put out the pitons to keep the ship in place, he marked this asteroid in the database as his. Cai was at the outer edge of the asteroid belt in the Gulliver Station system. It would take time for the signal to get to the station but that was all right with him. He was going to set up the mining equipment and get going anyway.

He deployed the robots next. They’d set up the drills and extractors. In the mean time, he readied the crusher and the smelter. The spectrometer gave him some readings for a few more minerals, cobalt and silver, so he set up receiving areas for those ingots as well. By bed time, everything in the mining ship was ready. The robots would keep working. By morning he could start drilling.

Cai woke four hours later to the ship proximity alarm. He pulled on his trousers and ran barefoot to the pilot’s console. On the screen he could see another ship, a thousand kilometers out, heading in his direction. The ship didn’t have a transponder signal. This was not good. That meant these were pirates.

He punched the communication call button. “Unknown ship, this is Captain Cai Cadwalader of the Metal Dancer. This asteroid has been claimed. Put about.”

Cai chewed the inside of his cheek while he waited for a response. He didn’t have much in the way of armament so if these guys wanted to set down and board his ship, he couldn’t do much about it. He wondered how many would be on the ship. If there were only a couple of men, he might stand a chance. After five minutes with no response he was certain and his stomach clenched. The incoming ship was pirates and he needed to come up with a plan.

He ran back to his bunk and dressed while desperate thoughts ran through his head. Cai grabbed his stunner and tucked it in his trouser band. At the mining console he saw that the robots were nearly finished setting up the vacuum and ducts to bring the rock into the ship. The robots would be no help. They couldn’t be programmed to attack humans. They could hold the men who got off of the ship though.

He tapped commands into the robot network. They stopped what they were doing and lined up in front of the main and the emergency hatches. Cai rubbed his hand across the blond stubble on his head. That was the first line of defense. What else could he do? The vacuum duct work, the pirates could get in that way. The hatch at the duct was closed and sealed but determined men could get it open. Think! How can I secure that hatch?

He rubbed at his eyes; they felt like they were full of sand. I’m getting too old for this, Cai thought. He’d been mining forty-three years, first with his father, and then on his own, since he was sixteen. Tales abounded around the miner’s bar, the Prospector Café. Pirates would land, board the mining ship by force and kill the miner. Then they’d drill and take the minerals, leaving the mining ship stranded, its rightful owner floating in space nearby.

Cai hurried back to the pilot’s console. He sent a message to Gulliver Station that he was under attack by pirates. The Space Force had a small ship and crew on the station but it would be at least two days before they could get here. He sighed. They’ll know what happened at least. A quick check of the monitor showed that the pirate ship was coming in for a landing. Time was running out.

He stood at the monitor and watched the pirate ship land. Cai began to sweat. He checked the stun gun and slipped it back in his waistband. Nothing was coming to mind about the hatches. The pirate’s hatch opened and three men came down the ramp. Crap!

The men circled around and approached the main hatch. The robots grabbed the men. Good, but that won’t hold them long. It must be a shock that I got the robots to do that. What can I do? Wait, shock!

Cai raced to the mining section of the ship and began pulling wire from the supply closets. He grabbed his tool bag as he raced by the work bench. He ran a length of wire around the main hatch, being sure that bare copper touched the door. He glanced at the pilot’s monitor. A fourth man was shooting at the robots, disabling them. Two of the three original men were free already.

It seemed to take forever to get the screws out of the hatch control panel. He connected the new wire to the system and turned it on. To test it, he tossed a metal pick at the door. He was rewarded with a cascade of sparks.

Grinning, he ran to the emergency hatch and did the same wiring, then to the duct hatch. By the time he got back to the pilot’s console, there were men at all three hatches. The pirate leader was at the primary hatch. The man with him reached out and touched the exterior hatch controls. Cai watched as the man flew backward thirty meters. He waited for the next two hours as they checked each entrance. They blasted the hatches with their stunners but they couldn’t get through. After four hours, they left.

