Stellar

Thank you. That was the one scene I was the most concerned about getting right. Haha! No pressure or anything! xD It will be an immense challenge for me where to draw the line with this so that it feels right. I have ideas about what I what but those ideas are mutable, flexible, and therein lies the challenge.

Some situations are difficult to imagine. There was a lot about Lucere that was already well into the realm of surreal; so different from my normal life before that it was very dreamlike, though perhaps nightmarish felt like it was closer much of the time. While the big things that happened had each been like a tonne of bricks in their impact on my world, there were still a multitude of little moments that, cumulatively, were just as disarming. One of those moments was sitting across from Ca

Happy Birthday!

I will love pretty much anyone that can cook Italian dishes with any skill. Just thinking about food like this makes me hungry.

Happy birthday mate Hope you have a fantastic day.

thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. More is in production.

home is where the heart is! Or it should be, might I say. One becomes very accustomed to the precise creature comforts of the lair. I am a terribly light sleeper, and any bed other than my own tends to give me a terrible night's rest. Whenever I'm away, I always miss that most I think. Anyhow, nice to see you back!

Thanks Vic and Myr for the comments and reviews It's a work in progress, as you can see, but I'd like to think I'm on the right track.

The real important answers will come bit by bit. It is also a matter of the readers thinking a certain piece of information may be critical when in fact it is not, or the wrong emphasis had been placed on it by their perceptions. For me, good science fiction does contain some degree of misdirection, perhaps analogous to a puzzle with a trail of clues. The joy comes when it unravels and you realise just how right (or wrong) you were about the Big Things that were going on. Assumptions are then vindicated (or debunked!) The author in these situations should, I think, not be *too* obtuse about what they're trying to show, or then it becomes a farce because the audience doesn't see the connection. Shay has been fearful from the start of giving out information about himself and you have rightly noted that he still doesn't want to tell anyone about the stasis part of his experience, simply because he believes it is going to cause more trouble for him and lead to danger. A belief that is based in his story being far fetched to begin with, and that no one will accept that in a world gone mad. Hence the compulsion to lie about it for the sake of self-preservation. As another reader aptly described it, maybe he is being a bit too clever, "in some ways too much for his own good as he continues to mask his reality to fit his presuppositions." Indulge me on a tangent here ... if you have ever seen The Walking Dead (told you I loved apocalyptic fiction, didn't I?) there is a scene in Season 1 where the father figure of the survivors group, Dale, is asked by Morales why he winds his watch every day, "like a village priest saying Mass." Jacqui adds to this: "Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." The importance of such 'civilised' things has gone away with more pressing concerns of survival being all that matters. His behaviour isn't something that makes sense to the group because it seems out of place to them, unnecessary and irrelevant. "Time," responds Dale. "It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least." He then goes on to philosophise, quoting Faulkner to imply that he keeps winding his watch not because he is obsessed, but the opposite; so he can forget about it. Dale's situation isn't the same as Shay's, of course, but they share the same thing: they both represent the way things used to be - the old state of reality versus the new, and both have a very different perception of events because of this. The people that surround them don't have that view - not any more - and it most definitely shows. After he awakes, Shay quickly places importance upon that idea of 'time' - after all, clearly more than the 5-7 days he intended to sleep for have passed. However, how much time has passed is NOT something that's important to the other characters on Lucere, and that's where Shay's presupposition leaps into action. He knows this. I must not talk about it because I'm just going to draw attention to myself. I will wait for a chance where I can find this out on my own. That's what he does. Also .. exactly how Mira was created and so forth? I can't really talk about that at all without some major spoilers. Though I am assuming here you are meaning the act of 'transformation' and what it entailed; not just his physical actions in fighting it, which were fairly well described.

A lot of emotions flying around this chapter for everyone, that's for sure. Subtle feelings are for me feel very hard to convey, and I hope I have managed to do that.

