《The Survivor》News flash
Advertisement
It's been a year since the Corvalax Industries Starliner: Serindipity vanished, without a trace just after their initial extra-orbital burn. Six hours after departure, the crew that was supposed to be trained to handle the newest Corvalax Starliner were found deceased in the waiting room when the next Starliner docked.
The news producers handed me everything that hadn't been redacted from the initial investigation so I could go over it for the anneversary special. It's a rough read.
"Beth, you ready?" Steven, my producer, yells out.
"As soon as Trinity finishes my hair." I call out. With it being an outdoor broadcast, my personal stylist is taking her time to make sure the style can stand up to the costal winds.
"It's a far cry from your usual style, but I think this should work." Trinity tells me as she turns my chair to look in the mirror. She braided my hair from my temples, to the thick bun on the back of my head, and did a good job of hiding how long my hair really was.
"It looks regal. I like it." I said to her as the sun glinted off my auburn hair, hiding the plethora of bobby pins I know she must have used to accomplish the look.
I walked over, in the middle of the six cameras that will be recording my report. It took me a few seconds to get my nerves under control, and I looked up at Steven. I was ready. His hand counted down, then pointed at me, and my report began just as Orbital Port 4's main ring crested the horizon over the ocean.
"good evening. I am Elizabeth Fern, with channel 8 news; bringing you a special report. One year ago today, Corvalax Industries' newest Starliner went missing with nine thousand eight hundred seven passengers on board. Her designated crew had been found still on board the Orbital Port six hours later when the next Starliner used that docking ring. On board were some of..."
Advertisement
A loud thunderclap resounded in the air, making me loose composure for a brief second. I turn around, and see something falling, and it's massive. "Cameras, zoom in on that." I point, and hear the cameras move to face that direction. One of the cameras display an image on the sidewalk at my feet of what it's seeing. My eyes go wide.
"Steven, camera six, now." I yell, "camera four, on me." I wait for the camera's lens to focus, and I start talking again. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you are near Ponder Sound; take cover, go to your storm shelters, away from the water. Starliner Serindipity has been found, and appears to be on a direct impact course with the sound."
I turn and watch the screen of camera six, keeping the ship in its view, watching the hulking mass plummet toward the water below. Static begins to interfere with camera six, and I order the remaining cameras to focus on the ship as well.
as I stood there, mesmerized by the falling ship, audio came over the camera's general communications system.
"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Power failure, and life-support failure. Alert emergency agencies, I'm trying to aim for water, but controls are sporadic." It was a woman's voice, one I thought I recognized, but wasn't sure.
"Please, goddess, let me not kill anyone today, let me get this thing on the surface safely." The voice said through my cameras again.
I called the port authority, and relayed the two messages to them; and they confirmed that it was broadcast through every object that could receive general transmissions; in other words, every electronic device in the broadcast range heard it.
"Steven, can we set a beam toward it?"
"I can try." I see him take out a different broadcast antenna, connect it to a booste, and put a splitter on my microphone receiver, then points at me.
Advertisement
"Serindipity, this is Elizabeth Fern, with channel 8; you've been heard." I broadcast.
"Thank the goddess, I'm not sure where I'm going down, I don't want to hurt anyone." The woman's voice calls.
"tell her to try to fire the main forward thrusters for as long as she can." An older man says as he walks up. "She is facing the right direction, it will push her further from shore, and reduce injuries when the wave makes landfall."
"Serindipity, can you fire the main thrusters? Burn the last of the fuel with them if you can."
The large thrusters produce a beautiful orange light as they come to life, and for a brief second, the ship seems to shift further out to sea. After ten seconds; they shut off.
"That's all the fuel Miss Fern." She says. I look over at Steven, and he rolls his hand to tell me to ask questions, keep the girl talking.
"What is your name?" I ask.
"Ash...Trillion Biggs." She tells me.
"Where has the ship been for the last year?"
"Year? It's only been a year?" She was silent for a second, before her voice came back across. "I'm afraid." She whispered; and I heard her pray again. "My dear goddess, take my fear, let me harness it, let it work for me. Help me keep these people safe, show me what to do."
just as her prayer finished, I was told by the uniformed man to ask how many survivors were onboard.
"I'm the last." She said through tears. The uniformed man took my microphone from me, and spoke to her.
"Trillion, get to an escape pod. You've done good, you won't hurt as many people now, but we need you alive. Get to an escape pod."
"I can't. They are all gone." She inhaled deeply, and continued. "I recognize the shoreline; this is Ponder Sound. I'm aiming for Davidson's Bar. I say again, I'm going down over Davidson's Bar."
the uniformed man began shouting into his communicator with her last statement, and began giving orders for rescue equipment that would be needed.
"goddess protect me." She said as the massive hulk slammed into the water's surface.
"Miss Fern; with me." The uniformed man yelled, as he and Steven grabbed all but camera one and six. I grabbed camera six, leaving one to watch the wave hit the shore. The seven hundred dollar camera would be lost, but we would get the shot.
