Continued from Part Six Snyder walked to the door of Sergeant Cutler’s office. He knocked. Footsteps raced, a door opened and closed. Cutler called out, “Who is it?” Hmm. Cutler hiding someone? Odd. Couldn’t be a woman. The army didn’t care, and Cutler didn’t seem interested in that kind of thing. “Sarge, it’s Snyder.” “Come…
Continued from Part Five Anny walked over towards Joey Parker’s bungalow with Grandma behind him. “Anny, that Mr. Parker is going to have to learn not to be so proud.” “Joey says his dad doesn’t want charity.” Grandma nodded. “Exactly. Maybe, it’s because we’re Catholic and they’re Protestants.” “They let you build the bungalow.” “Very…
Continued from Part Four Snyder sat in his cubical, watching an action film on YouTube, the original public access netstation. A red alert flashed on his workstation’s touch screen, built right into the desk. He liked his screen tilted at a sixty degree angle. He pressed the red button and the movie clip gave way…
Continued from Part Three Outside the bunkhouse, Snyder broke into a Cheshire cat grin at a familiar brown face. He saluted. “Sergeant Cutler, Private Snyder reporting.” Snyder’s old drill sergeant returned his salute. “At ease. It’s good to see you.” “I wasn’t expecting to see you again.” “Neither I you, when last we parted, but…
Continued from Part Two Private A. L. Snyder stood outside the office of the post commander. He eyed the plastic sign beside the door, which read, “Major Paul Dread.” Snyder pulled his blue service cap lower over his dark blond high and tight, double checked to make sure his full dress uniform’s jacket and tie…
Continued from Part One Jirel sat at a vid-phone in a quiet corner of a nearly deserted cyber café. The drive-thru’s Instacook seemed to be the place’s biggest draw, as folks grabbed meals on the go. Vid-phone was rather pointless, since Smith didn’t use it, but he didn’t want to have this conversation on base….
Jirel sat in his office at the Hecht listening post in the desert outside Las Vegas, doing paperwork on a writable document reader the humans dubbed an Iboard. He frowned at the device. September 13, 79 YE. Meaning the 79th Year of the Empire. That blasted blasphemous date was on every page. It had supplanted…
Continued from Part Twelve Jirel stood before the soldiers who had made it to the end of Basic. “It has been a great eight weeks. You are now prepared to continue your service in the Imperial Military in your chosen specialties. You’ve learned to work as a team, you’ve been stretched beyond your limits, and…
Continued from Part Eleven The next afternoon, Snyder sat at mess with his platoon. Sergeant Cutler walked over. “Recruit Snyder, this way.” Cutler silently led Snyder out of the cafeteria and back to the testing center, where a man with lieutenant’s bars sat behind a desk. Cutler and Snyder saluted. The lieutenant said, “At ease,…
Continued from Part Ten Snyder turned. Sergent Cutler stood behind him, arms folded across his field jacket. How had Cutler known? How had he gotten out here? “Recruit, unless you’ve been drafted by the NBA, you’re out of uniform.” Snyder took a step back and began to twirl the grappling hook. “Stay back.” “At ease,…