I'm just posting the prologue for now and will save chapter one for next week actually. After that it should be an update on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Supplying updates to you guys spreads the word and also keeps me in check as far as writing updates goes. Anyway, enjoy the rebirth of Immortal Space. You might not notice much different until later on, but I assure you this IS the edited version.
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Trent looked out of the window of his ship
from his chair in the cockpit and thought to himself that no matter how many
times he would see it, the Sun would always look good. The closer he got to it,
the more impressive it looked. He also knew that his shields wouldn't last very
long if he got much closer and that he should turn around and head back home,
but he found the view irresistible. The way the flames of the Sun moved across
its surface in a cosmic dance was a spectacular enough sight to keep him entranced.
After a few more minutes of watching he
heard the sound of the ship’s alarms telling him his shields were almost dead,
and he was left with no choice but to leave before he was blasted with the full
heat of the Sun. That wouldn’t have ended well for him so he turned his ship
around and set off for Earth. He turned on the autopilot so along the way he
could still take time to take in all the sights of the universe around him. He
never got tired of the endless boundaries of space; seeing stars burn their
brightest, looking at the different planets he could see and wonder about the
ones he couldn't see. He thought to himself that this was why he flew his ship
at cruise speed. It made the journey longer, but it was perfect for getting a
good look at everything. Some people were always in a hurry. Trent was not one
of them.
He had just passed Venus when the sound of
another alarm rang through his ship. This alarm told him that someone had
locked on to his ship and fired a missile at it. He was able to act fast enough
to dodge the first missile, but another came after him not long after the first
one was evaded. He was not so lucky a second time and the missile struck his
ship. His shields were down and there was too much damage for him to do evasive
manoeuvres to try to get away from his attackers. He decided his best course of
action would be to turn towards Earth and set his engines to full power. He
knew that no matter what happened, it would be fine as long as he managed to
land on Earth. He regretted going full speed as he would miss the sights but he
reasoned to himself that when people are shooting at you, and you can't fight
back, your best bet is to run. He knew he could always come back and see the
sights later.
He saw Earth in the distance, and fired up
the engines, managing to just avoid a missile that would have finished off his
ship. He was too shaken up to do much else and the sudden increase in speed
threw him off his seat. In his hurry to escape he had forgotten to strap
himself in to his chair. He hit the wall hard and saw nothing but darkness
before he passed out.
Doctor Osborne rushed to the scene of an
accident that had happened in the city. He had heard that a spaceship had crash
landed and he was part of the crew on their way to see the extent of the damage
and if anyone could be saved. He didn't expect to find any survivors and
wondered why they would even send a medical crew. The crash hadn't happened in
a built up area so there wasn't likely to be any bystanders caught in the crash.
There was still the tiny chance that someone might have survived and it was one
his superiors were willing to take. He had ever seen anyone survive a crash
like this himself, so he wasn't as willing to take the chance. That he could
see the smoke from the crash before he arrived confirmed his suspicions. That
was something no doctor heading to a crash site wanted to see if he hoped to
find survivors.
When he arrived at the scene he saw that
there wasn't much of the spaceship left. Most of it had burned up on
re-entering the atmosphere, and what was left was crumpled from the crash. It
had formed something akin to a large and jagged metal ball with holes in it. He
saw a hand poking out from one of these holes and was able to check it for a
pulse. He didn't find one, but he wasn't expecting to. A hand implied a body,
and if there was an intact body he would need to take it back to the morgue at
the hospital. He called over the rest of the paramedics and together they were
able to cut into the wreckage. Osborne had gotten used to seeing gory scenes
and they didn't faze him much anymore but one of the paramedics he was with was
new, and the sight of the body inside made him retch and vomit. The body was
held together enough for Doctor Osborne to make out it was a male body and,
while he couldn't work out everything that had happened, he could tell by the
body being out of a chair that the man had been blown out of his seat somehow.
The head was almost completely caved in so whoever it was had hit it pretty hard
on something;more than likely the wall. He thought that the body being broken
and twisted into shapes no human could achieve was more than likely caused when
the ship hit the Earth.
He called for a body bag and with a little
effort and help from the paramedics he was able to get the body into it. He
quickly searched through the man's pockets to see if he could find any form of
identification. He found a Space Explorer's license that registered the man as
able to fly a spacecraft and named the man as Trent Saxon. It informed Doctor
Osborne the man was 30 years old and was originally from Earth.
“At
least you got to come home one last time before you died” Osborne solemnly
thought to himself as he looked down at the body of Trent Saxon.------------------------------
PS It also looks much cleaner in the document and will make one fine looking ebook.
very cool mark...considering i missed the opening the first time it is a treat....
ReplyDeletei think you could play out the battle a bit if you wanted...or surprise attack....
cool opening though...