So once again, you’re getting an excerpt from my NaNo novel. This scene is about halfway through the book. The hero, Ethan (whom you met last week) has been the reluctant host to Bella, who crashed on the moon where he’d fled to recuperate from his injuries.
This is just after an extremely powerful electrical space storm has passed over the area. The house they’re staying was protected by an energy field, but Bella’s ship was too far away. Now they’re off to check out the damage.
In less time than he expected, Bella joined him.
“This is an EX903,” she said, delight in her voice. “I was reading the technical manual on this last night.”
“You read technical manuals for fun?”
“When I can hide them from my mother.” She ran her hand over the side of the land skimmer and then flashed him a smile. “Technical manuals are not proper reading material for ladies.”
“I take it you were raised to be a lady,” he said. Somehow that didn’t surprise him in the least. Although what was a lady doing flying a star jumper?
“My sister and I both.” She was back to admiring the skimmer.
“No sense putting it off,” he said, gesturing to the passenger seat.
She nodded and climbed aboard. He waited until she was settled in her seat before taking off.
“How far is it to my ship?” she asked over the noise of the engine.
Ethan was only half listening to her; the engine was sounding a little rough. “It’s about 20 minutes out, more or less.”
Thankfully she lapsed into silence after that.
Just in case the ship still had a residual charge from the storm, Ethan took the precaution of parking on the other side of the clearing. They got out of the skimmer and Bella looked at the ship, a look of relief on her face.
“Thank the lords,” she said fervently. “I was almost afraid it wouldn’t be here.” She looked at him a little sheepishly. “This ship means a great deal to me.”
“I can see that,” Ethan said, suddenly filled with misgivings. There was scoring along one side and a large burn mark near the nose of the ship. It was obvious the ship had suffered multiple lightning strikes. And it wasn’t a good sign that the hatch was still open, even if the computer was offline it should have closed automatically.
“How can we tell if it’s safe?”
Ethan looked around and then bent down and picked up a stick. Straightening up again, he tossed it at the ship. It bounced off the side and dropped to the ground. “Seems all right,” he said.
Bella stared at him open mouthed. “What kind of test is that?”
He shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it? There was no shock when the stick hit the ship, that means it’s safe.”
Shaking her head in amusement, she moved forward and headed into the ship. He had to give her credit, she didn’t even hesitate. He followed slowly at her heels. He had a bad feeling about this.
“Computer.” Bella said from just inside. She started up the corridor. “Computer?”
There was no answer. Ethan followed her to the cockpit and almost ran right into her back when she stopped suddenly.
“By all the lords,” she whispered.
He peered over her shoulder and gave a low whistle. The cockpit looked like a fireball had been bouncing around in it.
“By all the lords,” she repeated, a little numbly.
“Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks,” he said, sounding lame even to himself. It wasn’t as bad as he feared, it was worse.
Slowly she moved to the central panel that housed the computer core. Taking a deep breath she opened it up. The unconscious moan she made told him all he needed to know. The computer core was fried. And without a working computer core, the ship was never going to get off the ground again.
“You didn’t have shielding around the computer core?” he asked gently.
She shook her head. “This is an older model star jumper and it wasn’t part of the original specs. I was going to upgrade it but never got around to it.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, sincerely. “I’ll wait outside if you want to take a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” she said.
He was sitting on a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing when she finally exited her ship, surreptitiously wiping her tears away. Noticing him watching, she came over and sat beside him, facing her disabled ship.
“It’s not so bad really,” Ethan told her, trying to be reassuring. “There are a lot of salvageable parts in there. With what you get for the metal alone you could buy a newer, safer ship.”
She was on her feet in an instant, whirling to face him, hands balled up into fists. “I built that ship practically from scratch. I had to sneak away from my family and work in secret and you have no idea what that ship means to me.”
“It’s just a ship,” he protested. “It’s easy enough to replace it.”
“You entitled rich boys are all the same. You think every problem can be solved if you throw enough money at it. Maybe if you actually had to work at something for a change you’d realize there’s more to life than getting your own way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just look at yourself, hiding out here on a deserted moon, making your masks and feeling sorry for yourself.”
“Now wait just a minute!”
“So the universe threw something unexpected at you, does that mean your life is over? No! It means you need to take a good look at what you’ve got and then do something with the rest of your life, preferably something meaningful. Just because you’ve had one setback doesn’t mean you can’t have a good life.”
“I don’t have to sit here and take this!” Ethan was on his feet as well, with no real idea how he got there.
“Then don’t. Go hide in your house the way you’ve been hiding from reality.” She turned and stalked away, body stiff with anger.
Ethan couldn’t believe her audacity. Who was she to judge him? She knew nothing of what he’d suffered. Angrily to stalked over to the skimmer and climbed in, pushing the vehicle beyond its safety limits as he took her advice and went back to the house. She could damn well walk.
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