Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Sophie From Shinola, Part 7

Over on Polybloggimous Nathan, Your friendly location manager, is up to no good. He invited me and others to a round robin challenge in which we all take turns writing a scene for a story. It's called Sophie from Shinola it's about a new space force cadet. Anywho I got Nathan's email telling me my turn was up. I couldn't respond because I had class and it got really late and I went to sleep (I know I am such a whimp). Hopefully this gets to everyone before the 24 hour deadline. BTW you seem like a crazy enough bunch of kids where do I sign up for UCF membership?

Here is a link to part 6 written by jeri but posted on nathan's site due to the internet breaking down (which is something that can so not happen).

Preface:
I picked up a thread started by shawn in Part 2 of the story. He mentions the imminent arrival of a sterilization fleet. I knew right away I had to do something with that. Luckily no one beat me to it. You'll notice that I take some hints from Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy in this scene. Plus I leave a thread wide open for the next writer. Hopefully she'll want to take it.

Sophie From Shinola, Part 7

The sterilization fleet gracefully descended into Chenolla VI’s orbit. The pulsating signal from the decaying beryllium mine lit up the useless and hollowed planet. The Space Force had a low tolerance for unproductive planets. They were given the chance to voluntarily secede from the interplanetary alliance however the petty humans responded with only pleas for compassion and understanding. Retched creatures! Their only desire is to suck upon the resources of the alliance. This cancerous parasite must be terminated.

Tactical officer Farthum Bardabuff’s multiple appendages deftly danced over the weapon’s console. The sentient being that had taken over this primitive life from used its superior intellect to simultaneously program the brain wave scanner and ready the ionic disrupters. The scanner was programmed to detect all single brained life forms and feed coordinates into the disruptor’s targeting actuators.

After the global scan was complete Farthum was ready to commence bombardment. But there was a problem. He would have to report this to the council. From the back of his head he secreted two putrid lips. Which conveniently cupped a com phone.

“Ah supreme councilor, please excuse this interruption, but there is a problem with one of the coordinates.”

“What is it?” a harsh voice responded

“I’ve detected a dual brained life form could be one of ours”

“Farthuuuum!!! Termination protocols clearly state to teleport all space force cadets to a duly designated vessel belonging to the sterilization fleet before commencing bombardment. You already know this so why are you bothering me during my skull rub?!”

“Uh councilor so sorry to inconvenience you there is a human in close proximity I wouldn’t want to bring it on board as well. At this distance the teleporter is not…precise.”

“Very well I authorize the use of precision force. Deploy the hunter seeker droid.”

the next part can be found at Michelle K.'s blog.

12 comments:

vince said...

Great job. I like the homage to Hitchiker's Guide a lot, and the fact that you picked up on a thread everyone else had so far ignored.

Random Michelle K said...

WAH! I'm up next!

(scurries away)

Nathan said...

Michelle,

Don't fear the reaper. (Just get more cowbell.)

I so wish I was writing the next part. Looking forward to yours.

Saqib, Great setup.

Random Michelle K said...

Saqib,

THANK YOU!

What you wrote fit with what I was wanting to write! Thanks for the perfect set-up!

Yippee!

(dances off to enjoy)

mattw said...

Good post. I'm trying to wrap my head around what those aliens look like. I imagine they're messy.

Unknown said...

*takes a bow*

thank you, thank you very much.

Nathan, If you ask my volleyball playmates they're not too fond of my setups! Luckily I fared better this time.

Matt, Yeah they're pretty messy. But I didn't have time to flesh them out entirely. For example how do they listen to replies over the com phone?

Random Michelle K said...

Easy. They're telepaths.

Unknown said...

I have a great idea when everything is said and done why not collect all the parts into one document (it can be really personalized with the author's name and URL before each part starts) and then email it out to participants as a keepsake?

I'll volunteer my feeble desktop publishing skilss.

Nathan said...

I want mine on some future-tech cube reader.

Anonymous said...

Gee whiz I am fresh out of cube readers. How's about a pdf?

Anonymous said...

This is great! I really like the new story thread and the Hitchiker's Guide humor you wove through your piece.

Your descriptions of the aliens were great too, nice touch with describing enough to establish an "ick" factor without telling us too much.

Great fun to follow up on!

Anonymous said...

You're up with part 23... enjoy!