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Lay by your Pleading, Law lyes a-bleeding -The Power (or Dominion) of the Sword, ballad from the English Civil War My spine is buzzing, driving a chill through my body even inside the sauna-like environment of the cockpit. I can’t shake the whisper of foreboding in the back of my head that...

The first thing I notice as my wits return is the clinging, rapidly-cooling dampness of my pants where the piss-soaked fabric is pressing up against my skin. At some point of my pathetic, begging collapse I’d dropped onto my knees. I don’t remember doing it, but it fits with who I am. Crumpling...

I swallow and try to buy some time to think before so thoroughly putting myself at someone else’s mercy. Being held at gunpoint is bad enough. Being held at gunpoint with no weapons of my own at-hand? That’s the end of things right there! “I’m flattered and you’re gorgeous, but I’m not actually...

I’m pooped. After dealing with most of the crew in the hold via boring-old button-press instead of anything more heart-racing, I still had to send messages to the other dropship behind us and DuPont aboard the Ravager that a vote had been held and we were returning to Gronholt to ‘punish’ the...

The radioman backs down and sends no message to the other dropship. Learning their lesson, the others on the bridge stop trying to engage me in any kind of conversation and keep a single-minded, almost impressive, focus on their screens. The next twenty minutes pass with an agonizing slowness...

“Ah, m’lady! I burned us into a stable orbit. The Captain’s Chair awaits your posterior and we await your orders!” Brevers greets when I pass-through the door into the bridge itself. His sheer perkiness and energy are a bit annoying, but they fade a bit as he continues, “If I can ask, what...

'Tis not in season, to talk of Reason Or call it Legal, when the Sword will have it Treason -The Power (or Dominion) of the Sword, ballad from the English Civil War Speaking with the Leftenant-Colonel through a final warning of impending liftoff and a countdown convinced me that his...

The play-act is the only thing that spares me from wilting under the small sea of faces that glare at me in open hatred before moving to the boy at my side. They move back. Somewhere along the journey, most of them grow into confused hatred. After another moment, there’s a palpable shift between...

“Are you all right?” I very belatedly ask. Half because I really am concerned, and half out of some futile effort to make him put what he’d overheard out of his mind. Maybe I didn’t just screw myself. If I had and got torn apart by the slaves or something…Well, maybe it was worth it? When the...

I cross the room and remove the blindfold from the kid strapped onto Arthur’s bunk. He’s not as young as I’d figured at first. Despite lingering baby-fat in his cheeks, his eyes and bridge of his nose make him look closer to being in his early-teens than anything else. Arthur had probably gone...

I dive at the man arms-first, trying to close the distance and get some use from the only weapons I’ve got left before he manages to hit me again. My left hand gets redirected by his right, but my nails shave a brilliant-red slice into the skin of his forearm in the process. My right hand fares...

I’m brought off my feet and Arthur heaves me backwards. Instincts from taking falls kick in and I twist as much as I can so my butt, right shoulder, and the rest of my arm can slap against the wall behind me before the back of my head does the same. It helps, some. I still whack against the...

And makes a 'Prentice free in spight of his Indentures. -The Power (or Dominion) of the Sword, ballad from the English Civil War I swallow and hesitate before the door. There’s still time to back off! If I about-face and walk away, it’d be like nothing happened and I can get on with the...

It venters, it enters, it circles, it centers, -The Power (or Dominion) of the Sword, ballad from the English Civil War I shudder underneath the white overcoat Sarah had brought me when I got out of my Banshee after the cooler outside air had ceased to be refreshing and started to be...

Because I kind've hate cliffhangers myself...

“Here comes the Baron and his men, boss-lady.” Arthur says, taking a few steps to bring his Shadow Hawk around ninety degrees to put the road the convoy is approaching on directly in his line-of-fire. I fight down a frustrated growl. The damn hip assembly being out on the thing seriously...

The jumps through the uninhabited space between Tortuga and the Rimward-sections of the Federated Suns ‘Outback’ had been an exercise in boredom for much of the crew. After a few of the jumps I was beginning to understand why someone might come to view it as routine…But I still hadn’t caught on...

I’m falling, dropping down ass-first in that endless, ear-whistling, moment-before-hitting-the-ground that comes whenever I trip myself up. Air sings past my ears and pushes around my sides as I drop, and I can only imagine the fading, tin-whistle sound effect from old Wile E. Coyote and the...

Space is beautiful. I stare at my room’s display and try not to cry. Tortuga is just beginning to fade into the distance behind us, but my eyes still track back to it where it should be as a central focus-point for the wheel of stars around it. I dreamed of going to space since I was young—on...

This fits a Lay-man to preach and pray man, 'Tis this can make a Lord of him that was a Drayman; -The Power (or Dominion) of the Sword, ballad from the English Civil War “Silence the lot of you! Or you’ll be tossed out after the engines light and we’ll watch you roast while we leave for...