Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. On the surface, it’s a web ring of authors who post snippets of their work for comment. In reality, it’s a close-knit group of friends and colleagues working together to support and encourage one another and promote the science fiction and fantasy genres.
This week’s snippet is a departure from SOVRAN’S PAWN. Don’t worry. We aren’t going far. I’ve been hard at work on Book Two of THE BLACK WING CHRONICLES, tentatively titled THE WATCHTOWER. Still in the first draft stage it’s nearly ready for the endless revisions to begin. Here is your first look:
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Bo Barron stepped lightly across the floortiles. Pressure sensors dotted the floor at random intervals. The key was not to set them off. Moving quickly and with the lithe grace honed by years of zero gee exercises, she slipped through the tangle of sensors unnoticed. Once she reached the fortified door at the far end of the room, she pulled a sequence changer from her pocket and held it close to the door lock.
The changer softly hummed and whined as it manipulated the data inside the locking mechanism. After an interminable moment, the display shifted from red to green and a dull click echoed loudly in the silent chamber.
She palmed the door open and stepped inside. Her amber eyes darted around. In the center of the chamber, on a pedestal and under a brilliant blue light sat the Capre X2S Mergent Arms blaster pistol that had been handed down from Barron to Barron for centuries.
It was too obvious.
She held her position. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the pedestal.
It was a trap.
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Well, that’s the Saturday Snippet for this week! Please don’t forget to comment by clicking on either the blog title or the little quotation balloon in the upper right hand corner. Tell your friends. Stop back here next week for another!
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If you’re interested in more about:
SOVRAN’S PAWN
United by extortion, divided by duty, someone wants them both dead. They want each other. The catch is, nothing is what it seems…
Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.
Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe.
Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns.
All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.
Gotta Name My Blog 
Ooh, stealing back the family jewels…or blaster pistol–good hook! So excited to read SOVRAN’S PAWN!
Just don’t ask me how she lost it in the first place! LOL! Thanks!
Easy…too easy! 🙂
Always good to figure out a trap when it’s too late…can’t wait to see the rest of this.
Stay tuned! There will be more next week!
It’s a trap, it’s a trap. Don’t do it!!! Nooo… So, how did she lose it in the first place?
She lost it in a rigged game of Five-Point. 😛 (How did I know YOU would be the one to ask?)
Where’s Admiral Ackbar when you need him? “It’s a trap!”
See, I think of Princess Leia being dragged along while warning Luke on Bespin.
Bo will figure it out! She just needs something of the same weight as the blaster to put on the pedestal. Perhaps a sack of sand or a large, feathered waterfowl.
Must be a flightless waterfowl… or a witch a little lighter than a duck.
That was good. Nothing like covert stealth. Though I couldn’t help but hear Admiral Ackbar at the end either.
Sigh… Did no one else watch ESB?
Haha! I read it in Ackbar’s voice too… Well done!
(Giving up…) Thanks!
Hmm… how does she figure out which tiles have sensors? Or it that part of the trap?
That’s a very good question… and I have no ready answer for you. I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to address that. Thanks for giving me something to think about!
maybe the sensors are musical and she has to play out the tune from Close Encounters correctly to win the pistol! Just a thought! ok, i grant you not a very good thought and i should keep such things to myself! my apologies!
love the snippet!!
Either that or “Heart and Soul.”
hahaha! now that would be a sight to see!!
Exciting! Cue the Indiana Jones music!
There is an homage there, for sure!
Exciting snippet, want to read more!
More in the coming weeks.
Despite knowing it’s a trap, she’ll have to go in. How could you not when you’v’e come so far, when it’s something like a family heirloom/weapon? But those are the best laid traps–the ones where you know they are and go anyway. Loved your snippet. Can’t wait for more.
Of course! Thank you! and Welcome to SFFSat!
See, I’m a Browncoat at heart. I hear Zoe saying to Mal: “So, trap?”
Seriously, she loses it at 5 point? Didn’t Blade give her lessons?
Yep. I never said she was surprised by the fact it’s a trap, now, did I?
She didn’t need Blade to give her lessons. She learned how to play at her father’s knee.
But… shhhhh! I’ve said too much! To invoke Dr. Who: “Spoilers.”
Traaaaaaaaaaaaap!
Thank you! At last…
Yeah, never trust anything that obvious.
Sometimes, there’s something comforting in that.
Or it could be a clever double bluff and the trap is yet to come?
That would be cool…