Busy Days

Oh, it's been a busy last couple days, not at all helped by storms last night and a real inability to sleep. Then today I found that something I should have had days ago for work only now got to me -- just one of those things where it got lost in the email. Then a second of the same type of thing, but a different set of people. If the first hadn't seemed to get to no one on the list, I would have thought it a problem on my end. Instead, it was just one of those odd coincidences.

I have the first part of one done, none of the second done, and very little writing done for the day.

I did jump into the JulNoWriMo stuff a few days ago, just as something fun. I wish I had more time to drop into writing and run with it, but I'm still doing okay. I have not added yesterday's count yet because of the storms.

With luck, I'll get a bit more done tonight.

Here is a little bit from Draw the Line. Yes, it is still moving along. Doing quite well, in fact. I've added quite a few outline notes to the end and I'm working my way through them. It's helping to focus the story again. In this, Etinon is an alien and only recently came to be in human company so much. The Norishi are another group of aliens who are acting quite oddly at the moment. (I have not reworked the Ksa lines to take out the p,b and m sounds. I'm looking at a new way to indicate this, like a replacement of one letter with another. I think it might make it easier to read.)



Morgan, Ritter and Ardhi left, leaving Rafe, Etinon and Doc behind. Doc stood at the edge of the door, looking worried. "If there is trouble, I'll treat the injured elsewhere -- we'll say it is specifically because no one should be around you --"

"I could go to my room," Rafe suggested.

"No. Stay here where the others can come without being too obvious, and where you are closer to the control stations. Everyone is staying close, you know. It doesn't look odd, especially since you spend so much time here already."

"You can trust me, you know."

"No, I can't," Doc said. Rafe saw the way Etinon looked shocked by the words. "I cannot trust you to take care of yourself. And I can't trust others -- except Etinon, Morgan and Ardhi -- to keep watch over you. They may not be enough if the Norishi come in for you."

"If they come for me -- if they really come in fighting -- then I need to go with them."

"No," Etinon said. He should have realized that Etinon would be a problem in this. He looked back at his guard, ready to argue the situation, but Etinon leaned down and looked him straight in the face, startling him. "No. You will not go with the Norishi. They do not hold honor with prisoners."

"You know this?" Rafael asked.

"They kill all prisoners they take, unless they happen to be important females of the race. They may want you because they think you are important and a link to the station. That would, perhaps, save you for a while. Or they may have decided that a male link to the station is something they must destroy. You will not go with them."

"I need to talk to Neva and make certain no one surrenders," Doc said. He hurried out to the comm equipment.

"That's something we needed to know. Humans will sometimes surrender if they think that continuing a battle will lead to inevitable destruction, or that it might harm others."

"It is so?" he said. "Then good that they know it is not an answer."

"Yes," Rafe replied. He looked back at the computer. "Let's see if we can figure out anything else in this information."

Etinon nodded and moved closer. Rafe waved him toward the chair.

"It is not proper for a guard to sit."

"There are things that are far more important going on than you guarding me, Etinon. It's not that I don't appreciate your work, but we need your help to save others. That's more important."

"You do not understand your own importance."

"Then explain it to me -- but it had better be good to make my life worth risking the lives of others rather than help me find answers."

Etinon blinked several times. Then he looked at the chair. It took him a moment, but he finally took hold of it and pulled it over. He sat down, stood, moved it again, and sat down once more.

"None can get past me to reach you," he said with a nod. "Let us see what we can learn."