Saturday, February 20, 2010

Artist Contest

I am announcing a contest for the Characters and a second for the cover art for this book and it's series.

I am preparing descriptions of the main characters for all of those interested and for the month of March you'll be able to submit entries for the contest. All artists will have their fan work posted to the Facebook page and linked back to any medium they chose, but the winners of the contest will be posted here to the blog.

I'm excited to see what everyone will do.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Pride before the fall...

The week passed quickly, one day blended into the next before anyone realized it, it was time for the exit calls and the dignitaries to begin their departure. Parin was relieved the week passed without incident, but remained skeptical until the last one left. He then spoke to Anazlyn and they both went to the shipyard to speak with Sarket Stikle. Anazlyn’s temporary guard, a woman, stayed close to her through the walk to the Sarket’s office, so close that Parin thought she might have tried to join herself to his sister. “You and Jep can wait outside when we go in.” The young guard fell back a step until she was in line with Jep. She acknowledged Parin and proceeded to watch the area as they walked. After they exited the lift and walked to the Sarket’s office the guards stood outside at post.

The Sarket was waiting when they entered. He greeted them and encouraged them ot sit. Parin walked next to and stood with his sister until she sat. Once Anazlyn was seated, he also took a seat. “We need to get some information Sarket.”

“Of course Konair. What can I do to assist you both?”

“We require the complete schematics to the new ship as well as the one the Konair was on.” Parin looked over at the Sarket calmly, speaking in every serious and even tones. “We require this so we can address some specific issues.”

“Certainly Konair.” He nods and contacts the assistant and request he deliver the schematics for both ships. Then he looked at the Sonteria. “It is nice to see you visit your highness.”

“Thank you Sarket.” She waited patiently not wanting to speak much, considering the information they have received thus far, some of the data she was uncertain of. It was the hope that the schematics would clarify details and make the information more clear to everyone.

“Sonteria, you do not visit as often any longer.”

“No Sarket, I have other responsibilities, my brother handles the ship yard resources now.”

Parin looks over his shoulder as the junior walks in with the schematics. “Thank you.” The man bows slightly, makes eye contact with the Sonteria, bowing slightly lower before he departed without a word. “Sarket thank you for meeting with us and providing the requested.” He then lifted the data tablet indicating what he spoke of.  He stands and turns to his sister who does the same.

“Certainly Konair. It is my pleasure to serve our people.” The Sarket stands and walks with them as they exited the room, and entered the lift to depart with their guards. He stands watching it move a moment then he returned to his office.

Parin turned to his sister and handed her the data tablet. “You know this stuff better than I do.” He chuckled as he said it. “I didn’t study ship construction…doesn’t really interest me either.”

Anazlyn smiled, accepted the data tablet and started to review the data held within. “No that was both an assignment and a hobby for me. The ships fascinate me.” She becomes engrossed in what she is looking at and the guards walk with them, leading the way. As they cross the open area of the building, she took a quick look up at the construction of the new ship and design, impressed by how well everyone worked together.  Suddenly she hears a noise, and then is pushed hard to the floor as the sound of a directed energy weapon is heard above her head. She looked back to see that Jep was hit, her guard kept her low and started to move her. The crouched low through the room, hiding behind different locations, boxes and shielded spots along the way.

Analyzn and Parin crawled through the room and area with her guard looking for the opportunity to return fire and draw the attention of the assailant, who remained under cover and unseen. They moved behind one box which appeared to be a safe distance from where the current barrage was coming from. This box ignited, throwing the Sonteria and Konair across the room, hitting against the far wall, she slumped to the ground, looks at her little brother who was obviously not conscience, she rubbed her head, then realized she was bleeding from the head. She looked over to see her guard firing at the assailant, and the Sarket’s assistant rushed to her side with the medic. The two of them started to work on her, and tend to Parin. She waited until they stopped the bleeding, then she looked right into the eyes of the medic. “Give me your weapon.”

“Sonteria, you can’t be considering going out there. You’re badly injured and you’re brother is not responding to very quickly.”

“Give me your weapon.”

The medic stared at her a moment longer than realized the futility of his arguments, and relented the weapon to her. He administered a pain reliever and moved to Parin’s side while he was prepped and moved onto the mobile bed.

Anazlyn stood, slowly, ignoring the pain, as she muttered. “I’ll be damned if this person is going to take my brothers from me and not pay for it. “ She moved to the side of her guard still in the fight. She took a quick look around realizing that the security response teams were involved on various levels trying to get the assailant to move, but he was ignoring their efforts and avoiding them as they got close. She knew this approach wasn’t going to work as he continued to fire on the location she and Parin were thrown. “Jesinka…I’ll move around to the side and draw fire you, move in toward him once I do. He’s ignoring the other guards who are firing from the higher levels. He has an obvious target.”

Jesinka spoke in a hushed voice. “Your highness that obvious target is you and Parin. It is my job to protect you. You can’t be allowed to change that.”

