Seph: second draft complete Audio and Manuscript.

       Hey everyone. The second draft of Seph, formerly titled The Descendents is officially completed and ready for review. This means that my Lovely wife has also finished a complete audio recording of the manuscript featuring in prominent rolls, my air conditioner in the background. and the occasional cameo from the cat's bell.

    If you are not a part of an official reader's group and would like to be, contact me through Facebook with your e-mail address and we can find a place for you in the reader's rotation. For now, stay tuned for more updates, including information on the up coming webpage which will serve as the marketing hub for this book. and possible illustrations and cover art proposals.

    And Finally, in a desperate attempt to hold interest, and keep people talking I am going to post another teaser from the book. This comes from the beginning of what is currently chapter 12. As with the last teaser I posted, this one comes in with James, who is the main Point of View character throughout the story.

    This is by far the longest sample of the book I have ever posted publicly. and probably will be, as it is difficult to find a comparable section that I would not consider containing too many spoilers. That being said, I really like this excerpt because I feel like it dives into some specific mechanics of the world in a way some of my previous ones have only hinted at.

    This is the first sample I am posting which includes multiple characters interacting with each other, as well as giving us a peek inside of our main character's mind, and how his experience and personality connect him to the world around him.

    Anyways, I could talk about it forever, but that would defeat the purpose of making it available for reading. Let me know what you think. and don't forget to keep a lookout for more news and updates.

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James exhaled slowly keeping his heart rate down. Two pirates waited for him at the end of the corridor. So far, they hadn’t noticed him, crouched as he was in a custodial droids hibernation hutch. He couldn’t hide here long though and he was running out of options.

Scot had been getting better at predicting his movements. Ever since he had given him the first space battle simulation, he had been using the android to run training scenarios. During his shifts on the bridge he would program space sequences for Scot to puzzle through, and when James was off duty, Scot would take the place of the simulator AI in various combat scenarios

Unlike a traditional simulation, Scot was not limited to a predictable set of preprogrammed variables, designed to emulate real behavior. Scot was able to learn and adapt to him in real time. The android was also capable of operating his units like a hive mind, further adding to the challenge.

This particular simulation took place on an Alliance citadel class ship, E series. The ships were mostly automated. They carried huge compliments of fighters, and served as a mobile staging station for the smaller enforcer class ships. They patrolled the galaxy on regular routes; theoretically helping to maintain order within The Alliance of Powers.

In this case, a band of pirate raiders had managed to infiltrate the ship and take the bridge. James was playing in the role of a petty officer trying to retake control. Each time Scot won they would switch roles, however in the last dozen rounds that had only happened twice.

James had started in the mess hall. When the ransom call was made, all he had to defend himself were his spoon and a metal meal tray. In real life this would never be a problem, he made sure to always carry a small fingalin stun-blade just in case. However that was part of what kept this interesting. The first few rounds the tray had been a decently effective shield. But Scot had one fingalin sting rifle at his disposal. Ever since the third round, the tray had been obsolete.

The first challenge had been to secure a proper weapon. Scot made accessing the weapons room through traditional means almost impossible. The kitchen had yielded access to a knife and a blow torch.  The blow torch had subsequently lent access to a maintenance tunnel, via an improvised access hatch. He was careful to only use walls located in relatively obscure locations, such as private quarters, or bathroom stalls. Which had thus far kept Scot mostly oblivious.

Scot had placed two guards in the armory itself. Using the torch as a makeshift grenade had solved that problem.

Selecting the right weapons became its own challenge. Combustion weapons drew way too much attention to themselves. While lasers were bulky and required too much time to charge. Generally James found the rail rifle to be the best option, it was silent with superior range and accuracy to the combustion rifle. There was a drawback though, since the pirates used combustion weapons almost exclusively, he would not be able to steal their ammo. But with planning, and a few extra grenades, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Next James had cut off access to the pirate’s ship, this was easily accomplished by convincing the maintenance droid there was an airlock malfunction. In real combat it would serve to incite panic. Taking away the exit is a good way to get a little chaos going. In this case he used it mostly to confuse Scot and keep him guessing at his location. The android had rarely made any serious move to stop him and judging by the two pirates he now faced, this round Scot had ignored it all together.

James launched himself into the hallway then exhaled. It wasn’t even a thought, his body glided through the motions, practice and training turning him into a machine whose only purpose was to eliminate his enemy. 

He squeezed the trigger, two shots in rapid succession, between heart beats. Both pirates dropped before they even had time to lift their guns.

He kept his gun ready, eyes on the door just beyond. It led to the main cargo hold, and was the quickest way to the bridge from this deck. Of course Scot knew that and would be waiting. No guards came out this time, apparently Scot had learned his lesson about wasting crew the last time he had tried it.
James positioned himself just to the side of the door, keeping his back to the wall. He pressed the keypad and it slid open with a hiss.

Bullets whizzed into the open corridor, followed less than a thought away by the concussive bang of the combustion weapons that had fired them.

He pulled the small spoon from his pocket and casually tossed it into the room. It clanked loudly on the floor. 

“Grenade!”

He spun and dropped low on one knee. Exhale, squeeze the trigger. Both bodies dropped, but he hardly noticed, his focus had already moved to the additional guards in the room.

Two more on the floor, and four on the upper walkway. The sniper had already had him in his sights, James was at a disadvantage. Quickly he fired off a shot, he didn’t have time to sight, it missed, the bullet ricocheted off the rail with a spark, causing the sniper to flinch.