Three months later, back at the Prospector Café, he joined his buddies at the bar. “You will not guess what happened to me!”

 

The End

978 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Flash Friday Fiction: Escape

crazy_gray_squirrel by Engazung via www.deviantart.com

crazy_gray_squirrel by Engazung via www.deviantart.com

Escape

The three scurried over the barbed-wire topped fence. It was night but the airfield was fully lit. They hurried to the nearest shadow and waited. The security patrol would be by in a second.

Ever since humans had begun the space program, their people had been watching. Squads had been deployed to the homes of the engineers and scientists, to watch and to beam ideas into their bedrooms as they slept. It had taken decades. Now, Jissi, Sieom, and Chinttz were the ones chosen for the final mission. Sieom took a moment to groom her tail.

“There’s no time for that,” Jissi hissed at her. “We need to move!”

“Shh,” Chinttz hushed them. “Here comes the patrol.”

The female and both males made themselves as small as they could in their hiding place 3 meters inside the fence. The patrol pointed their search lights at the fence, both top and bottom. Seeing nothing, their patrol car rolled on.

Dust from the car’s jets made Jissi sneeze. Chinttz glared at him. The three of them froze but the patrol didn’t hear it over the sound of the car. The trio was safe.

“Come on,” Chinttz said.

They ran from shadow to shadow across the two mile expanse of runways and landing pads to their destination. It was the newest spaceship the American Federation had made. Built for intergalactic flight, it was due to be loaded with the crew in the morning. The three had only a few hours to get to the ship and get on board. Several times the trio needed to hide in the shadows of tractors, gantries, or fuel trucks. Each time they thought their hearts would burst from their chests with fear and to be truthful, excitement.

Stranded on Earth, as the humans called it, since the dawn of man, they’d had to wait. Wait for the humans to catch up, scientifically. Humans still didn’t know that their kind was intelligent. Oh sure, humans made mazes, set up elaborate feeders. Their kind didn’t mind. They were waiting and all the time, beaming ideas into the human’s minds. Finally they succeeded. The ship was built. They had a chance to take the ship and go back to their world for help.

Jissi spotted the space craft first. “There it is,” he said from under the gantry at the last landing pad. Security was tighter around the ship than the base itself.

“It’s going to be tough getting out there,” Chinttz said.

“The ramp is down,” Sieom pointed out. “There’s a chance if we can get across the pad without being seen. They’re all focused on the perimeter. We just need to get inside it.”

They watched the activity around the ship as it was prepared for the morning launch. “There,” Jissi said. “The fuel truck is headed for the ship. We can run under it and right up to the ship.”

“Get run over by it, more likely,” Chinttz muttered. “We can’t run as fast as a truck.”

“We don’t have to,” Sieom said. “It’s moving slowly.”

They waited until the truck passed and they darted out and under the truck. Despite Sieom’s prediction, the truck was moving at a speed they found hard to maintain. Gasping for breath, they forced their legs to keep pumping. Just a little more. Just as they each thought their lungs would burst, the truck slowed to a stop.

Boots appeared on each side. They could hear the guards checking the identification of the driver and his partner as they struggled to breathe, grateful for the rest. It didn’t last long. The truck moved forward and in a short distance, came to a stop next to the ship.

The driver and his partner jumped down and ran hoses from the truck to the ship. They could hear the fuel being pumped. They peeked out from under the truck as both the driver and his partner stood aside and let the machinery work.

“Here’s our chance,” Jissi whispered.

They crawled to the other end of the truck and just out of sight of the fuel men, crept to the ship. The fuel port was on the opposite side of the ship from the ramp. There was no cover. Keeping low, they crept around the base of the ship, freezing at the smallest movement or noise. It seemed to take forever to reach the ramp. The door was open!

