Forever and For Always

We’re back to the NaNo novels today. In 2008 I hadn’t planned on doing NaNo because I was in school at the time and didn’t figure I’d be able to handle it. But on November 1st a name popped into my head – Treasure Beaumont. The story followed and I was off and running.

The story just seemed to download itself into my brain. It was amazing. Not only did I surpass the wordage goal, on the final day I had my best writing day ever with a whopping 8,000 words. The current word count of this novel is 73,600 words and it’ll probably be around 100,000 before I’m done.

Here’s the blurb I posted for this novel on the NaNo site:
Treasure Beaumont owns and operates a small trading vessel, for the most part staying out of trouble. But trouble finds her when she follows a lead on a profitable cargo and instead she's shot down over a remote planet where she's taken prisoner by a woman who calls herself Mistress Pain. But Trez isn't Mistress Pain's only captive, there's also the beautiful man with the mind of a child called Ape. Trez and Ape manage to escape from captivity, and begin a quest to find out who he really is. But can their love survive finding out the truth?

Yup, it’s a science fiction romance, with a little suspense and adventure thrown in for good measure. And here’s the way it all begins (unedited of course):

Trez Beaumont opened her eyes cautiously, unable to believe that she’d actually pulled it off. The ship was down, and it seemed to be in one piece.

“Was I born under a lucky star or what?” she said.

“Please restate question,” the onboard computer asked.

“Disregard. I wasn’t talking to you.” She flipped a switch on the console but the blast shield in front of her remained down. Flipping it back and forth several times didn’t help. Trez sat back with a sigh.

“Damage report.”

“Minor damage to–”

“Wait. Belay that order.” She kept forgetting that the upgraded computer took everything literally. Best to rephrase before it listed every little scratch and dent right down to the grass stains on the hull where they slid to a stop. “Just tell me if there’s any damage that will prevent us from lifting off of this rock.”

There was a pause. “Coolant leak in starboard stabilizer cell–”

“How bad a leak?”

“Leak is minor, however ninety-seven percent probability the stress of lift-off will rupture it.”

Trez relaxed in the pilot’s chair. Minor damage she could repair, it was the major stuff that would cause her trouble. “Okay, what else?”

“Minor stress fractures to hull. Electrical system undamaged but the batteries are depleted.”

“Shit. How long for the batteries to recharge?”

“Estimated recharge time, 48 to 54 hours.”

“Damn.” Trez drummed her fingers on the console. “Any idea what hit us?”

“We encountered an energy pulse field that drained the electricity from the ship.”

“Hmm. Was this field just sitting there and we passed through it, or was it directed at us?”

“Unknown.”

She sighed and unbuckled herself from the seat. Despite the rough landing, it didn’t appear she was damaged either. It could have been so much worse. Thank the gods she had the blast shield installed the last time the ship had been overhauled. A bead of sweat trickled down the neck of her flight suit.

“Computer, why is it getting so warm in here?”

“Life support is off-line.”

“Well get it back on-line!”

“Insufficient power to do so. Estimated time for life-support to be restored is ten hours.”

“Just peachy,” she muttered under her breath.

The cockpit, Trez never thought of it as large enough to call it a bridge even though it would comfortably hold four people, of the Azure seemed to close in on her. Ten hours wasn’t so bad. She’d gone without life support longer than that. Her breathing sped up and her heart began beating just a little faster.

“Computer, is the atmosphere outside the ship capable of sustaining life?”

“Affirmative.”

Well that was something, at least. Trez left the cockpit and headed for the aft stabilizers. Might as well get that fixed first.

The Azure was a medium sized trader class ship. It was a little big for just one person, but perfect for two or three. It had belonged to her family; Trez had grown up on this ship and knew it inside and out.

She ducked into the engine room for the repair kit and then unscrewed the panel over the maintenance shaft just outside the door. The repair kit came with shoulder straps, making it easier to bring it with her as she climbed the shaft. She was lucky she was small enough that both she and the kit on her back fit in the shaft. Her father had to go up the shaft first and then have someone pass the repair kit up to him.

It was only a few feet to the top of the shaft where it branched out. Trez followed the shaft to the starboard stabilizer and used the micro-analyzer to search for damage. There it was, right next to the injector coil. The computer wasn’t lying. If this had been left until she tried to take off it would have leaked all over the injector coil, which would have caused a chain reaction right down to the star drive.

It was only a few seconds work to seal the leak and wipe up what little fluid had spilled. Trez double checked to make sure the seal would hold, then retraced her way back out of the maintenance shaft. After reattaching the panel cover, she put the repair kit back in its usual place in the engine room before heading to her quarters.

Like most space rats, she kept the Azure in pristine condition - a place for everything and everything in its place. Trez’s quarters, however, were a different story. Where others might describe it as cluttered, she liked to think of it more as homey. It was the largest of the four cabins in the ship, the one that used to belong to her parents. At this point, however, even she could see it was somewhat of a mess.

Having nothing better to do, she picked up the dirty clothing scattered about, including a pair of dark blue skivvies belonging to the last man invited to share her bed. He hadn’t been particularly good looking, but he made up for it in the sack. Unfortunately, that had been about his only redeeming quality.