Lyta and Ti lingered before the locked door of the conference room. Lyta’s hand was on the doorknob, but just for a moment, she couldn’t bring herself to turn it, to leave and re-enter the company of the others. Ti stood behind her, his right hand on the small of her back, his left hand on her shoulder, apparently having the same thoughts. He leaned in and kissed her neck, trailed his lips upward and bit lightly on her ear. “More later,” he murmured.
Lyta nuzzled against him. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
He straightened up and Lyta exhaled slowly, squaring her shoulders and putting on her game face. She turned the handle and Ti dropped the arm on her shoulder as they walked out. Lyta squeezed his wrist, just for a moment, as he walked into the next room where her brothers and Fennec were waiting. Lyta, for her part, caught sight of light glinting off glass from the kitchenette, and glanced over in that direction.
Doc Chambers stood behind the counter and poured two neat measures into waiting tumblers. He caught Lyta’s eye and slid one across the counter towards her.
Lyta spared half a glance towards Ti, already honing in on his next conversation target, and turned away from the living room. She walked into the kitchen, her gaze on the Doc.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: What Hangs in the Balance
Monday, May 4, 2015
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter IX: A Life Worth Killing
36 Winter 1928
Lyta’s nerves were on fire as she reached the hotel room. Her jaw ached from tension, and her nails had dug crescent-shaped gashes into her palms. She had been out of sorts since arriving in Jan Mayen, since she’d first caught sight of GRELs in the streets, walking around like they were people. GRELs outside her door at night, GRELs acting as some farcical security squad that would just as soon take her out as protect her, GRELs in secret meetings as though they weren’t going to turn around and immediately deliver the information right back to the CEF.
But that was nothing compared to the bombshell Ti had dropped an hour ago: that Dr. Neseen was working on letting GRELs breed. He would give them the ability to have purple bastard babies who could continue in their parents’ footsteps forever. She had turned it over and over in her head, and there was only one solution. Only one thing that would fix the problem. She just had to work up the courage to do it.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter IX: Blood Relations
“So” Fennec asked as she grabbed a towel out of the hamper. It was already damp but with a shrug she went about drying her wet hair with it anyway.
“He got away.” Ti said cooly.
“Of course he did” Fennec offered matter-of-factly.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter IX: Thicker Than Blood
Tom waited patiently in the antechamber of the consular building. A polite Humanist offered him a real coffee which he was delighted to accept. After only 15 minutes he was ushered into the ambassador’s office.
“Doctor Chambers,” the ambassador said welcomingly.
“Ambassador, it is a distinct pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”
“How can the AST or the Humanist Alliance be of use to the Badlands Caravan Guild?”
Doc Chambers smiled. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VIII: Staring Down the Barrel of a Microscope
13 Autumn, 1927
Lyta paused as the door clicked shut behind her and the slight green glow illuminated from the bulb above it. Doc Chambers looked up from his desk.
“Hi,” Lyta said tentatively. “You got a minute?”
The Doc put down his pen. “Just. I’m planning some new investments, but it can wait a little.”
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VIII: Knowing What You Want
5 Autumn, 1927
She was a sight to behold.
He was a skilled operator himself but sat in quiet admiration as she ducked and weaved her way through the field. She displayed both raw talent and trained skill. He took immeasurable satisfaction in watching her approach a roadblock and, far from being dissuaded or even slowed down, turn that challenge into a means of propelling herself forward and achieving her ultimate goal. She moved back and forth with such grace and beauty that she made it all look effortless.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VII: Speaking Out Of Turn
“We've got to stop meaning like this.” The Doc gave her one of his typical grins as she opened her eyes. He was looking over her bandages and putting a mild sedative into her plasma drip, watching life flow back into her, drop by drop. “Seriously, Lyta, have you given any thought to... never mind.”
“Thought to what?” she asked, her voice clearer than he would have expected.
