Trouble on HighGard: A new short by R.S.F.

Trouble on HighGard is a new science fiction short story by Yours Truly. I’ll let my description do the talking:

The year is 3251, give or take, and humanity has come a long way. 

Not even the destruction of Planet Earth can stop our species.

Over a thousand years into the future, Commander Fly and his small team of mercenaries are contracted to diffuse a highly volatile situation on Planet HighGard, a vacation resort for rich scumbags.

At least, that’s what they’re lead to believe. 

This is my first attempt at setting the stage for my own personal Galactic civilization. Yes, this means there will be more. But I’d also like to mention that this story resides in the same Universe as PaxCorpus, if you hadn’t already figured that out. Click the image link below to check it out, first available on Smashwords and everywhere else – soon.

Scrap that, THIS is Osiris-9

Alright, by now you’re probably thinking, “This guy is the nerdiest nerd I’ve ever nerded.” But WHATEVER. The image explains. I’m tired. (click for larger blah blah blah)

If Crap Could Fly

I get home from work, pour a glass of Rum and slump down in front of my computer with ideas flowing for Osiris-9 – my upcoming space opera novel.

So far I’ve written a character and plot introduction and a following chapter that describes the discovery of the ship, Osiris. For a while now, I’ve been thinking about what that ship would look like (since I need to know what it looks like anyway). So I opened up MS Paint and doodled this:

Yes, it’s pretty crude looking, but let me explain. The back area with the blue orb is what you would call the “engine.” At first, I thought this would be something enclosed near the back of the ship, but then I thought, “you know, why’s it gotta be enclosed? Especially if it’s gotta be large enough to generate really awesome speed!” There’s also a smaller section that adds to this – an experimental engine, on the inside of the ship, called the “scope drive.” This was also briefly mentioned in my novel PaxCorpus, so you can see that, even though both books are their own series, they reside in the same Universe.

The claws are sort of what hold this powerful “orb” in place and what, maybe, regulate its power. I’m not entirely sure.

The cylindrical part in the middle is what you would call the “living quarters.” Deck A and Deck B, along with a non-visible section for engineering. The circular structures you see around that shaft are always in motion while the ship is powered on. These work as gravity regulators.

Finally, the front of the vessel has something like a shield with long pin extenders. You can see by the small windows up toward the top that this is where your flight crew would be, I suppose.

Now, the story will have three main characters, along with a skeleton crew of people working on each deck. I figured that should give me enough leeway to kill people off.

All I need to do now is figure out how this thing “takes off.” (And mind you, the described version of this ship would obviously be a lot less cartoony looking. More gritty and dark, with a rough texture. The orb in the back might be smaller and would maybe distort the clamps around it. The front would maybe be bigger too.)