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

The death scene was satisfying to write. I imagine some may wonder who is now going to play the part of the primary antagonist, but don't worry, I shall get to that I do love writing 3rd person POV, but you will only get to see it in this story when the main character (Shay) is incapacitated and I want to show what's happening during that.

May as well use it for that. I didn't realise this thread was here! Awesome. Yeah, I am balancing my propensity for being a mysterious bastard against the audience's desire for knowing the bigger picture. It's especially relevant when it's a science fiction theme and a lot of the interest revolves around what is really happening. A big concern is that I'm going to mess that up and people will be frustrated. I hope that's not the case. Yeah, may as well use it for that since it's already here and all Better forum to use than the review section of the story since that's not a very good way of making dialogue.

The same sense of exhausted fear fills me; the same resolutely blind desire to survive. As with the last time, I am running and the grey artificial landscape is all around, a city filled with the ravaged detritus of a war long lost. Again, the unseen sounds of movement, inhuman and savage, following me at every turn. I run, as I can and as I must. Pressed by fatigue, I run until I finally reach that roadway. That hulking creature, a giant of its kind, stands impossibly tall and angry aga

Shay's intuition telling him to be secretive is what I think worked against him here; as you've noted he might not have been in so much trouble had he told Konstantin about it. Both Carlos and Sofia were not what they appeared. It was fun to write them that way, knowing how they would turn out.

The way you phrase that, I'm not sure whether you think it's a good thing or a bad thing! xD The phase the story is entering now will begin to see *some* answered.

I don't actually consider him gullible at all, in fact I think this is the first real mistake he has made - it just happens to be a rather major one. HOWEVER! I am the author and my viewpoint is biased because of this, so I naturally expect readers to see him differently. Thanks for your comments

Sofia's manipulation was very well engineered in that it was designed to appeal to the exact emotions she thought would make Shay trust her. She nailed it too and that makes her just as psychopathic (to me) as her father, perhaps more so because it was all mental deception and required no physical violence to get there (other than smacking Carlos in the face with a 2x4 but that's another story ).

Thank you mate. I'm doing my best. I will hold you to that. ^^

thank you. I do imagine alcohol that way! Each seems to have its own personality, not only from the taste and texture but even the cultural inclinations of the folks that make it. Yeah, gives a rather human spin on what is basically a substance, but hey .. can't restrain the imagination right?

The GSPI data turned out to be stored in a portable micro-disk stub, a small grey rectangle of metal only an inch wide and perhaps triple that long. A connector plug was at one end and the side of the casing was covered by military-style font, the label 'COPY #2' etched heavily into the metal. Lily didn't care for the appearance of the thing, but her excitement was almost palpable as she took the tiny chunk of technology from Konstantin and connected it to her office computer. "Honestly," sh

thank you so much for your positive comments. This is the best kind of inspiration, knowing there is this kind of value in my readership. It makes me happy to see people enjoying what I've done. Rest assured, Chapter 4 is already in the making.

I think that, honestly, I enjoy writing about Mira the most of anyone, perhaps even including Shay's first person. There may be the soul of a ninja bouncing round inside him, but he's so very boyish and innocent at the same time. A simple nature behind a character who I imagine to have a very profound perception.

I felt empty inside as I sat on that rock ledge, staring at the ruins. Empty, because the world I thought I recognised wasn't there any more. Even if I was asleep for more than a week, which seems to be the case, could everything have changed so much in two or three weeks? Or even a month? The place was still. I couldn't see from this distance if anything was actually moving, but as it looked, there was no way anything was alive down there. At least, nothing human. "Not what you were exp

Thanks for your review, glad you enjoyed it Post-apocalyptic worlds have always held an interest for me in fiction (and in games also). Some might regard the end of mankind as being a somewhat morbid topic for fascination, but when the rules of civilisation and law collapse, human behaviour changes in some disturbing and enlightening ways. All pretense vanishes so people can survive. Heavy stuff!