Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
Last week, Bo met “Rex,” a third generation clone and black market collector rumored to have her father’s stasis pod. Whether or not her father is still in it remains to be seen. She’s playing him in a friendly game of Five-Point that is about to get…decidedly unfriendly.
***
Word was he had her father. If Barron biomatter feeding that nightmare on wheels, there would be no fourth-generation Rex clone. Bo wouldn’t leave enough genetic material unscorched for any more clones.
“Let’s make this game interesting.” The tinny tenor of his voice cut through the heavy silence with the precision of a medical laser.
Bo kept her expression carefully bland. “What did you have in mind?”
“I know why you sought me out, Barron,” he said. “You want your father’s stasis pod.”
“Do I?”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
While Blade has been swaggering around buckling swashes and the like, Bo hasn’t been sitting around painting her nails. Independent lady that she is, she’s managed to track down a lead on her father’s whereabouts. According to her Sub-socia sources, a black market collector named “Rex” has come into possession of her father’s stasis pod. Whether or not her father is still in it remains to be seen.
***
Bo’s amber eyes narrowed as she pulled her gamecard from the randomizing field on the table.
“I call,” she said, tossing a stack of local currency into the pot. “And I’ll raise you fifty.”
Bracing her booted foot against the edge of the table, she leaned her chair back onto two legs, balancing easily while she tucked the gamecard into her hand; a near-perfect Five-Point.
Her gaze settled on Rex, the only other player. She tried to ignore the feeding tubes that looped over his neckline like some hi-tech collar. The fluids that extended his life expectancy well-beyond nature’s intentions surged through in a gruesome show of wealth and excess. His pallid, corpselike flesh reflected far too much of the dim light that shone down on the Five Point table. If the rumors were true, this Rex was a third-generation clone of the original. He was the stuff of legend, and not the good kind.
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
Blade slipped away. If he was any judge of character, Kayne would do as Blade told him. He didn’t seem like a hardened killer. As he made his way across the theater, he studied the eight gunmen. Now, they looked like hardened killers.
He didn’t like having armed civilian variables in the mix. Too unpredictable. That’s why he’d played it so blasé with Kayne. He needed the kid to back him up but he wanted to make sure he didn’t get shot either. He also needed Kayne’s blind trust and he wasn’t above playing on his holofeature hero persona to get it.
***
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Repost from March 26, 2012:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love nothing better than a real, honest-to-goodness hero. There is just something about a larger-than-life, two-fisted, rootin’ tootin’ good guy who beats up the baddies and rescues the girl that appeals to me on a primal level. I’ve got my favorite heroes from film, television, and literature and there are several qualities they all have in common.
Unconventional
My favorite heroes are men who follow their own star. While some, like Indiana Jones, may superficially appear to conform to societal standards (Archaeology Professor) they have a rebellious streak. You realize that, while they appear to conform, they have found their own way to gain acceptance within the system while operating outside its constraints. Another favorite hero who fit into this mold was Fox Mulder from the X-Files. He was a brilliant FBI profiler whose obsession with the paranormal landed him in the basement of the J.Edgar Hoover Building.
Others openly flout convention, like Daniel Day-Lewis’s Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans. He is the adopted son of Chingachgook, and though white, he eschews the ways of the white settlers in favor of living off the land like his father’s people. Paul Newman and Robert Redford brilliantly portrayed this kind of hero in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Still others are forced from their conventional lives, like Errol Flynn’s Peter Blood in Captain Blood, or Robin Hood, or Russell Crowe’s Gladiator, or the Science Fiction icons Han Solo (Star Wars) and Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly). These heroes are usually princes among thieves, men of honor and integrity who are forced into a society devoid of these things, and as such, they rise above their circumstances, holding to their own code and earning the respect (and often animosity) of those around them.
Which brings me to the next quality of a Big Damn Hero…
Integrity No matter the mores of the society in which they operate, the Hero will always hold to his own code of ethics which is often in conflict with that of his society, but inviolate. Once the hero decides that something is “wrong” it’s wrong and nothing can force him to compromise his values. This often keeps the hero from finding success by the standards of his society, but he measures success differently.
Rugged Individualist
It only goes to reason that the unconventional man with integrity tends to be self-reliant and not in need of validation from others.
Resourceful One of my favorite things about the Big Damn Hero is the creative ways he finds to save the day. I don’t care if it’s reprogramming the Kobiyashi Moru, raising an army of the dead, using himself as a diversion, floating away with the garbage, or setting his ship to self-destruct while he and his crew make their getaway in the bad guy’s War Bird, the hero is clever under fire. He is ready to sacrifice himself, and the things that mean the most to him, in order to save the day.
