It's a week and a half before my next signing!(Aug. 17th don't forget to come and bring a friend!) I have been working on the second of Quentin's adventures off and on throughout the spring and summer. I am nearing completion. I have to give a shout out to Elaine Francis, and Eric Ashby who are picking their way separately through portions of the book already.
I am attempting to streamline this novel. I was not in the mood to take five years to write this one, like the last one took. I have also begun a draft of the cover. I can't tell you how much fun it is to have an idea, and then see that idea turn out! This second book has been so much fun to write, and I'm excited to get it ready for publishing. Hopefully I will have it out in time for Christmas!
As promised, I am posting a small portion of book two, Earthbound: Twice the Fun. Let me know in the comments or on my facebook page what you think!
It was the
twenty-seventh of December—less than a week after the world almost ended.
Quentin Robinson and Jason Mackenzie were running a few after-Christmas errands
for Jason’s mom. The Robinson family had returned home from their vacation to
Oceanside, California on Christmas Eve. It had been a short four days for
Quentin, yet it seemed as though a lot had happened.
Jason was riding shotgun, rather
than driving because with his broken arm, it was just easier to be the
passenger. He had to catch himself all the time as the two boys jabbered back
and forth with the usual small talk. Topics ranged from school, to Christmas,
to Quentin’s girl problems, to Jason’s lack
of the sublime agony that arises from such problems.
It
wasn’t easy to stay on mundane topics. Jason, of course, still remembered the
events that led to Quentin and the P’yunae foiling the Hwanai plot to kill
everyone on Earth. He had so many questions he wanted answers to, yet he knew
it would be futile to ask Quentin.
During
the day, Quentin lived the normal life he had requested that Alexander and the
P’yunae let him have. It was only at night that a high frequency signal, sent
from the Suntek reconnected the parts
of his brain that contained his secret memories. At the moment, Quentin was
talking about his argument with Brinley just before school let out for winter
break.
To
Jason, it seemed strange to hear his old friend complaining about his latest
act of stupidity with regards to Brinley. It wasn’t as though it was the first
such happening. Both boys had a knack for saying the wrong things at the wrong
time to girls in general. As a result, Jason often felt it best to say nothing
at all.
Better
to be thought a fool, then open your mouth and remove all doubt.
“What did you say?” Quentin asked.
Jason jumped a little. “I didn’t say
anything.”
Jason
had forgotten that Alexander said he would be working with Quentin on his aura
discernment as part of his training. He had trouble understanding exactly what
was meant by ‘aura discernment,’ but he guessed it had something to do with
telepathy. Hearing what others were thinking might be a useful skill, but Jason
had no doubt he did not want to hear
everything the people around him were saying.
The
two teenagers finished their business on behalf of Mrs. Mackenzie, and Quentin
dropped Jason off in front of his house. Jason turned to go inside when he
heard a sound coming from his open garage. He trudged through the remnants of
the last snow storm still piled on the side of the driveway. As the inside of
the garage fell into view, he was startled to see Quentin standing there just
out of sight from the street, grinning widely.
“You
just left.”
“Yes,
I just left,” Quentin replied. “I remember feeling like there was something you
wanted to talk about, but wouldn’t bring up. So I came here to find out why.”
“Can’t
you just read my mind and figure it out, or remember what I was thinking while
we were in the car together a second ago?”
“Naw,
my telepathy isn’t quite as focused when I’m in real time. Alexander says it’s
because my conscious mind is in control and tells my subconscious that what
it’s trying to do by reading auras isn’t possible. So tell me what’s on your
mind, Jase. I have access to all the
pieces of my mind at the present, so now’s the best time.”
“Yeah,
well,” Jason wasn’t sure how to begin. “We just haven’t had any time to talk
since everything happened. I’ve got a thousand questions.”
“I
have some time before Edgar is expecting me.”
Jason
suggested the two of them go inside to his bedroom so they could talk in
relative privacy. Quentin flopped down on the beanbag chair in the corner where
he usually sat when he came over, and Jason paced a bit as he tried to decide
which question to ask first.
“I
did wonder if I was on a hidden camera tv show at first.”
“Really?”
“Yep,
until Sarah mentioned time travel, I totally thought I’d see a camera come out
at any moment. Even after that I still had doubts until I saw the Suntek.”
“Could
she read your mind?”
“Not
exactly, she can interpret what people are thinking, using energy that we put
out.”
“Energy?”
“Yeah,
it’s kind of like, when you can tell someone is angry because they are putting
out bad vibes, and not because of anything they do or say.”
“Well,
I’m not very good at that, but I get what you’re saying.”
“Good,
well Sarah, and Alexander too, both have a gift for doing that. I’m still
learning, Jacob is okay at it, and Peter’s supposed to be pretty good, but I
haven’t seen him do it personally.”
“Crazy,”
Jason whispered, then spoke up as he felt his confidence rising. “So, how about
the ship? Did you totally freak out when you saw it?”
“Oh
man, Jason, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. One second I was looking
at a vacant lot a few blocks from our condo, and the next, there was this big
ship in front of me.”
“What
does it look like?”
“It
looks like it’s covered in chrome, but it’s lighter and stronger, Skyler says.
It’s got at least two levels, and it’s shaped kind of like those flying wing
airplanes we saw in that Boeing documentary Mr. Carpenter showed us.”
“How
fast did it go?”
