Got another piece of Tyche’s Flight for you today. In last week’s piece you saw a glimmer of Hope; this week, you get full and unfiltered Hope. She’s the Tyche’s Engineer, and she’s the best there is — even with the price on her head. Yeah yeah, first draft, but let me know what you think. “Nate—” “Captain.” “Nate, you said two weeks—” “I said a week, maybe two—” “It’s been two days!” She jerked an angry arm at the exposed machinery on one of the fusion drives, the cowl stacked up against the opposite wall. Wires. Pipes. A little smoke — now where the hell was that coming from, that wasn’t supposed to happen — and above it all, the status panel. Not enough lights green, too many red. “I took her apart because I had two weeks!” “A week!” “It’s been two days!” Read More …

Today’s #RichardWrites is a slice of Tyche’s Flight. This is the first time you meet the Tyche’s Helm, Elspeth Roussel. Best starship pilot you’ve ever met, and she’ll tell you that straight. You know the music: first draft, but let me know what you think. Elspeth Roussel sat in the Helm’s chair — her chair — on the Tyche’s bridge. It wasn’t much of a bridge, not like what she was used to from her days flying frigates for the Empire, but the captain had given her a paying job and didn’t mind that she’d flown for the losing side. And she was still Helm of something. Even a small lifter like the Tyche. She reached out a hand to the console in front of her, kept clean despite the age of it. “My good girl,” she said. “What was that?” Hope’s voice came Read More …

More Tyche’s Flight (?) today — this one’s a little farther on from last week’s sample. Standard disclaimers of doom apply: first draft, looks like a jar of pickled sphincters, but I’d still love to know what you think. He kept up his saunter. No need to spoil the effect as he approached the finish line. He ducked into the doorway next to her. “Hi.” “Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s not,” he said. He leaned into the alcove, a crook that felt like it was tailor-made for just this kind of conversation. “We haven’t discussed terms. We haven’t discussed where we’re going. The most important thing we haven’t discussed,” and here he paused as a particularly loud fusillade of plasma fire from down the street cut him off, “how on Earth, her mighty heavens, the stars we travel across, and the senate Read More …

I thought I’d share with you all a little sample of Tyche’s Flight ? This is first draft stuff, real rough? Let me know what you think ? He would always remember the first time she lied to him. Nate was sitting in a spacer bar — not that it had signs up saying Spacer Bar or Drunk Crew Welcome. It was the way it smelled more than anything, old engine oil overlaid with that unmistakable tang of ozone that came from working heavy machines or plasma cannons. Beer, vat-grown because out here that was the best way to get good results; you never knew what strain of modified soy was being used on-planet for your drink. The smell of sweat, and sometimes, of anger. That last was typical. Drunk Crew Welcome wasn’t always a good thing. “Captain Chevell,” said the man across from Read More …