They raced up the ramp and inside the door of the ship. Standing one on top of the other, they keyed the door closed. The humans had used the touch pad ideas the squirrels had been beaming to them for decades.

They raced to the bridge. Leaping from floor to human seats to consoles, the trio searched the ship for human life. None! That had been a big worry, now avoided. Jissi called up the ship’s system monitors and saw when the fuel truck finished its work. He locked down the fuel hatch and the access way door.

Chinttz at the pilot’s console began the engines. Jissi pulled in the ramp. Sieom called from the communications console. “They’ve noticed. Security patrols are on the way.”

Chinttz grinned. “Too late,” he said as he danced over the touch screen, “engine is at full power. We’re lifting off!”

The three of them leapt into the human chairs and lay down, ready for the initial force of gravity as the ship left the planet’s surface. Once free from the gravitational pull, they leapt to the consoles again.

Sieom called out, “They’ve got ships in pursuit.”

“Let them,” Chinttz replied. “This is the fastest ship they’ve ever built. They won’t catch us now.” He laid in the course for their home planet.

Jissi laughed. “And they think we’re just squirrels.”

The End

961 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Flash Fiction Friday: Beyond Last Contact

A section of Meteor by Brandon Stricker work via www.deviantart.com

A section of Meteor by Brandon Stricker work via www.deviantart.com

 

Beyond Last Contact

Communications Officer June Maru, of the cargo ship Second Wind picked herself up off of the deck of the bridge. Smoke filled the air and her hand burned from the electrical shock she’d received when the ship ran through a meteor storm. The Captain, Brian Foster, was calling her name.

“Yeah,” she sat up slowly, coughing in the thick air. “I’m here.”

He was using the fire extinguisher on a fire in his command console. “You all right?”

She struggled to her feet. “Hand’s burned.” June staggered to her communication console. It was smoking but there was no obvious fire. “No idea what the board looks like though. How long was I out?”

“Just a second or two.” He put the extinguisher down and surveyed the command board. He wiped his sooty face with his sleeve. “Can you find out what happened to Bert and the crew?”

June slid into her seat and tapped the screen intercom button. It was dark. “It’s broken. Let me bandage my hand then see what’s happened under the lid.” She grabbed the first aid kit and flipped it open. After she smeared burn cream on it, and a gauze pad on top of that, she wrapped a bandage around it and tied it off. “You need this?” She held up the kit.

“No.” He unlatched his console top and lifted the lid. Smoke rose into the already smoky air.

June did the same. As she surveyed the interior wiring, also smoking, Kurt Lawson, one of the freight handlers, dashed onto the bridge.

“Everyone all right?”

The Captain turned around. “Yeah, you? The rest of the crew?”

“Yeah. Chief Ling is with the engines. They’re down. Toby and Andrea are looking at the environmental unit. It’s out. That’s why it’s still smoky in here.”

Captain Foster nodded. “Good, do what you can. Navigation and Comms are out. Grab some walkies and pass them out. It’s the only way we can talk without running all over the ship. Have everyone give an update in an hour.”

“Yes, sir. Be right back with the walkies.” He dashed away.

June coughed, a long racking spasm. “Hope they get the air on soon.”

An hour later everyone met on the bridge. “I have the nav system rewired,” the Captain told the crew. He handed out bottles of water. “The galley seems fine, except there’s no power yet. Chief?”

Albert Ling, the Chief Engineer, drank half of his water in what seemed to be one gulp. “I smacked my head on my shower wall when the ship lurched.” He still had a trickle of blood running out of his short black hair and down his neck. “The engine took a hit. Internal panels are fine. I’m going to have to go outside and check the damage. Until I can get the engines going, there’s just emergency power.”

The Captain nodded at June. She had to cough before she could speak. “I’ve got a burn on my hand from the Comm panel shorting out. We’re three days from last contact.”

