I hereby claim no right to his works, nor any intimate knowledge to the story of Outsider.
Now with that out of the way...
Looking forward to the Mirror is a story idea that sprung into my head while reading the Insider a week or so ago. After some hastily written notes during work and plenty of back and forth in my head in regards to the plot I decided to wet my feet again in Fan Fiction writing, if only to have some fun and get myself back into a writing mood since I haven't written anything for the past month or so.
Normally I rate nearly everything I write as 'Mature audiences only', it gives me a lot of wiggle room since I have a knack for violence but I will keep this story PG-13 as much as possible. I will try to keep a weekly schedule for the story and I hope that I will be able to contain it in approx 50.000 words. When it's done I will publish it in PDF format as well and I will also upload it to my deviantart page later.
So without further ado, I present you:
Looking forward to the Mirror
Prologue
At least they can coordinate in Trade. Captain George Asteios thought as the last section of the ship reported combat ready status. He took a deep breath thinking about what to say next.
“Attention all hands.”
He begun to say in the Trade language, confident that the microphone pinned on his uniform would pass his disappointment to the crew of ECS-175 Matveyev.
“I expected that our time would suffer but not to this extent, instead of the usual two and a half minutes, six whole minutes passed before all stations reported combat ready status and this was a planned drill.”
He let out an involuntary sigh before continuing.
“Most of us don’t have English as our mother language but that doesn’t come in the way of our duty in the same way I witnessed now. Every last one of us has been trained to perform their assigned duties in a quick and precise manner, we have done the same things over and over until we were sick to our stomachs, this alone should have kept our time down to reasonable levels but what I witnessed now is beyond reasonable. So I have to ask, what change occurred on this ship? Did everyone’s posts suddenly change positions? Did someone swap our space suits for a far more complicated design? Was the ship’s layout mysteriously altered?”
He paused for a few moments before continuing with the same calm but disappointed tone.
“This was a drill that we have done dozens of times in the past and the only thing that was different this time was the language we used. A language that we have been taught for years, a language that we will use to communicate with any and all alien species we will come across. In my mind there are only two explanations about what happened just now and I can’t decide which is worse, could it be that not all of us are adept at Trade or could it be that some of us didn’t take this drill seriously? Whatever the case this was not something that I expected from this ship and this crew especially in the middle of this mission…”
He let that hang for a few seconds to enforce the point.
“Stand down from general quarters, all section leaders are to report to the mess hall in 30 minutes, dismissed.”
* * *
“Attention on deck!” Commander Albert Summers barked as the Captain walked in the mess hall, instantly everyone in the room stood at attention and saluted.
“At ease.” Captain Asteios said as he returned the salutes while walking towards the small podium in front of a large screen. It was obvious to everyone that he wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries and he begun the moment he turned and looked at the assembled officers.
“I don’t know what happened earlier and you know that I don’t like excuses, everyone in this ship was selected for their exhibited skills. No one and I mean no one in the TCA threw their weight around, or pulled any strings to put their favorites in this or any other ship. Everyone was selected because they are the best and our mission demands nothing less than that.”
Looking at the sour expressions of everyone present he couldn’t help but remember that some time ago he was told that his way of chewing up people was worse than even the loudest of screamers. Yellers were a dime a dozen and their way of doing things did bring some results, he also had to admit that sometimes he also wanted to yell his lungs out but past experience had showed him that if someone wanted results they had to shame the offending party in doing what’s right.
“Each one of us, by our words and actions, may end up deciding the fate of the entirety of our species. We are ambassadors, sent out to contact two warring galactic superpowers in the vague hopes that they won’t trample us in the midst of their squabbles.”
He looked everyone present deep in the eyes before continuing.
“Our orders are simple and yet nearly impossible; do and say anything in order to turn our species into an ally that is worthy of being protected and aided. We know that we are outmatched in every conceivable way and we know that neutrality is not a path that either of these powers allow others to tread.”
It was something that they all knew but he had to remind them, especially after the latest drill.
“On one hand we have the Umiak, an insectoid race that enslaves even its allies and on the other we have the Loroi, a race of telepaths that have so far wiped out two civilizations. That’s what the Orgus have told us and they weren’t lying when they did so. Both sides attack anyone who remains neutral so decide, do we take this mission seriously or do we jeopardize our future as a species?”
No one seemed to have an answer to that and he smiled.
“We will jump again in three hours, according to our intelligence we are about to enter former Tithric space, one of the species that the Loroi wiped out, chances are that only the dead will call the next few systems home but I want us to be ready for anything every time we jump. Dismissed.”
INDEX
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Chapter 1, Part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18213#p18213
Chapter 1, Part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18322#p18322
Chapter 1, Part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18323#p18323
Chapter 2, Part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18392#p18392
Chapter 2, Part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18448#p18448
Chapter 2, Part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18528#p18528
Chapter 3, Part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18578#p18578
Chapter 3, Part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18611#p18611
Chapter 4, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18664#p18664
Chapter 4, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18689#p18689
Chapter 4, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18735#p18735
Chapter 5, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18819#p18819
Chapter 5, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18938#p18938
Chapter 6, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18978#p18978
Chapter 6, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19059#p19059
Chapter 7, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19080#p19080
Chapter 7, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19103#p19103
Chapter 7, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19197#p19197
Chapter 8, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19254#p19254
Chapter 8, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19322#p19322
Chapter 8, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19427#p19427
Chapter 9, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19455#p19455
Chapter 9, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19509#p19509
Chapter 10, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19543#p19543
Chapter 10, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19625#p19625
Chapter 10, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19702#p19702
Chapter 11, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19980#p19980
Chapter 11, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20069#p20069
Chapter 11, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20135#p20135
Chapter 12, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20232#p20232
Chapter 12, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20258#p20258
Chapter 12, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20347#p20347
Chapter 13, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20426#p20426
Chapter 13, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20525#p20525
Chapter 13, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20687#p20687
Chapter 14, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20905#p20905
Chapter 14, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21023#p21023
Chapter 14, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21151#p21151
Chapter 15, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21350#p21350
Chapter 15, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21614#p21614
Chapter 15, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21714#p21714
Chapter 16, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21843#p21843
Chapter 16, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22134#p22134
Chapter 16, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22176#p22176
Chapter 17, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22337#p22337
Chapter 17, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22517#p22517
Chapter 18, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22613#p22613
Chapter 18, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22692#p22692
Chapter 18, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22886#p22886
Chapter 18, part 4: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22896#p22896
Chapter 19, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22950#p22950
Chapter 19, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=23064#p23064
Chapter 20, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=23081#p23081
Chapter 20, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=23082#p23082
Epilogue: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=23083#p23083
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Omake, Truth, Lies and Broken things: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=24480#p24480