It was enough. James rolled off his knee and over his shoulder coming to a stop behind a larger crate. The space where he had just been erupted as electricity from a fingalin sting rifle crashed into the floor scattering sparks, and filling the air with the smell of oxidizing hydrocarbons.

So that's where it had been waiting. James removed his small data pad from his belt and pulled up the cargo manifest. It was mostly harmless, fuels and such would all be stored in the hangar bays. 

One crate on the far wall held spare acetylene canisters. He removed one of the two grenades from his belt and pulled the pin before rolling it across the floor.

James inhaled filling his lungs and covering his eyes. The explosion reverberated off the walls, flames licking out into the room as the compressed gas rapidly combusted.

The ship's fire suppression came on, the doors slammed shut as the life support kicked into reverse sucking the oxygen from the room.

The pirate guards gasped for air, in the confusion James stepped out into the middle of the room. His first target was the sting rifle, one shot. He didn’t even wait for the man's body slump before grabbing the closer of the two guards left standing on the floor.

 He spun the man around holding him by his neck, then holding his rifle at his hip shot the remaining guard. 

James shifted slightly and a bullet from the sniper caught his hostage in the head. 

James dropped the body bringing his rifle up in one fluid motion. He felt his heartbeat behind his ears. Exhale, squeeze the trigger. The man he had been holding hit the floor with a thud. Heartbeat, Step, Target and fire. The sniper was still preparing his second shot. Heartbeat Step, trigger.

He inhaled as he cleared the room through his sights, silence, everything was still, he was the last one standing in the hold.

James smiled to himself, he now had a clear shot to the upper deck. Scot would be sure he was coming this way and have guards waiting for him at the hatch.

He lowered his gun and casually walked back into the hallway. Normally taking the main lift would be suicide. There is no cover once you are in the car, and someone would undoubtedly be guarding it on the bridge deck.

But, most pirates didn’t have a hive mind, and every member of Scot’s crew was already aware of the massacre in the cargo hold, all of them would be guarding that exit. A mistake the Android would not make again.

James stopped the lift one floor before the bridge, it wasn’t good to give away too many secrets at once after all.

With a hiss the doors opened

“James?”

He spun around, pulling his rifle into his shoulder. The voice had come from... behind him?

“James?” it was Chloe’s voice.

He breathed a sigh of relief and powered down his Augmented Virtual Reality Gear. “Scot, we are going to have to pick this up later.” He said into the com link.

“Alright sir, but I should warn you, this time you will not escape. I would be happy to accept you surrender now, and spare you the embarrassment.” The androids' mechanical voice echoed back.

“Thanks Scot, I’ll keep that in mind.”

teaser 2. second draft complete.

I have just finished my clean up of the second draft, just fixing the minor errors I missed while caught up in a late-night typing frenzy, or other little things that slip through the cracks to make sure it is readable.

Anyways there are still a few more things I am doing before I am really ready to send it to readers. one of those things being that my Lovely wife has decided to try and make an audiobook version of this draft, which is a huge undertaking, but we are going to see if we can't get it hammered out in the next couple of weeks, Yikes! So, if you are interested in getting it in that format, let me know and we will see what we can do. It might be a little rough though, we are not professionals, and our sound studio equipment is limited, but not terrible since she is a voice major.

Remember I am only giving a limited number of people access to each draft, that is because I need fresh eyes on each new version, so that I can get raw, unbiased feedback on it. So if you want to be a reader it is important you let me know which draft you want to be a part of the reading group for. Hopefully, I will have one more draft after this. With a final round of self editing. And then I will have the finalized version.

That being said. Anyone who has participated in the reading group of previous drafts is welcom to a copy of the most current one. And any of my new readers, once you have finished are welcome to look at older drafts and see how far I have come.

So then, in the meantime here is another teaser from the book. This is a fairly intense scene from the middle of the book, which will make absolutely no sense without the context. So it is perfect for a demo like this :) don't try to make to much of it, i am just posting it as something fun to read, and maybe get people excited about what is to come.

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 He stood on a long empty beach, white sand filling in the spaces between his toes, warm against the arches of his feet. A massive object, larger than the moon, with wings swiping out as if a menacing beast across the horizon, casting a shadow in the deep reds of sunset. The ocean began to pull back, until the rocky floor was exposed for more than eighty feet. The wall of water hung suspended in the air, a great wave waiting for a release that would never come.

 Light from the sun grew more intense, burning his exposed skin. The air became dry and brittle in his lungs, like sheets of ash blown from a fire. Breathing was painful.

 “We have to find shelter.” He could not identify the owner of the voice, it was distant, indistinct. A bright flash lit up the sky, drowning out the shadow cast by the ship. Growing brighter as it hurtled across the expanse of space. He watched in horror as four seconds later the plasma beam struck the atmosphere. Flames crawled through the sky as the beam racked from one horizon to the other, spreading outwards until the entire world was engulfed in an inferno. Molten rock spayed upwards from the impact, spraying lava thousands of feet into the air.

 Screams filled the air as one after another, streaks of plasma rocketed to the planet, followed by explosions of liquified earth. He spun around to gaze upon the demonic ship which had summoned such destruction. But met only blackness. Red eyes glowed like embers out of the emptiness. The smell of ash heavy in the air.

  A sound, barely a whisper, like an echo drifting in the nothingness “Zimo”
 “Dreku.” the voice was ethereal, it felt fuzzy in his ears, like an illusion you can’t make sense of.
 “Seph” coursed through him, electricity wrapping around his nerves and crawling along his bones, like something ancient and powerful being awakened deep inside him.
 “Zhemarah” the last word was an explosion, like a large rock being dropped into a still pool.
 Silence followed.