Sunday, November 02, 2008

NaNo Day 1: 5515



No, not as good as I usually do -- but I did say I would be starting out slow this month since Russ is home. We spent a good amount of time together today. It was a lot of fun!

The story is going okay. I think when I get some time to sit down with it, I'll do better. But here is a snippet off the start -- remember, this is first draft!

Felicia had gone to sleep dreaming of adventure. She closed her eyes
before the sealed the pod over her, not wanting to see, and experience, the
small space in which she would exist.. for a long time. There was no
telling when or where she would awake again. Somewhere far away from
Earth. Somewhere that she and the two thousand others would go to start a
new life, a new colony.

She would miss some people. She knew it
now, even though she had denied any such feelings over the last few years while
she trained and prepared. Felicia wondered what the others thought and
what they would miss. Swimming in the ocean? Standing in the
mountains and watching the clouds sweep by below?

The sound of dogs
barking?

She calmed herself again, taking long breaths. It
wasn't that she didn't want to stay. It wasn't that she would have changed
her mind, but for one aching moment, she understood all that she had given up
for this.

The Inhibitors were starting to kick in. She could no
longer feel her legs. Her fingers were starting to go next. Her
heart would stop before her mind did. She had taken inhibitors twice
already to make certain she would survive them. It didn't frighten her the
way it had, that first time, and not knowing if she would awake again.
About a third of the people never did. They didn't know
why.

So many things she should have done. So
many...

Leaving Earth. She felt a little shiver then, knowing
they were never coming home. Going....

And she went to
sleep.



The first few breaths were like coming
up from drowning. She coughed, thoughts swirling. She gagged a little at
the metallic taste of drugs and nanobots clearing the inhibitors out of her
system. She knew what was happening even when she didn't really focus on the
why.

She was waking up. Another world. They had
reached -- somewhere. The computer had kicked in the revival mode and they
would be awakening -- she and all her friends. She heard the pod lift and
with adrenaline and understanding surging through her, she blinked several times
and focused --

Focused on a stranger.

There should be
no stranger son the ship.

Something had gone wrong.
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