“This, all this.” With a wave of the hand he took in the cramped longrunner, the cot, and the IVs running into her arm. “And, of course, this,” he concluded, pointing to her wound.
Lyta grimaced. “Didn't we just make you a lot of money? You're in a weird place to be complaining.”
The Doc smiled. He really did like her. “Don't misunderstand. I enjoy making my blood money. I just prefer to make it on the blood of people I don't care as much about.”
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VII: Glorious!
“How’s Lyta?”
The question dampened his mood as violently as the train had screeched to a stop on the Marigold spur, and it left him dangling nearly as precipitously.
“She’ll be fine,” he responded vaguely before realising an ambiguous answer would just make Ellen go from worried to angry.
“What do you mean? How badly is she hurt, Doc?”
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VII: A Good Day
The Doc opened the balcony door and let the cool breeze of Lyonesse’s evening air rush in. He took two steps back blindly to where he knew a large wing chair awaited him. His eyes were fixed on the shimmering lights spread out on the skyline but his mind was focused on the events that had just transpired. He had just made one of the biggest deals of his life, maybe the biggest. ‘This’, he thought, ‘was a good day.’
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VII : Anonymous
The Adlon in Lyonnesse is one of the finest hotels on Terra Nova, period. One could enthuse for hours over the architectural details of the lobby, the balance of light and space with mood and comfort. Tours of the art hanging in the Main Hall circulate every quarter hour. The Grand Staircase to the mezzanine has been used in so many trideos that every Badlander child would immediately recognise it in awe. Even if you couldn't afford to stay there, as indeed most people can’t, tourists visiting the UMF go out of their way and budget for the legendary tea service in the atrium.
It’s said that at one point or another everyone of import on Terra Nova comes through the Adlon.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: The Prodigal Daughter Returns
1 Autumn, 1926
Lyta had almost managed to forget how bad Khayr ad-Din smelled. After the lush jungle scents of Junira Loresh, returning to the refuse city was an assault on the senses. At least she wouldn’t need to be there long.
Inside Hotel Bravo, the smell was lessened, and Lyta was grateful for the brief respite. Bill Pearce met her as she entered; she suspected there was a special facial-recognition program somewhere in the Nexus computers keyed specifically for her and her brothers. When they showed up, things started exploding, both figuratively and literally. So it was little surprise that she had barely made it past the lobby when she came face-to-face with Hotel Bravo’s manager.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Heavy Is The Head...
21:22
19.SU.26
KAD
Hotel Bravo
“Thanks for your help,” Doc Chambers said to the tall man sitting in the nondescript office in the underground Nexus of Hotel Bravo which Bill Pearce used.
“What would you do without me?” Kain Delacroix asked rhetorically with a barely perceivable hint of sarcasm.
Chambers smiled as he circled the desk and sat facing his old partner. “I manage to muddle through somehow.”
“My presence would seem to indicate otherwise,” Delacroix said flatly.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Dealing with the Devil, part 2
Lyta walked with barely more enthusiasm than a gallows prisoner and reminded herself that she’d wanted this. She’d sat in Doc Chambers’ office and asked, practically begged, for him to let her see Geddy. But now, as they descended into the under-levels of Hotel Bravo, she wanted nothing more than to bolt back to her room, lock the door, and stay there until she and Todd left for Junira Loresh.
She wanted to, but she wouldn’t. Lassanders went forward. Even into the arms of psychopathic madmen.
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Dealing with the Devil, part 1
19 Summer, 1926
Dr. Tomohiro Chambers' cigar extended its grey arm of ash ever further as he skimmed papers in front of him. “Preliminary Interrogation Report: Geddy Jay Gordon,” read the header. The contents were much as he’d expected: volatile; prone to digressions and extended metaphors, particularly those graphic or violent in nature; unprovoked outbursts of anger; and so on. His people had not been able to obtain much in terms of concrete data beyond what they’d known already, which was disappointing. Still, he had been in custody barely two days, and there was still plenty of time to get answers.
