UNEDITED
QBBS Merideth Reynolds
Giannini walked into the little kitchenette she shared with Sia. It was a nice two bedroom, two bath suite often referred to as a roommate plan on earth. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were situated in the middle between the two bedrooms. She had the room without the ensuite bath, since she was the neater of the two women and would keep it cleaner for guests. Giannini opened the little refrigerator they had, which had technology for cooling that she was completely in awe of, and snagged a bottle of beer.
She looked at the little label that All Guns Blazing had placed on the beer and raised an eyebrow. It said that it had a hint of berry in it. She reached to her right and opened a drawer, grabbing a bottle opener to pop off the cap. She tossed the cap into a bag with the others.
She would take all of the other bottle caps back to the guys when the bag was full. She walked into the living room, sat on the couch and grabbed a tablet to turn on the news. She took a sip of her beer and had to admit that it did have a nice hint of berries. She turned the beer bottle around to look at the label again and reviewed the different contents.
It was raspberry that they used in this recipe, or at least that’s what they claimed on the label. Knowing Bobcat, William, and Marcus, it could be anything. So long as it tasted like berries to Bobcat, it probably went on the label that way.
She picked the tablet back up and scrolled through the different channels that were available from both the internal options, and those from the Yollin networks which would be translated. While she could ask the entertainment E.I. to choose a station, she still preferred to review the information in text form and pick one herself.
Giannini noticed that when one of her favorite Yollin newscasters had a special on, and asked the E.I. to turn on channel twenty-two. The suite’s projector turned on, and a nice forty-eight-inch picture appeared on the wall opposite her.
She took another sip of her beer as she watched the news about another public riot on the television.
R’Chkoklet, Planet Yoll
The young female Yollin reporter turned to view the camera. “Hello, this is Pehl-eck, and I am reporting from the town of R’Chkoklet, in the upper Caste Business Zone. As my camera person pans to the five-story building over my shoulder, you will notice there is a mob of protesters throwing stones at the building and shouting slogans at those inside. It seems there was a violent outburst here just hours ago. Some of the upper caste members have refused to accept the edicts coming from the Etheric Empire. When an individual who would, traditionally, be a lower caste member refused the commands of three previously upper caste members, in a small breakfast shop this morning, they grabbed him and pulled him out into the street. Then, it’s reported, they kicked him over and over again, leaving him severely injured. Others nearby, I understand, called in medical, and they were able to provide him care. The one who was attacked suffered multiple head wounds and cracks throughout his chest and arms as he tried to protect himself. These upper caste members are shouting against Empress Bethany Anne, who challenged and defeated our alien infested King just mere weeks ago. The whole revolution has upended our religious and societal understandings as many of those at the top are contending that the video of the King was faked. They are also accusing those of us in the news for supporting the overthrow and are critical of us giving our support to the aliens. There has been a lot of strain between caste members as all Yollins seek new equilibrium in our relationships with each other.”
Pehl-eck ducked her head when a large explosion reverberated down the street from the building behind her. Turning, she gasped in shock when she saw the destruction wrought by those inside the building. It appeared that they had used military weapons on the rioters surrounding them. There were now bodies lying in the street as screams of pain and fright could be heard all the way from her location.
She put a hand up to her mouth and continued reporting. “Oh my God! The upper caste members have attacked the rioters around their building! This is no longer merely an angry group of people yelling insults and throwing stones at each other. This is now a war zone!”
Pehl-eck turned back to the camera. “We all know that changes in society can be hard, however, what will be done to those that refuse the edicts coming down upon us? That is an open question that I would like to ask the Empress of the humans. What are you going to do to those members in the upper castes that refuse to accept that all Yollins are equal?”
Pehl-eck waved a hand, the gesture encompassing the building and the dead and injured people behind her. “Will there be any justice for these people? Or is this something that we Yollins will have to figure out ourselves?”
FROM MICHAEL >>> Ok, I’ve just dropped 3 chapters in 2 days to Stephen, and will be finished w/ Chapter 20 in about 2 hours of writing tomorrow morning. Then, I hope to start Chapter 21, have lunch with Author Richard Fox, then finish chapter 21 before going to meet friends from California for dinner and a show. Then, Chapter 22 and (I hope) Chapter 23 finished by the time I fly back home on Wednesday night. That means 24 by Thursday and 25 by Friday at the latest (the last chapter.)
While the edits are finalized, I’m going to try and figure out how to insert some artwork into the book. I have some art pieces of some of the aliens, and I’d like to have them in the book (specifically as small images in the front of the chapter.) We shall see how effective I am on that 😉
New Effort to draw in readers from a metric SH#T ton of Sci-Fi authors.
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As any of you know, I am a huge supporter of sharing authors. Justin and I were approached to join in an effort to cross promote a BUNCH of sci-fi authors. Typically, I’m not huge into these things – but Justin IS huge into it and I frankly like a lot of the authors taking part in the first and second effort. Felix R. Savage is in the 20BooksTo50k Group along with Richard Fox (who I mentioned above), I like Jay Allan’s work and check out many others.
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If you would like a shot at a bunch of free books, some of the signed copies, you can sign-up for the giveaway chance- and share your email – with a metric sh#t-ton of awesome sci-fi authors including:
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MORE TO COME!
Michael
