Tales From Tewanta

Betancourt Base, Musca Dark Region PJ-P b6-1 - 3307-05-13 06:53 GST Jennifer Ng awoke in a large bed, beneath a duvet. A gentle quarter g of gravity kept her on the bed and the duvet on top of her. The room was dimly illuminated by night-lights beside the suite's main door and the door the toilet and shower area. Beside her in the bed lay John Patrick Rogers, JP to friends, snoring. He was a long haul cargo pilot that she had met the previous evening. She gazed at his broad back and smiled remembering the previous night's conversations and exertions. In the dim light she could almost make out the greying hairs on his back and shoulders. Despite being nearly twenty years older than her, he was able to keep up with her. She was impressed. Neither of them were under any illusion that this was a long term relationship, but she hoped that there paths would cross again in the not too distant future. That wasn't entirely unlik...

Cargo Bay Two, Ohm Colony, HIP 82030 - 3307-04-04 19:07 GST Hiroko Watanabe quickly assessed her situation. An unknown assailant had just attacked her and her team member, Kayleigh Rouse. Kayleigh had been blown off her feet by a grenade blast and was drifting amongst the cargo racks in the cargo bay, out of Hiroko's sight. Hiroko herself was unharmed. Their attacker had a submachine gun and a clear line of sight covering the area between Hiroko and where Kayleigh was. He probably had more grenades. She had just a laser pistol. Another burst of submachine gun fire struck the containers she was sheltering behind. Let them waste their ammo, she thought, right until the EMP grenade stuck the wall behind her. It went off and the energy pulse it emitted dropped her shields. So it wasn't a waste of ammunition after all, but a tactic to mask the noise of a grenade hitting the ceiling. Her attacker was smart; too smart to let her r...