My novel-in-progress Dead and Gone is a follow-up to Murder on Ceres, a science fiction/murder mystery. Joe is native to Ceres Colony, temporarily assigned to Earth, what is to him an alien planet.
Chapter 1
Joe passed the flashball to Joey. The little boy blocked it with his chest, let it drop to the ground, then dribbled past him. The kid was a natural, Joe hardly had to ease his defense at all. Not that he had a problem letting his boy do well against him. His own father had always played easy with him. His Dad didn’t believe a father should compete to win against his son. Brothers, yes. A rival team, of course. But competition with a kid whether on the pitch or in cyberspace was to train the child, not to beat him.
Bright light tugged at Joe’s eyelids. The flashball pitch and his son disappeared. He clenched his teeth against the cold. What was that smell? Smoke. He hadn’t heard the alarm. What the frak? Sounds, yes. But no alarm. Twittering sounds and rushing water. No emergency responders. The smoke sensors must have failed.
Something snuffled at him.
Dream or reality? Fire on the colony was never a good thing. Toxic fumes. He’d suffocate before he burned. He had to wake up. Had to get out. He tried to yell, but only groaned.
“Stay still,” someone said.
He struggled awake. A shadow blocked the sunlight. What he saw made no sense. A head, an enormous hairy head hung above him, silhouetted against the sun. He couldn’t see details. At least no details he recognized. No eyes. He saw nostrils half as big as his hand.
The sun? Where was he?
“Be quiet,” the voice said. “Just take it easy. She’ll move away. She’s just curious.”
Earth. He was on Earth and this was no frakking dream. He was trapped, wrapped in some kind of fabric, lying on the ground. Unprotected. Unable to move. With an animal standing over him.
The animal raised its head, enough so he could see more than its muzzle. It shook its head, slinging snot and saliva. Loose lips flapping like a banner in the Earth wind. Then it walked away. Ears twitching forward and back, its huge body swaying on stilt-like legs ending in hooves. Surprisingly delicate hooves considering the size of the animal.
“Moose,” Sheriff Macy said.
Joe watched the animal disappear into the pines. Or maybe they were fir trees. He didn’t know and he didn’t care. That animal was too big and too damn close.
Sheriff Macy poured a cup of coffee. “Don’t see many moose on Ceres Colony do you Hudson?”
“You’re damn frakkin’ right about that. Don’t want to see any more of them that close here either.” He wiped his face, climbed out of the sleeping bag, and accepted the coffee.
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