The three cargo handlers, Toby Jurick, Andrea Ramirez and Kurt Lawson also reported various bruises. Toby summed up the Environmental problem. “It’s down. It should work under emergency power, but it’s not.” He rubbed his tired, pale face. “We don’t know what’s wrong with it.” The other two looked grim.

Foster nodded. “I’ll come down and look. Kurt, give Bert a hand with his walk. June, keep working on the Comm panel. I’d like to get a message out for help.”

Everyone nodded and went back to work.

Four hours later, the engine power came back on. June was deep into the wiring of her board and glanced up as the bridge lights came on at full power. Another system up, she thought, as she stripped and twisted together another pair of wires. She felt better than she had since the meteor shower.

It took five trips to the Second Wind’s supply locker, and eight more hours before the Comm panel worked. The Captain was in his bunk for a four hour nap. She called Bert. “I sent out a MayDay call. Don’t know if it’ll help.” She coughed as the Chief responded. Even though the fans came on with the power, it was just circulating stale air.

“Thanks. This unit still isn’t working. I patched the few exterior problems on the ship while I was out. It has to be inside the system. Twice I thought I had it fixed.”

She could hear the sizzle of sparking wires in the back ground. “You hurt, Bert?”

“No,” he told her. “You need a relief?”

“No, I’ll stay here. Maybe I’ll get a response. Who’s with you?”

“Andrea and Kurt. I sent Toby to catch a nap.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks.” He cut the call.

June had her head on the console, dozing, when the Captain called two hours later. She jerked upright and hit the answer button. “Yes, Sir.”

“Any response to the MayDay?”

“Not yet, Captain.”

“Nothing yet on the air, either. Hang in there, June. We’ll get it.”

“Yes, Sir. Out.”

She had a headache and it was like trying to breathe water. She sent out another call, just to be doing something. Alone on the bridge, she made a log entry and wiped away a tear of self-pity. Get a hold of yourself. You aren’t some rookie. But she couldn’t help but think about how she was only 32 years old and about to die of suffocation. She wondered what the Captain and Chief were doing. Probably have to trace every line. Each of them trained on all of the systems on board and environment was the most complicated after the engines.

Three hours later, June leapt up, heart racing, and stood under the air vent. Cool, clean air was coming through. Tears rolled down her face as she drank in huge gulps of it.

The End

996 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Read An EBook Week

Image

The ebook site, Smashwords, is having a promotion. From today, March 2nd through March 8th, you can find free or steeply discounted ebooks to download. I’ve added my newest book, A New Start, to the promotion. For one week only, you can get the book FREE! Go here to see the catalog of free or nearly free books and search for A New Start by Connie Cockrell.

Feel free to pass the word on this excellent opportunity to acquire great reads for little or nothing.

Am I Hitting My Goals?

GOAL_by_oscarsnapshotter

GOALby oscarsnapshotter

Photography / Urban & Rural / Gardens, Parks & Cemeteries

It’s been awhile since I talked about my goals for 2014 and how I’m doing reaching them. Let’s check my progress.

I have as a goal every week to post to my blog every Monday and Friday. I missed a Monday in February. Just a lot of stuff on my writing plate and forgot it. However, I haven’t missed a flash fiction story post on any Friday. That makes me happy.  I also update my Facebook author page, ConniesRandomThoughts at least twice per week. That’s good for my readers, you get the latest information. Finally there’s my goal to post something on Google+ and Twitter three times per day. That usually works out unless I’m out all day or I go to bed early. I make it most days.

Lessons are moving along. I am almost caught up with my 2YN lessons. I’m only one behind right now. I also started a new Holly Lisle course, Create a World Clinic. It’s a tough course so I’m moving through the lessons pretty slowly. On the other hand, I’m learning a lot.

As for my writing, I published A New Start on January 31st and have finished editing my draft of The Challenge. It is now with beta readers. The cover for it is finished. I just need it back from the readers so I do the final edits. I should have that ready in time for the late March release. Yay!