“Not
sure, but we flew from California to Utah in about fifteen minutes.”
“Dude!
No way!”
“I’m
serious, Jase. I called you from the ship less than twenty minutes after
boarding it in Oceanside.”
“Unreal.”
Jason almost didn’t ask the next question, but he really wanted to know the
answer. “Do they really look like that or are they using disguises?”
Quentin
laughed out loud, but regained his composure quickly. “You know, I really never
thought about it that way. I guess that’s a good question because movies always
show aliens as bugs or some other kind of strange looking animals. Alexander
told me there’s no such thing as unintelligent life evolving into intelligent
life on any planet he has ever visited or heard about, and intelligent life
always looks pretty much just like us.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah,
he said if you think about it, skills like communicating and understanding
emotions--especially humor are the fundamental differences between animals and
people.”
“I
guess that makes sense. I mean, when I tripped and fell, screaming all the way
down the stairs a few weeks ago, neither my cat, nor the parakeet did a thing,
but my mom about died laughing as soon as she saw I was okay.”
Quentin sobered a bit as he changed
the subject. “You want to know about Hone.”
“Dude, you gotta stop doing that!”
Jason complained. “It’s freaky to hear your thoughts spoken by someone else.”
“Sorry, Alexander did the same thing
to me when we first met. I guess I’ve forgotten how uneasy it made me feel.”
“So what’s he like?” Jason asked
referring to Hone. “I know I saw him that day in the bunker, but all I got from
that was that he was, you know, creepy.”
“Well, I think you nailed it, Jase.
He is creepy. But there’s more to it
than that. He’s obsessed. He thinks I will somehow be responsible for saving
the Hwanai.” Quentin was usually a truthful boy, but he didn’t feel the need to
tell his friend that Hone meant to use his blood to fulfill his own prophecy.
“Grandpa Beck said he thought that
Hone was driven crazy by the sheer amount of time-travelling he has been
doing.”
Quentin allowed that that was
possible. “What he’s doing isn’t like the quickstepping we do. With him, the
light energy pulses and twists and turns like you’re on a fast moving carnival
ride with a maniac at the controls.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?”
Quentin chewed on the side of his
mouth for a second as he considered what he knew about Hone’s threats. “Yeah,
Jase, he will. But I’ll be ready for him. That’s partly what Edgar’s training
is for.”
Jason asked about every member of
the team. Quentin did his best to bring his friend up to speed on who each one
was, and what their responsibilities were. He talked about his relation to
Alexander and the possibility that he might live to be very old by Earth’s
standards because of his P’yunae DNA, if he survived the mission he was working
on.
What
Quentin didn’t say was how uncertain he still was that he had any real future.
There was no doubt about it. Rounding up the Hwanai agents would be the most
dangerous thing he could try to do, and with Jason out of commission for
several months, there wasn’t anyone else who could do it. P’yunae law was clear
about staying out of the way until a suspect was detained by an individual from
the planet being attacked. Only after a formal request for the Union to take
the suspect into custody, could the P’yunae step in and take control of the
situation. Since Quentin was one of four humans on Earth who knew the P’yunae
even existed. He was the lucky one by default. Quickstep’s creator, Red
Mackenzie was far too old for combat, as was Avery Beck, the only other man on
Earth who knew anything about the Quickstep bunker. As seniors in high school,
Jason and Quentin were just entering the prime years of their lives. The duties
of safeguarding the widows of time had fallen on their shoulders, and Quentin
was the only one still in a single piece.
It
wouldn’t have mattered. Quentin knew he didn’t want anyone else to get caught
up in the chaos that was his newly acquired secret life. He decided that the
fewer people who knew about the Hwanai, the better off everyone was.
“One
last question, if it’s okay.”
“Sure.”
“What
does it feel like when that thing in your head opens up a window?”
Quentin
smiled a little. “It tingles a little bit. I can feel it working with my mind.
The scientists who developed it had
hundreds of years of experience working with Light Energy as an aid in
artificial intelligence. Originally the implant was only intended to assist
those with various kinds of brain damage to live a normal life. It was
completely by accident that they discovered that it could be used for time
travel. And when their world joined the Union twenty years ago, they handed over
the technology to the High Council for safe keeping.”
“And
the Suntek just happened to have an
extra implant for you on board?”
“Jacob
told me there is one on every ambassadorial ship for emergencies. Most
ambassadors are several hundred years older than Jacob and many suffer strokes
and other medical issues while away from their personal physicians. So the
Council allows for an exception. Jacob isn’t likely to have such a need, so he
willingly gave me his.”
“So
it’s like a prosthetic brain?”
“Um,
more like a performance enhancer for the brain.”
Quentin
stood. Jason rose from his bed and reached out with his good hand. Quentin gave
him a high five. They bumped fists twice, and slapped their own chests, their
signature since junior high.
“Go
get ‘em Big Q.”
“Take
care of that arm. I could use your help Jase.”
“Oh
I wouldn’t miss it! I’ll talk to Grandpa about maybe logging a little quickstep
time myself to try and speed up my recovery.”
“Sounds
good, bro, I’ll see you later.”
Quentin
concentrated for a moment to find the correct time and place Edgar had
designated for training and quickstepped out.
“Oh
man I’m glad I’m not him right now!” Jason shuddered at the thought of his
friend in mortal combat. He said a silent prayer. Please God, watch out for him!
