A fun way to sample new books and find new writers! Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…
The luxury ship Nebula Dream has suffered a middle of the night catastrophe in space. My hero, Nick Jameson, has fought his way to the nearest lifeboat and found chaos.As he’s just about finished loading the lifeboat, businesswoman Mara Lyrae arrives, much to his relief. But she refuses to get on the lifeboat, as there are children in need of rescuing…after a brief argument, Nick sends the lifeboat on its way. He and Mara set out to rescue the children, accompanied by Khevan, a D’nvannae Brother (think bodyguard/assassin sworn to serve an alien goddess).
They’ve reached the family’s cabin and discovered a growing hull breach. This snippet is after the children have crawled to safety and Mara and Kevan have taken them into the main corridor. Nick fights his way through the collapsing debris tunnel, and out of the cabin, where he discovers the hull breach has worsened.
He heard Mara screaming at him to hurry. Raising his head, squinting against the grit and dust in the air, which was now practically at gale force, Nick realized the blast door was belatedly attempting to block off this section of the corridor. He was probably about ten yards from life or death.
He had to beat the ponderous door.
Khevan was attempting to delay the closure of the door, but powerful drive motors were inexorably shoving him aside. Still, his effort might buy Nick an extra second or two and make the difference.
“Run, Captain!” shouted the Brother, digging his feet into the carpet, back to the door, extending one hand toward Nick, “For your life!”
Maybe one or two snippets to finish this (and reveal the fate of Huntington the Bear) and then I’ll move onto something else. Thanks for all comments and feedback. Much appreciated!
The Story
Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.
All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.
But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?
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The Nebula Dreams reminds me of the Titanic in space. Sounds cool!
Thanks, Ed! The novel is actually loosely based on the Titanic sinking…
Tense situation, nice job cranking up the excitement!
Reblogged this on E J Frost and commented:
I visited all the SF blogs – great snippets and fun reading!
Thanks for reblogging – that’s very nice of you!
Run for your life got me. Cliff hanger.alert here.
Heart-pounding! Way to up the ante with this story.
This was another great part of the scene. I could picture everything so clearly and that made it more harrowing. Great job with that, Veronica 🙂
Nice action scene! It gives you a great sense of the chaos surrounding them.
The scene setting and the danger are so vivid in this snippet! Great work, Veronica.
I hope Nick makes it! Strong writing!
I’m shouting too – Run Captain!!
Love the suspense! Nice 8.
Trust you to yank at our heartstrings and then scare us half to death, Veronica! 😀
Yes, the action and danger is pretty much nonstop from here on out to the end of the novel…as a good disaster-movie type of book should be!
Wonderful excerpt from a great book.
Yikes, I hope he makes it. What a captivating snippet!!
oh my, this is tense! need to know more!!!
Arms pumping, legs digging in I can see him burst past that door…right author? Right?
Wow, talk about a nail-biter. Great snippet!
When running for your life, it’s best to be fast. 🙂
Love the tension in this snippet.
Fantastic tension! Your writing perfectly picks up the reading pace. 🙂
Wow, I’m on the edge of my seat! Fabulous snippet;).
What!!! After all that, going back, saving the kids, he has to make it! He just has too!!!
Funny that Ed mentioned the similarities to Titanic because I was thinking the same thing too 😛 I think it’s the high intensity scene combined with Nick’s chivalrous attitude (along with a sinking ship) that brings Jack to mind. You did a great job creating tension and making me care about characters I hardly know 🙂 Although if this is towards the end of the book and Nick dies, that would be awful D:
No worries, this is in the first third or so of the book and there are a lot more nail biting moments to come for Nick and his little band of survivors LOL. Thanks for the kind words!
Yikes! Run, run, run! Exciting snippet!
Definitely sitting on the edge of my seat. Run Nick, run! Terrific tension, great snippet.
Ah, you’re so good at ramping up the tension. One minute we’re worried about cute kids and a teddy bear, and the next it’s super-deadly-serious!
He’ll make it, right? Way to leave us on a cliffhanger, Veronica!
Tense scene. I like it. 🙂
That’s a real fight or flight moment!
I liked the life or death situation. Pretty intense!
Keep smiling,
Yawatta