Welcome to day 1 of my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. Current word count: 1,734/50,000 This year I am continuing my Dark System trilogy. For a brief recap please see this post. For full pdf's (unedited) of the first two books please click here. (Full books carry an advisory warning) Not a bad start to WriMo2007. Probably would have had an even better word count if I hadn't been trying so hard to get something rendered to go with it. daily renders will most likely not happen. The format of the book probably won't support it, and since I'm on a deadline schedule I don't want to waste precious minutes trying to figure out and then put together a render. If I can I'll have one, but I don't think it'll be a daily thing. I may have a different generic image for this book or it might be this one. Dunno yet. Anyway, hopefully you all like this one as much as you did the Vampire Hunter Chronicles. Thanks for looking! Navigation: Recap | Next | Image Dark System: Corinth Chapter 1: Arrival 1 Robert turned to where he could hear Eugene’s breathing coming from. Robert could tell that the man was sleeping, but the sleep was troubled at best. The shifting colors in Gene’s aura told him that Eugene was unstable. For a brief moment he wondered what had happened down in the excavation site. Another aura entered what sufficed as Robert’s field of vision. The color was also troubled, but it was a stable sort of trouble. Robert recognized the telltale signs in the aura that told him that the aura belonged to Mark. Mark laid his hand on Eugene’s shoulder. Robert watched as their auras touched, and the colors mingled for a moment. Mark sighed. “For all of my years of dealing with death and trauma, I’m at a loss.” Robert spoke for the first time in hours, “Even his sleep is troubled.” The aura that belonged to Mark nodded. “I sensed it as well.” Robert started to ask something, hesitated, and then finally decided that it needed to be asked. “How bad was it?” Mark was silent. Finally, after several moments, “Let’s move over a couple of seats. I don’t want to be discussing that too closely.” Robert nodded, and allowed Mark to lead him to a new section of seats aboard the interplanetary cruiser. As he sat down again Robert realized that he could no longer sense Eugene. He turned his head, and found the sleeping man was now behind him at an angle. He turned back to Mark, and could tell from the positioning that Mark had taken a seat that would allow them to be out of earshot, but still keep an eye on the troubled man. A troubled tone came over Mark’s aura as he composed his thoughts on the gruesome scene at the excavation. For all of the trouble that they had seen in the recent weeks, Robert had never seen his new friend quite as troubled as he was then. Robert knew that whatever had happened was disturbing. “I don’t know exactly what happened. I could never get the exact details from Gene. He told me that Beth had come in, and then was angered when she found that they had discovered the data necessary to leave the planet. She tried to turn him, and Dan saved his life. We still don’t know the extent of the strength that the bodies inherited after they were infected with whatever those people from the beach brought back. But that strength was evident in the scene left in Beth’s wake. I don’t think that Eugene realized it, but I could tell from Dan’s body that sometime during Beth’s killing of him she broke several bones. That strength should not have been there. She didn’t have the body for it. And the amount of damage that Eugene had to inflict upon her to keep her from killing him was another sign of the strength that she had gained. I honestly didn’t recognize the body. The only reason that I know that it was Beth at all is because I think that Eugene has no reason to lie about it.” Mark paused, trying to string together the words that could explain the trauma that Eugene had experienced. “They had been friends for years. I could tell from watching them that their bonds of friendship were stronger than bonds of romance I have seen in other people. And in the short time that they had been on Hallan they had come to accept the Beth that had worked with them on the team, and considered her a friend as well.” Mark shuddered. “To watch a person that you considered a friend murder the closest friend that you have ever had, and then to have to kill that person in order to save your own life…” Mark paused, and sighed. “It’s no wonder that Eugene is traumatized.” Robert sat back in the chair, and sighed. It wasn’t much more, if any, information than he had already gathered. But even the fact that Mark couldn’t say more was telling. The sound of boots in the aisle brought Robert out of his reverie. He felt slight movement in the chair as a hand was laid against the headrest. “We should be arriving on Corinth within a couple of hours,” the cruiser’s commander said. “Thank you,” Mark said. Robert felt the presence of the commander remain where he was, a confused and questioning tone surrounded him. Finally the commander spoke again. “I’ve spoken to the commanders of the other vessels that aided in the evacuation. The scene from the Hallan spaceport was