Sunday Snippet: Wires Crossed

Argh!!! The Flash, Arrow, and Agents of SHIELD left off at cliffhangery moments. But what awesome episodes!!! I have lots and lots of thoughts, but won't share here for the sake of saving some space. LOL

Haven has one more week and will end on a double episode. I truly hope it ends well, mainly because I've been with the show since the very beginning.

The Librarians and Agent X are still entertaining me. I really enjoyed last week's Agent X and can't wait to see what happens this week. Gotta say the actor playing the foil in last week's episode is making the rounds. He's been on a lot of shows I've been watching.

Looking forward to Agent Carter coming soon. I love the format and the entire cast of characters. Can't wait.

That's it for the TV roundup this week.

Tonight's post is from Wires Crossed, a novella where my main characters have a ton of conflict to work through.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Vanessa Twill and Justin Hardwick don't always see eye to eye and the tension between them is thick and taut. When a training exercise goes bad, the duo is grounded until they get their act together. Forced to communicate, they work out some issues and realize they didn't have their wires crossed… a saboteur did. Literally.

And a sneaky peek…

Vanessa Twill sat in the cockpit, watching her trainee perform a difficult series of maneuvers. "Nice job, Catnap. A little rough on the ending sequence though." She typed in a brief report on the comm screen. "I want you to spend an extra hour or two in the simulator this week."

Catnap, also known as Catherine Napali, replied, "Copy that, Lieutenant." She flew around and got into formation with the other trainees.

The next cadet flew out, not one of hers, and Vanessa settled in for a few minutes of relaxation.

"Hey, Van. Your newb made some sloppy mistakes out there." Justin Hardwick broke into the radio silence on a ship-to-ship call.

Her counterpart in training often drove her mad with snide comments and too many helpful suggestions. They rarely saw eye-to-eye on teaching techniques. From the moment they'd met, they'd been at each other's throats over the right way to whip the new squadron into shape.

Vanessa flipped over to Justin's frequency. "She didn't do anything a few extra sessions in the simulator won't iron out." And some extra attention from Vanessa.

Justin's snort crackled over the radio. "She should go back out there and run the sequence three more times. Correct the mistake while she's making it."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. Justin's answer to any and all busted moves—repeat the exercise three times or more. If they didn't run the risk of damaging multibillion dollar spacecrafts, she might go along with the stupid idea.

She went to respond but her radar panel lit up like a pleasure casino. The squawk of everyone speaking at once had her cutting the main comms to drown out the noise and hopefully help the pilot in distress. Justin's candidate spun wildly and she stayed quiet while Justin calmly tried to talk him through the procedure to get back on track. When he failed, he had no other option but to have the kid get clear of the plane.

"Red Hen, eject, eject, eject." Justin's voice rang out, loud and clear, over the line.

Vanessa sucked in a harsh breath and held it, hoping like hell the kid remembered the location of the trigger mechanism. A second and a half later, the panel blew and the seat shot up and out of the plane, which continued to spiral out of control. Vanessa slowly exhaled, her heart beating a rapid staccato. She ordered the trainees back to the ship and led the formation to the hangar deck. Justin stayed behind, waiting on the SAR transport to come out and pick Rafe Hernandez, Red Hen, up.

Coming to a smooth landing, she popped the canopy of her bird and removed her helmet. Rising up, she looked around for the deck hand that she normally handed her equipment off to, but met the angry gaze of the XO, instead.

He shook his head. "That one was a little too close for comfort, Lieutenant. Let's make sure it doesn't happen again."

Slumping back down into the cockpit, Vanessa closed her eyes and counted to ten. They were lucky no one got hurt and Rafe remembered his training. But she'd give Rafe an earful when he got back in.

Justin and Vanessa have many a battle to fight and most of them are up hill.

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye