To celebrate the release of LONELY SHORE, book two of the Chaos Station series, Kelly and I wanted to treat our readers to a fun short story set between books one and two. We hope you enjoy it! Stay tuned for part two tomorrow.
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Wenchang Station, 2269
It was just an average delivery job until the clown rolled by on a unicycle.
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Wenchang Station, 2269
It was just an average delivery job until the clown rolled by on a unicycle.
For
a second, Zed thought he’d hallucinated it. Alien poison was flowing through
his veins, after all, and God knew what form his mental degeneration would
eventually take. Hallucinations were a definite possibility. He’d never had a
particular thing for clowns—good or
bad—but hallucinations didn’t care, right?
He
breathed a sigh of relief when Flick muttered, “What the fuck.”
“I…do
not know.” Qek clicked, her broad, blue face smoothing as she tried to
understand what had just moved past them. “That…I have never seen such a thing
before.”
“Oh
my God, is the carnival today?” Ness
grabbed Elias’s arm, as if she were trying to stop herself from bouncing. Her
wild red curls vibrated with the aborted movement as the captain looked at her
with an expression stuck somewhere between amusement and confusion. “We’ve got
to check it out.”
Flick
narrowed his eyes. “Wait, what carnival?”
“The carnival.” Ness waited for them to
clue in, but even Zed was drawing a blank. “You guys seriously need to absorb
some culture at some point,” she said on a huff. “Wenchang Carnival. It’s a big
deal, used to happen twice a year? Ring a bell?”
That
sort of did tickle a memory, actually. “Before the war, right?”
“Yeah,
and this is the first one since the war ended. And we’re here while it’s on! I
always wanted to check it out.” Still holding Elias’s arm with one hand, she
gripped Qek’s with the other. “C’mon, Captain, you’re going to win Qek and I
some stuffed animals.”
“Oh…great.”
Though Elias’s voice was dry, his expression had slipped fully into the amused
side of things.
Zed
looked at Flick. Flick looked back. He couldn’t quite read his lover’s
expression. Were his brows lowered because he thought the carnival was stupid
or because he was trying to figure out how the ship’s doctor could be reduced
to an excited schoolgirl by the promise of cheap toys?
“You,
uh…” Zed shrugged as they trailed after the rest of the Chaos’s crew. “You want to check it out? I could try winning
something for you.”
“Or
maybe I’ll win something for you.”
“I
have better aim.”
“I
figure out angles.”
“I’m
stronger.”
“I’m
trickier.”
“Are
we seriously arguing about who’s going to win what?”
“Maybe.”
Flick eyed the colorful stalls that came into view as they rounded a corner.
“Want to make it interesting?”
Zed
couldn’t stop the smile that bloomed on his lips. He had a flash of what they’d
been like back at the Academy—always up for fun and games. “What, we’re
competing now?”
“Whoever
wins the most challenges—”
“Gets
the most toys?”
Flick
glared at him. “No. Whoever wins the most challenges gets to have the other
person do one thing for them.”
“Just
one?”
“Greedy
bastard. You in or out?”
Zed’s
grin widened. “Oh, I’m in.”
***
Catch Part Two of “Kiss
the Guardian” tomorrow on Here Be Magic!
LONELY SHORE, book 2 of the Chaos Station series, is out now!
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