repeated across the planet. Mass chaos, and needless death as the very ships sent to rescue people were forcefully crashed back onto the surface of the planet. Since you’re the ones who called for the evacuation, and probably the only ones who really know what was happening down there, I want to know what happened. What caused the death of good men? What caused the very people that we were sent to rescue to turn against us and crash their only means of escape?” Robert could hear in the tone that the commander was suppressing anger at the situation. He wasn’t accustomed to losing personnel on rescue missions. For a brief moment he felt sorry for the commander. He knew that the answers would never be enough. Mark shook his head. “I’m sorry commander. Even though we called for the evacuation, there is still too much that we don’t know. That’s why it was vital that we got those cases of data off of Hallan. We think that the cause of all of this may be contained there.” Robert heard a low growl from the commander, but nothing else was said. The pressure eased up from the headrest, and the sound of boots carried the commander away from the two men. Mark sighed. “I wish that I had something to tell him. I wish that I could reassure him that the deaths of his men weren’t in vain. We are safe, and the data is safe. But that’s about all. We really don’t know all of what happened on Hallan yet, and without a cause it could happen again.” Silence fell as the men once again contemplated the events that had unfolded around them. 2 As Mark returned to where the three of them had been sitting he saw that Eugene had woken up. He had already resumed staring out of the window. Mark sat down, and then passed packages of food to the other two men. He watched as they opened their meals. Once he was assured that Eugene was actually going to eat he opened his own meal. As he started eating, Mark realized that it was one of the first real meals that he had had in days. The horror of the events had caused the meals to be sporadic at best, and most of them hadn’t eaten much. Mark looked out the viewport. He could still make out the small blue-green ball that was Elios hanging in the sky. Turning slightly he could see that Corinth was already looming large. He thought that he could even make out breaks in the red clouds that hid the black surface beneath. Two of the seven moons were on the side that they were approaching from. Mark studied the surfaces, knowing that once they were on the surface the thick red clouds of Corinth would prevent him from seeing the moons. “How long until we get there?” Eugene asked. It was the first words that Mark had heard from him since he bid his dead friend farewell as they left Hallan. “Probably another hour,” Mark replied. “Corinth is huge compared to Hallan and Elios. So we’re a lot farther away than it looks.” “Why Corinth?” Robert asked, turning to face Mark. Mark looked at Robert, and once again had to remind himself that Robert was blind. The sight of auras was the only thing even close to vision that he had. Of course Robert had grown up a sighted man, and hadn’t been blind long enough to grow out of the mannerisms of one with sight. “Mark?” Robert prompted. Mark shook his head, startled that he had so easily become lost in thought. “Sorry… what was the question again?” “I asked why Corinth and not Elios.” “I can’t say for sure, but I bet that the physical size of the planets has something to do with it. Elios is small, even compared to Hallan. And it was already getting hard for colonists to be approved to move to Elios. The Colonization Authority was concerned about overcrowding. Corinth, on the other hand, is a large planet. And due to its unique atmosphere it’s not as popular. The infrastructure is in place for inhabitants, and many of the buildings left by the previous inhabitants aren’t even occupied yet. They could easily handle the influx of refugees. Besides, the CA wants to keep us quarantined until they know what happened. They want to make sure that whatever got to the people of Hallan won’t spread to other colonized planets.” Eugene shuddered. “I can’t imagine those things spreading.” “We all know that the possibility of that happening is slim,” Robert said. “For some reason those things seemed to be attached to Hallan. That was why they worked to keep us there instead of trying to spread out.” “I agree with Robert,” Mark replied, “but I also don’t begrudge the CA for wanting to be safe about all of this. And if for some reason those things actually can spread we need to contain it.” Eugene turned pale at the thought of the spread of the things that had killed his friend. “Gene,” Mark started when he saw the expression take over the tortured man’s face. “We both know that the chances of this spreading are slim to none. They were attached in such a way that I think they knew that their influence could not spread past the borders of Hallan. We’ll be safe on Corinth, and we just need to give the Colonization Authority the chance to find that out for themselves.” Eugene turned back to face out the viewport again. “I hope you’re right.” Mark didn’t say it aloud, but his thoughts echoed the words that Eugene had spoken.