Advertisement
- In Serial60 Chapters
Tides of Time
One moment Elvie Harper is playing along a beautiful beach in Australia, the next she is lying on a cobblestone street in 1930s London. Except this London is different... it is part of a world with magic. Thrown into a world with different rules, Elvie desperately hopes to learn magic to make her way back to the future. But the road for a magician is never a simple one, and the politics and intrigues of the 1930s have the world on edge. There are things stirring in the darkness, and those who seek power amongst chaos. What hope does one girl have in such a world?
8 209 - In Serial35 Chapters
A Hardness of Minds
(35 Chapters >70,000 words, edited version available on Amazon) A Near-Future Hard Sci-Fi about Data, War, and First Contact in our Solar System. Life exists under Europa’s ice, but there’s doubt in the data. Against of backdrop of escalating tensions, double-sided revelations of first contact ripple through all involved as the probe attempts the first landing on the ice of Europa. The novel intertwines perspectives of Earth and under Europa as all struggle for truth. For fifteen years, the Europa Clipper has hinted at life under the ice-shell of Europa. An eccentric mogul, bent on expanding his legacy—funds and launches the first privately funded probe to Jupiter. The robotic submarine can reach the ocean floor and returning by an expertly trained AI. Tensions flare between the United States and China, while cyberattack threatens the project. Meanwhile, Dalton, a self-sabotaging synthetic data engineer, longs to make a name for himself in the scientific community, even at the cost of being infamous. Unknown to Earth, alien society has penetrated up the kilometers of ice, and has long researched ‘Nullworld,’ the mysterious ‘ether’ beyond the ice from which no sonar returns. Tensions in their global society have escalated as their city-state fights with a neighbor whose hydrothermal vent has run cold. Now the military caste is in control, halted all research, and pressed capable scientists and engineers into militia service. The alien scientist must escape and bring back research he hopes will diffuse tensions: the revelation of another water world. This is the second hard sci-fi novel by author Eric Kay (No Lack of Sunshine). It explores issues of data integrity in the age of adversarial information warfare, moving minds away from the brink of war, and experience versus knowledge by proxy.
8 113 - In Serial19 Chapters
Veiled
Sixteen-year-old Desirae Cradle knows how to survive in the human world, but knowing and doing are two different things. Until her mother disappeared under questionable circumstances, Desirae lived as part of a magical community kept secret from humans for more than 4,000 years. But not all of Desirae's people live on Earth. Some live in the Otherworld, exiled there after an ancient war. They are known as the Faye and still seek a way back to Earth. With feelings of abandonment, and no other family among her kind, Desirae makes her way in the human world using the only skill she has-knowing how to cross between Earth and Otherworld. But when a crossing goes bad, Desirae has to do something she swore she never would - go back home. Determined to not only fix her mistake but to mend old friendships, Desirae returns to the community she abandoned. But the Faye are after more than she thought. With lingering questions about what really happened to her mother and the discovery that her friends have changed even more than she has, Desirae finds that stopping the Faye and regaining her friend's trust might not be as easy as she hoped. This is a completed work, approx 75,000 words. I’m just editing chapter by chapter and posting as I finish them.
8 186 - In Serial165 Chapters
The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes
For Karel, the search for power erodes the sense of mercy. When a bug traps players in a new, immersive VRMMO, and begins to undermine the system that protects them from experiencing pain in combat, the players scramble to avoid becoming victimised. Some seek to hide or gain protection in Guilds, others seek power at all costs. Rumours of torture and possibly even real death begin to spread. Many would-be heroes strive to protect themselves and others by becoming powerful mages, mastering the power of the elements, or training at combat with large weapons. While Karel had begun by trying to enhance his mage powers as far as possible, he eventually becomes disillusioned with this as he sees the power of others who use unconventional and amoral means to take advantage of the bugged game. As he explores this new, Free-For-All world, he must turn to cunning and ruthlessness to get ahead.
8.18 215 - In Serial41 Chapters
The Legacy { Blackpink × Bangtan } ✔
Four teens who are united by fate are sent back home to Mount Olympus to their legendary Greek god parents.LiskookJirose ~This story is somehow in a way of a dialogue type of fanfic between two or more person.
8 479 - In Serial110 Chapters
BLOODTHIRSTY
He was a sinner even before he was born. A sin that he couldn't be forgiven for. A sin he couldn't be held accountable for. No matter how hard his parents begged, no matter how hard they tried to keep their son safe. Their only option was to hide him. In the process not knowing what kind of monster they had created. They had no idea what kind of evil he held within him. On top of that he realised that a mere human was his only way to sanity. -- "I expected you to run human? Or hear you scream. Why aren't you running?" The smile got replaced with a frown. He looked disappointed. "Why aren't you screaming human?" His eyes turned black and he looked more terrifying than he did before."Y-you won't hurt me."The story is completely made up, the angels and the demons are not the same as in other religions. I have made up a whole different story about the Gods in this book. So be aware.
8 264