My Leprechaun story, Lost Rainbows went too long to be submitted to the Zoo Anthology. So I wrote another story, Color Breakdown, and submitted that. I need a couple more scenes at least to finish Lost Rainbows, one of which is a battle scene. This may take me some time but I hope to release it for the teen or pre-teen market in the fall.  Unfortunately I don’t have any short stories written that I like well enough to submit to the Writer’s of the Future. Maybe next quarter.

I still have to write an article for the Forward Motion ezine Vision For Writers. (Now available on Smashwords! Check it out here.) However, I do have several topics to research and write about. I’ll have something submitted to the ezine soon.

I have not begun outlining stories for the May Story A Day challenge or a novel for April’s Camp NaNo. I do have a couple of book ideas and a few pages of notes for each of them. I might still be able to pull off an April Camp NaNo.

So that’s it. Some wins, some losses. A pretty good record so far for 2014.

If you didn’t sign up for my newsletter this month, you missed out on a giveaway of my newest book, A New Start.  So don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. Or sign up here.

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here.  Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

A New Start: A Gulliver Station story released January 31st! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Kobo: Not Available Yet

Flash Fiction Friday: The Rain Fair

A friend of mine was generating book titles as writing prompts the other day and this one caught my eye. In real life Arizona is short of it’s annual rainfall for the year. This is never a good thing. And as happens quite often, my mind goes to a dystopian future. Below is what I came up with for The Rain Fair.

The Rain Fair

Fourteen-year-old Mackenzie lifted the last crock of goat cheese onto the homespun cloth draped over boards Pa had set across two sawhorses. Ma piled the skeins of wool they had spent the winter spinning at the other end. It looks nice, Mackenzie thought. “Can I go now?”

Her mother’s face was drawn with the exhaustion of getting here early. “Sure.” She pulled a straggling lock of hair back from her face and tucked it behind an ear. “Listen for news about the weather.” She peered up at the cloudless blue sky. “If we don’t get rain soon, the water holes will dry up and the goats will die. It’ll be the end of us.”

“OK, Ma.” Mackenzie dodged the ropes supporting the tarp over the table.

“Don’t lose yer coin,” her Ma yelled.

She waved. Ma and Dad were worried. But this was the Rain Fair. Everyone here hoped for the rains. She meandered along the midway where bright colored cloth decorated the front of tents promising wonder and adventure. Hucksters sold all sorts of things that she only saw here. She stopped at a sign, Madam Eunice, Fortunes Told. There were drawings of exotic places and pretty girls. The owner stood in the tent door. “Come, girl, I’ll tell your fortune.”

“A lie,” her father told her on the ride in. “They just want your money.” Mackenzie shook her head. The woman tried another inducement.

“I can see the future, girl. Just three coppers.”

Mackenzie fingered the coppers in her pocket, earned by selling knitted goods to the neighbors. Her hoard even had an ancient coin, from the Yousa, smooth and evenly round, not like the coins that the Arizona government stamped. “Sure.”

The woman held open the flap and Mackenzie went inside. It was stuffy in the tent and dark after the woman pulled the tent flap closed. Mackenzie sat at a cloth covered table where smoke from a bundle of sage curled up and gathered at the tent roof.

“What is your question?” The woman held out her hand.

Mackenzie pulled out three coppers. “When will the rain come?” She dropped the coins in Madam Eunice’s hand.

The woman tucked the coins in the band around her waist. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Mackenzie watched the woman sway as she hummed a single long note. “I see a young man walking with you into a brilliant sunset. Three children are born and have families of their own. You, sitting with children and grandchildren.”  The woman coughed and opened her eyes. “That is all I see.”

“That’s not what I wanted to know!” The chair skidded back when she stood.

“That’s all I see,” Madam Eunice said again, her eyes steady on the girl.