Chambers’ eyes lingered over the middle of the second page, a paragraph entitled “New Queen.” Geddy’s anecdotes repeatedly turned back towards a woman he described as his “new queen,” the woman who would replace his old, broken queen to sit at his side and rule the underworld. Chambers read through the description with increasing interest. The report strung together fragmentary references to Geddy’s “marble bride” with her “hair like gold needles, sharp enough to draw blood” and “eyes the blue of diamonds that glint out of the hard rock.” He referenced how fluidly she danced, “like a stream that flows in the riverbed, so calm and welcoming on the surface, while in the darkness it cuts gashes in the rock that holds it in its embrace.” Geddy spoke about how his queen would dance for him at court, how happy they would both be, how they would subdue anyone who stood in their path.
Doc Chambers let a fine stream of smoke curl up from his lips. It was obvious who Geddy was referring to. The question was what reaction she would provoke on Geddy, and how he could raise the topic with her now that her brother had turned down his request for employment.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: What Must Be Done
18 Summer, 1926
“You have to kill him.”
“I don’t have to do anything of the sort.”
Lyta held back a scowl. She’d suspected the Doc would be less than sympathetic to her petition. Still, he’d at least agreed to meet with her. She took a deep breath. “Look, if I’d had thirty more seconds back there before Delacroix grabbed him and drove off, Geddy would already be dead, and we wouldn’t need to have this conversation.”
The Doc steepled his hands over the small pile of papers on his desk. “But you didn’t, and so he is still alive. And in my custody.”
Monday, June 17, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Cackle Bladder Cock-Up
22:30 hours, 18 summer 1926
Detention cell 3, Hotel Bravo
Southern District, KAD
Friday, June 14, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Listening Ears
18 Summer, 1926
Kastin Hassan found her by practically tripping over her.
Lyta had been planning to go to the cafeteria after her conversation with Doc Chambers, to get an early breakfast and watch the sunrise from the oasis tower’s bay windows. That plan had broken down somewhere near the bottom of the staircase, and she’d sat with her head pressed up against the wall for the better part of an hour, her body hunched and her arms around her knees.
“Hey, watch where you’re—” Karin cut herself off mid-sentence as she saw what, or more precisely whom, she’d stumbled over. “Lyta,” she said softly.
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Who Cons the Con Men?
18 Summer, 1926
Lyta glared at the ceiling. Her head throbbed against the pillow, and the minimal light coming in through the windows hurt her eyes. But no matter how hard she tried to sleep, to shut out the world and everybody in it at least for a few hours, her mind refused to settle, and the ceiling taunted her by its continued presence.
She wanted to punch something. The ceiling seemed to be a canvas for the faces of everyone who’d wronged her recently: Kinross and Geddy and Jimmy and Virgil and all the rest of them. The adrenaline and the anger kept her awake, and her fists clenched and unclenched against the bedsheets. She almost welcomed the anger. If she was angry, she could forget that she was terrified.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Ignorance Ain't Bliss
“With all due respect, I don’t much like that they know I’m associated with you. What if they get it in their heads to use that information as leverage with the Doc?” Bill was shaking his head, his phone pressed hard to his ear. Just beyond his soundproof door, the Nexus was full of analysts trying to follow up leads and piece together what had happened and why.
“Would he believe them? It doesn’t matter. Lukas wouldn’t do anything so foolish. Besides, you’re now their handler. Bill. I can’t continue managing them; they’ve become too involved. Better you collate their data and send me what’s pertinent.” Renault’s voice was calm, as usual.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter VI: Motives
There was a knock on the door; it was soft and apologetic, and Tom wasn’t in the mood for things soft or apologetic. “Not now,” he said authoritatively and went back to concentrating on his 60-cycle-old scotch and a double magnum cigar he had been toiling at for nearly 45 minutes.
