Sunday Snippet: Lover's Lament

What a week. I spent a lot of time texting family and friends in Texas to make sure they were making it through their worst deep freeze ever. Even my brother, who lived in Ohio for most of his life, had a tough time. He's in the Dallas area and, so far, has had two pipes burst. Here's hoping that's the worst of the damage.

Television ended up being pretty light this week. I caught another episode of No Offence, which I'm enjoying a lot.

Also finished up the final episode of Silent Witness for season eight. I'll be moving on to season nine this week.

I've heard some good things about Riverdale, so I should probably finish up what I have to watch and get started on the new season.

Weirdly, the sages have been feeding me a ton of new story ideas, which I love, but I also have a massive amount of WIPs that need to be finished. I need to have a sit-down chat with those pesky imps.

Tonight's post is from Lover's Lament, a novella that got a start with a writing community prompt.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Taryn Untied and Holmes Selari, two soldiers under a constant stream of pressure, start making mistakes due to lack of any kind of down time. Their superior officer finally orders them to take R&R on the Lover's Lament and promises to conveniently forget their location if anything else goes wrong. Thirty-six hours of alone time should clear up their cranky attitudes.

And a sneaky peek…

"Why the hell isn't my bird ready to go?" Taryn Untied stalked across the hangar deck and snagged the arm of a deckhand. "The retrofit should've been done four hours ago." Why didn't anything go right anymore?

Gee, maybe because everyone took stupid pills for breakfast.

The crewman, Janty Combs, pulled away from Taryn's grasp. "What retrofit, sir?" She grabbed the clipboard and ran her finger down the list of planes. "There's nothing listed here." Her gaze met Taryn's. "Did you check it on the post-flight report?"

Taryn had no idea if she had or not. She'd been lucky to get the craft landed after pulling a double shift rotation.

The deck chief nosed into the conversation. "Is there a problem here, lieutenant?"

Taryn snapped her gaze to his. "Yeah, chief. My bird is down and I'm due back out on the next shift." Her head spun at the thought. "Wanna tell me why the part didn't get installed?"

The chief, Robbie Newman, gave her a smug look. "I'm pretty sure it's because you didn't check the little ticky box to let us know it needed to be done."

Taryn did a slow five count. "Bullshit. Even if I didn't make the note, the stripped piece is noticeable. Anyone with a pair of eyeballs can see it right there in the open." She shouldn't have to explain any of this.

Robbie folded his arms over his chest. "Maybe so, lieutenant, but we have twenty-seven birds on the hangar deck right now."

Taryn snorted. "So what? Checks and balances, chief. The post-flight report isn't the be all end all of anything. It's your job to go over them between launches. The checklist is only a guide meant to help you out." She couldn't and shouldn't have to do everything.

Right, as if that makes a damn bit of difference.

Newman flung his arm out. "We've been a little busy, sir. In case you hadn't noticed." His voice lowered to an angry hiss.

Taryn resisted the urge to punch Robbie in the face. "Not a good comeback, chief. You should've caught it. Talk to me about busy when you're pulling back-to-back shifts on four hours of sleep. Until then, the whole deck crew can kiss my ass and fix my damn plane." But not in time for her to fly it. "Whose plane is available?"

The chief glanced at the ready board. "Tandem's is closest to the launch tube." His lips twitched.

Taryn closed her eyes. "Great." George Tandem always left his cockpit smelling like the putrid cologne he splashed on before every shift.

Robbie laughed and shook his head. "You asked. I answered."

Taryn gave him a level look. "I'm going to kill you in your sleep." If she didn't die from the overpowering scent of eau de George and utter exhaustion first.

I'm having a fun time writing this one. Taryn is about to flip out but help is on the way.

 

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

ML Skye