Mackenzie was furious and embarrassed. Three coppers wasted. She barged through the tent flap into the bright sun. The fortune teller’s cheat colored everything. Every tent, every stand seemed cheap and tawdry. She stopped at a crowd listening to a woman who claimed to be a water witch. She held a slender bent stick in her hand. “I can find a well for you,” she told them. “How much is cold, clear water bubbling out of your ground worth to you?” As she paced, the stick began to twitch and when she stood over a bucket, it pointed straight down.

Mackenzie snorted as she left. She wasn’t going to be fooled again. The woman made the switch do that. At the end of the midway was the arena. Later there’d be a rodeo. Now though, the Rain Callers were dancing.

People believed in the Rain Callers. They came to the fair just to watch the dances and hope for rain. It cost money to sit in the stands so she threaded her way through the standing crowd and found a place at the front where she could see. Since it was early, only a single dancer was in the ring. He wore fringed buckskin trousers though his body was bare. Long black braids with feathers and beads swung around his head. He shook a turtle shell rattle in one hand and in the other, held a painted gourd bottle. As he chanted and danced his way around the ring, he sprinkled the crowd with it.

As he approached her, she could hear him sing in the ancient Navaho. He danced in front of her and holding her gaze, sprinkled her with water then spun and danced away. She stayed until the rest of the crowd left. The Rain Caller walked over to her.

“You have a question?” He wiped the sweat from his face with a homespun rag.

“Do you make it rain?” Mackenzie looked into his dark brown eyes.

He shook his head. “I focus the rain thoughts.”

She pointed at the midway.  “Just like the rest of the huckster’s. A cheat.”

“No.” He looked at her intently. “I am the focus for the thoughts and hopes of those who need the rain. You need the rain.”

“I do. Ma and Pa’s farm will fail without it.”

“Water follows you. Just like all of the others I sprinkled in the crowd.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “You don’t know me.”

“Look.” He pointed at the people chatting in groups around the arena. “See how some have a glow?”

Disbelieving, she looked. She saw Mr. Randolf, biggest rancher in central Arizona. He had a faint blue glow about him. Mrs. Powell was talking to some ranch wives. She had a glow. Mackenzie looked at the Rain Caller. “You sayin’ I glow, too?” She looked at her arm.

“You glow,” the Caller told her. “Go to your farm. Get a water witch to help you find water.”

She watched him walk away. It would be good if she could find water on the farm. They wouldn’t have to rely on Mrs. Powell to release water from her dam. Mackenzie walked slowly back to the water witch. She’d see about the price.

The End

999 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

If you enjoyed this story, you might be interested in my newest Science Fiction book, A New Start, the first book in my Gulliver Station series. You can find it here: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/books/book-detail-page?ie=UTF8&bookASIN=149540708X

Flash Fiction Friday: The Drink

My writing prompt came from Chuck Wendig. It’s a challenge to create a story with a drink designed by the author. I decided a story located in my Gulliver Station series was appropriate. If you like it, check out A New Start, now available on most ebook retailer sites.

The Drink

Paula Vance held up the heavily embroidered scarf with intricate metallic blue and silver swirls and stars. “Look at this, Rob! I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He stepped to his wife. “Beautiful.”

The stall keeper sensed a sale to the tourists. “I know the artist. She does fantastic work but as you can imagine, it takes a long time to hand embroider. I don’t get many like that.”

“We’re on our 10th anniversary trip,” Paula shared with the stall keeper. “We heard about the Gulliver Station BioDome and since it was on the way to Pica, we decided to stop here. I’m glad we did.” She tried on the scarf and looked at herself in the mirror standing on the counter. “I have to have it.”

Rob laughed. “Why not? It’s our anniversary after all.” He handed the stall keeper his ID.

“Shall I wrap it for you, Miss?”

Paula took a couple of steps backward to get a different perspective in the mirror. “No, I think…”

She shrieked as she was struck by a speeding methane breather transport pod. Paula slid over the bubble protecting the alien and rolled off of the back onto the floor.

