Sword and Spaceship #wewriwar

wewriwa
Welcome to weekend writing warriors. Many fine authors, and me, contribute short snippets for your delectation.

I was getting a bit stuck with Regency fiction, and decided to try hard SF. Swords and spaceships, no rayguns (yet), but plenty of action and as long as I’m logically consistent I don’t have to worry about historical accuracy

It seems to be working, the words are (so far) flying off my fingers (I crossed 61k last night) and into the book.

In any case, here’s the start – a new midshipman is having her first session of weapons training on her first ship. Her instructor is not exactly impressed. Last week’s snippet skips ahead a few paragraphs from the one before. It’s after she’s finished her training for the day. The discussion of Scotland from before is replaced by the ceremonies for the first jump of the mission. The initiation ceremony continues this week.

I’ve decided to skip ahead and move to the start of more action. Serapis is about to jump near a new (to us humans) star and explore it. Terry takes her station.


Terry threw her kit bag through the hatch, “Secure it!” She grabbed the two handholds at the top and flung herself feet first through the opening. Without looking at the crew, she slithered through the hatch to the pilot’s seat.
She scanned the lights as she snapped herself in, “All green,” She relaxed; just like the simulator … and the practice ship back … home.

“Are you certain, Sir?”

Terry felt her chest tighten, “Ames?”

“Chief Ames, Sir, Please check again, I’d like to get home to my family when the mission’s over; there’s time.”

Terry carefully checked each gauge, each light, each switch, “In order, ready to secure the port.”

“Securing the port,” Ames called.


Between a scout trip (Cheaha state park in Alabama, 7 miles of being sweep) and various personal diversions (none serious, but all time consuming), I’ve been remiss. Something like this friendly lizard, waiting for it to warm up enough to move.

An alligator resting in the spring sun. Still glad I used a 600mm lens to get the picture. They can outrun you over short distances, which is all that matters.

One of the problems with SF is coming up with good aliens, and even worse good names for them. So far I’ve been using place holders like <1> or <2>. Easy to replace with a global search and replace once I’ve figured out what to put there. The nasty aliens in this work use numbers, so it’s not too hard to name them. It’s the neutral and more or less good ones that are hard. What do you call an insectoid doctor, or a slightly insane piratical biped who looks to human eyes much like his jilted fiance? Or for that matter the fiance?


I’ve put up a couple of things on instafreebie. The first is a short story, To Court a Dragon.

The second is the start of a science fiction story in the same universe as Cynthia the Invincible, but set in 1893 Dartmoor, The Curious Case of Miss James. It’s available on Amazon.

The Art of Deception, first in a series of late Georgian/early Regency spy novels is now up.. You can get the first part here.

You can find my work here.

Author: Amelia

A mild-mannered professor of computer science in real-life, I remove my glasses in the evening to become, well, a mild-mannered author in my alternate reality. I mostly write sweet romantic fiction, although with an occasional science-fiction or paranormal angle thrown in. I have interests in history, mathematics (D'oh), and cryptography. I'm also something of an Anglophile, and know that country pretty well. In addition to writing, research, and more writing, I volunteer with the scouts. I'm something of a nature-nut, enjoying long walks in the country with almost ultra-light gear, boating, and identifying wildlife.

19 thoughts on “Sword and Spaceship #wewriwar”

  1. Great foreshadowing of possible problems. It’s interesting, too, that you compare yourself to an alligator. Put on my psychology hat (the degree I never used), I’ll have to ponder what that says about you. 😉

    1. Thank you. The Alligator’s sort of apt – I get stuck in the mud more than I’d like, but they’re one of the great survivors – predate the dinosaurs and still kicking.

  2. Had the Chief spotted that she’d missed something or just worried because she was so quick? As she’s new to this I guess the latter is reasonable.

    Names are important to me. I can’t get far even with placeholders until I’ve settled on the right names for people and places. I haven’t had to worry about aliens as yet because humanity hasn’t come across any in my stories.

    1. I’m having trouble connecting to your blog. I get the following from mozilla.

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  3. One can never be too careful, but I’m surprised she was so confident since she’s new – however it does provide a good opportunity for foreshadowing. I usualy find alien names just pop into my head (although I have been known to create one by virtue of a typo! 🙂 Love the picture of the alligator too, a magnificent specimen but I wouldn’t want one for a pet! 🙂

  4. Love the action and tension of this scene. Like Hywela, my alien names just pop into my head. One thing I learned in my first sci-fi romance, make sure you can pronounce the name. LOL When I revised the book, I changed some names that readers complained about.

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