“That’s fine, then follow my instructions and let’s catch this person so he can’t repeat.” Before Jesinka could protest further,  Anazlyn moved into the open and fired directly at the location the energy blasts were coming from. She set her weapon on a steady stream not letting the assailant get an easy shot. Her accuracy was flawless and she moved quickly behind cover in a new direction. When she had to shut down the beam to avoid over load, she slid behind a steel drum, heart in her throat. She listened intently as footsteps from above started to move faster, and several moments later many of the security guards were at her side. “No back off. I need to deal with this. I am the target, I’ll keep him busy you catch him. “

The ranking officer turned to her in a serious tone. “Don’t ever go out in front of someone like that again. Sonteria or not that was just stupid.”

Anazlyn stared at him in disbelief a moment. “I did what had to be done to draw fire from them moving my brother to safety. “

“No. You did something stupid. “ He ducked up and fired at the incoming assault, then dropped back down and gave his team orders. Once they moved out, he turned to the Sonteria. “I will remain to keep you from doing that again.”

Analyzn rolled her eyes, and stood, aimed and fired clearly at the assailant, and could hear the weapon drop to the ground and a man cry out from a distance. She smirked, turned to the security officer. “One step down, now we need to catch him.”

“You may be a good shot Sonteria, you just don’t have experience fighting. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way.” As he spoke he moved with her in a crouched manner around the outside of the room, toward where they heard the scream and last saw the weapons fire come from.

“I will do what seems to make the most sense in the moment it makes sense.” She followed him, mimicking his movements which enabled her to avoid being seen.

As they arrived under the level the assailant was last at, she could hear the movements of his team above them. “What did you order them to do?”

“Capture and take him to the brig. Then to tell the medic we’d require his assistance there in.”

Just then they both heard the worst sound they could have. One guard screamed. “He’s gone and so is his weapon.”


The commanding officer barrels up the nearby stairs. “What do you mean he’s gone?!?”

Anazlyn follows closely but can’t nearly keep up with him. When she arrived to the same location, the team was informing their commander about what had occurred. She listened to them, then looked at the commander, calmly she said “I need to go to the med bay. Now would be good.” Then she simply fell unconscious. When she woke hours later in the med bay, Parin was on the bed next to her.  She did what she could manage to get the attention of a nurse, and then she asked what happened. The nurse mentioned to her that her injuries had caught up with her and she could no longer continue to overexert herself.  She then laid back on the bed and asked how she arrived. The nurse told her that Commander Lak brought her in and that he waited until she was stable before he left.  “Thank you. How is my brother and have you notified betrothed? “ The nurse said that notifications have been made and then she left to get the doctor.

“Sonteria.” The doctor began when he arrived. “ I am surprised you are awake so quickly.”

Anazlyn turned her head to look at him. “I do that kinda thing. How is he?”

“The Konair has a rather serious concussion…as do you Sonteria.” The Doctor’s tone was cautious and carefully selected. “He may be out of it for several days, and you should also rest.”

She moved to sit up again, and he encouraged her not to. “But Doctor, I can’t just lay here. “

“You will not Sonteria. You are being moved shortly, to the palace where you will be safe.”

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A frightening Discovery

Anazlyn found herself in a room, cold and exhausted.  She was almost angry.  Anyone would press the power to the point of shutdown after so many warnings.  She stood from her desk chair and walked to collect more data tablets.  Then she walked across the room and sat in front of the old fireplace instead of her office.

Sitting in the large she sat in one of the old large chairs in the darkness.  Just a few moments before her thoughts were disturbed by a knock at the door. “Come.”

Jerrik and Jackson walk in with grim expressions on their faces.  Jerrik began “I, no we hope you are well.” She nods, he looks over to Jackson who walks out of the room briefly.  “We have news, Sonteria.”

“What is going on?” Anazlyn moved her hands around the data tablets absently clutching them, concerned by what is about to be shared.

“Jackson and I have reason to believe the engineer of the war….works in the Palace.”

Jackson walks back in carrying wood from the fallen trees, and puts it into the fireplace. As he worked to  get the fire started he spoke to her. “The ship had a cascade failure caused by an intermittent interruption in the plasma stream on the ship. “

“Alright, but gentlemen, as my limited understanding goes, that could be caused by anything.”

Jerrik pulled out the guard’s medallion and dangled it before her. “This is the correct size to have created the exact pattern of feedback in the plasma field.”

She looked at it curiously, trying to recall how many positions used that medallion. “Jerrik there are only….a hundred people in the palace given that medallion or one like it. You did tests and simulations to confirm this is the exact item?”

As the fire started, Jackson stood and walked to her. “Sonteria, there has been numerous variations on the testing and simulations, this is the only thing that could have interrupted the stream and caused the damage that was done.”

She looked at Jerrik’s medallion as he put it back in. “Mr. Jackson, the majority of the people who carry that medallion are personal guard, and personal staff. That means someone close betrayed my brother."