Invincible Okay, maybe not really invincible, because Superman leaves me cold. It’s more the attitude than the actual invincibility that I love. One of my favorite lines comes from Galaxy Quest. “Never give up, never surrender.” That’s the attitude of a hero. No matter how bad things get, the Big Damn Hero never sees failure as an option. He’ll rescue the girl, save the world, stop the bad guy or die trying. I think that’s why I never saw Luke Skywalker as a true hero. He gave up too easily. Han Solo was the one who never stopped looking for a solution, a way out of whatever intergalactic pickle he’d landed in.
That’s one of the draws of Doctor Who for me. The Doctor isn’t invincible, but he is clever and resourceful and he never stops looking for the solution. He knows it’s there, he just has to find it before he runs out of time.
Impeccable Sense of Timing The Big Damn Hero doesn’t save the day when trouble starts. He shines at the darkest moment when all hope is fading. The swashbuckling hero will burst onto the scene, swinging in on a rope from the rigging, swooping in from out of nowhere, with guns blazing and a heroic fanfare with lots of staccato strings and the entire brass and woodwinds section of the London Symphony Orchestra.
He’s got a determined glint in his eye and a crooked smile that asks the audience, “Did you miss me?” As he so handily manages the bad guys and the disaster with a quip and a flourish, I usually feel like batting my eyelashes, clasping my hands together. “My HERO!”
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
Blade nodded towards the civilians huddled under the seats. “And you’ve got innocent bystanders there who’ll be used as hostages before long. What you need to do is draw their fire while I get those people out of there. You help me get them out, then, I’ll even the odds a bit for you. Do we have a deal?”
“Are you for real?”
“Oh, I never joke about heroics.” Blade smiled. “That’s what pays my bills. Let me get into position and when I give you the signal, I want you to draw their fire.”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
“You know, you’re in way over your head, don’t you?” Blade countered matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry… What did you say your name was?”
“Kayne,” he replied, “and yeah. It’s occurred to me.”
Blade shook his head. “It’s only a matter of time before you’re flanked and overrun,” he said. “They’ve started going for position. If they get the upper hand, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
The two young men looked more like bored, spoiled sons of well-to-do families than mercenaries or private investigators. Between their trendy clothes and their up-to-the-millisecond haircuts, they looked more like they belonged in a teen fan periodical.
A shot whizzed past the young man’s head and he ducked lower behind his cover. Though he was about Blade’s height, he managed to hunker tightly down, getting very small. Another blast struck sending sparks showering over them. He covered his head with his hands.
“You might want to try shooting back at them,” Blade said, folding his arms across his chest.
The young man stared at him; his brown eyes wide with disbelief and fear. “You do know this isn’t a holofeature, don’t you?”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
He shook his head in disbelief. A shot hit the partition sending him ducking behind it. “Umm… they’re the bad guys.”
“What did they do?” Blade asked.
“They took a diary that belonged to a lady,” he said. He flinched as a volley of shots struck the other side of the wall. “We were hired to recover it. We did and they want it back. Adin’s up there in the balcony with our client trying to keep her from getting shot.”
Blade peered up into the balcony. “What the hell is your client doing in the middle of a firefight?”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
The young man muttered a curse and turned his attention back to the firefight. After a few seconds he turned back to Blade.
“Wait… did you say you’re Blade Devon?” he asked.
Blade nodded. “In the flesh.” He sat down beside the man in blithe unconcern and stripped off his riding gloves. “So what’s my motivation? What’s the conflict? Who are those guys?” He nodded towards the eight gunmen.
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles ~ HERO’S END.
This is a difficult scene to take out of context. By this point, in the book, Blade’s back is against the wall. There have been several attempts on his life, one nearly successful, and he’s been ordered to give up his holofeature career and the woman he loves to take a safe desk job, complete with high security and body guards to protect him ~ a situation akin to life in prison with no chance of parole. He’s only just barely shaken the men assigned to protect him. His window for disappearing is rapidly dwindling. This scene is one last big gamble where he’s throwing all his chips into the pot and hoping he can pull out a winning hand.
***
Blade studied the ongoing firefight, moving steadily towards a better vantage point. As near as he could tell, three gunmen faced at least eight with a half-dozen innocent bystanders trapped in the crossfire. The civilians were his first priority. He moved towards the nearest of the gunmen.
Surprisingly young, he crouched down behind a partition and fired over the civilians’ heads at the eight men who had taken positions along the stage and wings. He didn’t sense Blade’s approach until Blade was nearly on top of him. He turned quickly and leveled his blaster at him. Blade stopped and held out his hands to his sides.
“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to startle you… I’m Blade Devon.”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
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