“Paula!” Rob shouted.

The pod stopped. The stall keeper called Station Security. Passersby gathered around the fallen woman and the transport. In a few minutes, Station Security Officer, Helene Guzman, arrived on the scene.

“Are you alright, Ma’am?” Officer Guzman took a swift glance at the transport. There was no smell of methane so the bubble wasn’t cracked. The exterior speaker hissed and sputtered. She read the display.

“Fright. Female. Broken!”

Guzman sighed. She hated dealing with the V’Heeme. It was hard to figure out what their messages meant. Was it scared and broken or was it asking about the woman?

Rob helped his wife to her feet. “I think she’s fine.” He dusted off her dress.

“Stay right there, the medics are coming.” Guzman turned to the transport’s speaker. “May I ask your name, Honored V’Heeme?”

The screen printed, “Zmugn.”

“Honored Zmugn, are you injured?” She tapped her pocket pad with the V’Heeme’s name and the number of the transport pod. The message went straight to Security.

“No. Human?”

“I will inquire, Honored Zmugn.” She turned to the couple. “May I ask your names?”

Paula straightened the scarf, then her hair. “I’m Paula Vance, this is my husband Ron. We were just buying this scarf when the pod hit me.” She straightened her dress. “I never expected to see a Methane breather.” They peered into the bubble.

“So you didn’t see the pod travelling along the market aisle?”

Paula glanced around her, the crowd, smaller now that there was no apparent injury, hung onto every word. “Well, I stepped back a bit, to see the scarf in the mirror.”

“That’s true, Officer,” the stall keeper called out. “She was just admirin’ the scarf.”

Guzman nodded. This was an accident but with the V’Heeme involved it could turn ugly. “I can do a couple of things here. I can take both of you and the V’Heeme to the office where everyone can file complaints.

“Or, I can call it no harm, no foul, since no one is injured and you can go about your business.”

“Oh, no,” Ron said in a hurry. “We were just about to go to dinner.”

Guzman nodded. “Let me ask the V’Heeme.”

“Honored Zmugn, do you wish to go about your business or come to Station Security to file a complaint?”

The speaker hissed and crackled and the screen finally printed, “No. Business now.”

“Thank you for your courtesy, Honored Zmugn.” Guzman tapped the answer into her pad. She turned to the couple.

“Your lucky day, the V’Heeme is eager to get on about his business, too.”

They watched the pod speed away. “It goes kind of fast, doesn’t it?” Rob said as he watched it take the corner.

Guzman held out her pad. “Could you sign at the bottom of the screen, please? To confirm you are not filing a complaint.”

Paula reached out and pressed her thumb to the screen.  When the medics arrived, Officer Guzman stayed so she could complete her report. It only took a moment for them to do a scan and pronounce Paula fit. She thumb-printed her release on their pad.

“Have a good evening.” Guzman tucked her pad into her pocket.

“Wait,” Rob said. “Can you recommend a good place to eat? Some place you would go to have dinner?”

Guzman stopped. “Are you looking for fancy or for good local food?”

“We can get fancy food on the ship. Local food,” Rob said.

“Go to the Eastenders on this Level. Best Irish stew on the station.”

They thanked her and wound their way through the market to the maglev. It took them to the other end of the market. The Eastender’s was in full swing but they found seats at the bar. The stew and fresh bread was delivered promptly and they ate with gusto. “We should have an anniversary drink,” Paula said.

“Good idea,” Rob said. “Jake,” he called to the bartender. “Do you have a signature drink for the Eastenders?”

Jake, a long time bartender on the station, scratched his head. “No. None on Gulliver Station, as far as I know.”

“Good.” Rob rubbed his hands together. “Is there a particular favorite drink?”

Jake grinned. “That would be whisky. It’s made right here.”

