Chyani's peaceful life on a human lunar colony is abruptly stripped away when a reptilian alien, Raven Tide, invades and abducts her from her home. Then she discovers they're being hunted by monsters! Shipwrecks, bloodthirsty zealots, giant alien ca...
"It's too early," I yawned, stretching my arms up until the artificial joint on my prosthetic shoulder popped. The sun was far from risen, but once I'm up, I'm up.
Today was going to be crazy.
"Gotta get the Wassi deadline finished today," I spoke out loud to an empty house as I peeled the sheets off my naked skin and swung my feet to the stone tile floor. "And get the prep research started for Miles if there's time afterward."
I always start off ambitious like this, then four false starts and a dozen check-in calls from clients later, my perfectly organized schedule gets wrecked beyond recovery and I inevitably wind up knocking out from exhaustion by the time the sun sets.
I slipped on some shorts, my sports bra, and a tank top, then wandered into the bathroom.
The digital readout of my upcoming calendar lit up across the mirror. My brother's birthday was coming up.
"Hecte's gonna expect me there in person," I rolled my eyes and started brushing my teeth. Probably gonna try setting me up with another one of his jar-head cop co-workers.
I spat into the sink.
"At least he picks the cute ones," I snickered to myself. "Not much for stimulating conversation, but at least it makes it easy to smile and nod at them while they blather on and on about themselves."
I paused and pondered the shower.
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"No, Chyani!" I shook my head and pulled my long brown hair into a ponytail, then went in search of a fresh pair of socks. "You can treat yourself after the jog."
Before exiting the bathroom, I made my daily pit stop at the med-scanner on the wall and gave the command for a basic diagnostic on my prosthetic right arm.
–Within Margins– popped up on the mirror in green.
There were still a few packets of cherry yogurts in the fridge and one slightly less-green banana sitting on the bottom of my recently acquired bunch.
The sight of the two nutritious items on the metal kitchen countertop made my stomach churn.
"Don't skip breakfast," I forced myself to peel the banana. "Remember what happened the last time. You'll feel awful mid-jog and you'll have no one else to blame but yourself."
The banana proved challenging to chew. It was too early to eat, but I had to. I'm not naturally a morning person, but life had begrudgingly forged me into a very efficient one.
BLINK blink —
The lights flickered and then went out.
"Ugg," I tapped on the unresponsive virtual hud built into my countertop and verified that the power was out. "Not again."
I looked out the expansive wall of windows and across the barren scrub-brush desert toward the mountains. The Ferigan's house, three miles away, was still overrun with construction equipment.