The two men put their heads together. In a few minutes, the three of them had a squat glass filled with ice cubes and a light chocolate colored drink. “Cheers,” Rob toasted. They each tasted.

“What’s in it?” Paula asked.

“One and a half shots of whisky, half a shot of chocolate liquor, half a shot of Irish cream whisky, and a shot of coffee. We’ve decided to call it The Gulliver.”

“It tastes like dessert!” She sipped again. “Thank you, Jake.” She raised her glass. “To Gulliver Station.”

“To Gulliver Station,” they toasted.

The End

1000 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

 

Blog Hop: My Writing

What’s a blog hop you ask? It’s a journey for the reader from blog to blog. As the reader, you get to see what other authors are writing. For us authors, it’s a chance to talk about our work.

I volunteered to be in this blog hop as Power Writing Hour is a writing group I belong to and I wanted to support all of these wonderful authors and their work. I was invited to participate by Brianna Soloski. You can check out her post for this blog hop here: http://girlseeksplace.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/writing-whats-my-process/

So what am I working on? I’m editing and publishing my very first ever series called Gulliver Station. I’m publishing the first in the series, A New Start, right now! I’ll be putting out the 3 other books in the series every other month, March, May and July. The series is about the space station. Gulliver station is a chance for a fresh start. The colonists can build their own society but not everyone wants a society free from crime. Slowly, the corrupt few succeed and the station becomes a pit of corruption in the government and misery for the majority of the station residents.  A few begin the fight to reclaim the station. Can they turn around the tide of misery? The book, A New Start, is the beginning of the saga. Gulliver Station is brand new and being populated primarily with Old Earth Irish.  Fergus Boylan, the Provisional Station Manager, wants to leave the old, corrupt Ireland behind and make station life fair for all of its residents.  Conway Gillespie sees a chance to start his own crime family and rule the station like his old boss on Earth.  The new residents want a fresh start, free from corruption and violence, that’s why they volunteered to colonize the station.  Who will win this tug of wills?

How does my work differ from others in the SciFi genre? Of course it’s different just because it came from my head. Not being flippant here. While I’ve read great SciFi for decades, my stories have my own point of view and voice.

Why do I write what I do? I love SciFi and Fantasy and want to contribute to that body of work. I don’t always write that though. Sometimes I write stories set in the here and now, like my book Recall.

How does my writing process work? I’m an outliner. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I stick to the outline though. If a better ending comes up, or I get an idea for additional scenes, I’ll use them. I usually write during the afternoon when the hubby is napping but I’ve written in coffee shops, in the morning, or even late at night if an idea strikes me. Ideas come from everywhere. I did a story once that came to me because I saw an exit sign for a road named Devil Dog Road.

Many thanks to Jamie Raintree (http://jamieraintree.com/why-i-write-for-women) and E.W. Gibson (http://ewgibson.me/2014/01/13/link-by-link-chain-by-chain/) for starting the blog hop. Look for Aimie Trumbly Runyan at http://aimiekrunyan.wordpress.com/ for next week’s hop. Here’s a little bit about her.

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Aimie is a historical fiction writer from Black Forest, Colorado. She fell in love with the French and Francophone cultures at an early age and has found a way to express and explore her passion through writing. She has taught French and English for more than a decade. Beyond writing, Aimie loves travel, sewing, reading, hiking, baking, and being outdoors. She has two adorable young children, an amazingly supportive husband, and a very neurotic dog named Pippin.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. http://conniesrandomthoughts.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8c24bb15bdf9245512f722298&id=0a097feea0  Special this month. Sign up for the newsletter and I give you a code to get the first book of the Gulliver Station Series, A New Start, free. All I ask for is a review if you like the book.

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell  Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Links to Christmas Tales will lead you to my author page on each site where my other published work is available:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id761282885?mt=11

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385963121&sr=1-4

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-tales-connie-cockrell/1117497310?ean=9781494200572

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-tales-3

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010