No, not freewriting. I gave up on that for the most part. Spent more time analyzing than writing.
No, I mean writing freely, just starting with a plot thought and running with it. Like I used to. No going back over it and editing, just….moving along the conveyor belt that is the story.
To that end, I wrote over 3000 words today. Go ahead, say wow. Feel free to toss an ‘amazing’ or two.
What story did I start? Would you believe a brand spankin’ new one? Mostly. Consider it backstory for one of my SFs I got burbling on the back burner. I like it much.
The craft, as it had been for a long time as a scout Class IX Zenith, was on auto pilot. Eventually it and its tortured crew passed beyond the signal wave. It had dedicated most of its power and capabilities to various scientific studies during this time as it had been instructed to do. As power was automatically diverted back to various systems, the medical emergency protocols were engaged as the medical computer detected the intense mental and physical stress of everyone on board. Medical emergency protocols typically were engaged by a member of the crew, not by the ship itself but there were a sub-set of protocols that had been made for such an event where the entire crew were incapacitated. This sub-routine was engaged.
The First Medical Officer was located by the mobile bio-medic. A quick scan indicated the presence of physical pain and a medication was administered followed by the turning on of her internal nanites. Naddoc groaned and rolled over. The first thing she saw was the small bio-medic. It’s presence told her several things before the small robot spoke. It gave her, in a quiet, quick speech, the essentials of the crew as a whole.
“Engage Medical Emergency Protocol. Name: Chaos. Level:…” she paused and looked around. Two crewmembers near her were beginning to move but did not seem capable of much else. “Level: 8. Repeat.”
“Engage Medical Emergency Protocol. Chaos Level 8.” The bio-medic repeated back to her.
“Accepted. Begin.”
By the time she felt well enough to stand, every crewmember except her and the captain had been put into bio-tubes. The tubes would have been connected to the nearest terminals and the basic medical needs of the crew were being met. If any of them were experiencing life-threatening conditions or were beyond the capabilities of the non-medical terminals they were attached to, the pod would be taken to the infirmary and connected to terminals there. The Captain, if she had complied and followed the protocol, would be on a bio-bed in the infirmary. The pods containing the other First Officers would have been moved to the infirmary for her to check immediately, after any life threatening patients were seen to.
Naddoc slowly made her way across the room and into the hallway. Along the way, she glanced at the bio-pods and was pleased to see so many still in place. There were enough terminals in the infirmary for every crewmember if necessary but the more that were in the hallways, the less work it meant for her.
“Doc, about time you got your feathers in here.” The Captain, laying down on the bio-bed, grunted without opening her eyes.
“Speak softly, please.” Naddoc leaned against the bed and pulled the screen toward her. “Condition?”
I know, I know, VERY rough but that’s okay. I like that. I like that raw feeling of just simply writing freely. Letting the words form on the screen.
I call this story Watchers as that is what they are doing.
And I hate coming up with alien names. Because, you know, they aren’t going to be named Margaret and Liz or even Emily. And I won’t do the alien names full of apostrophes either. Like E’that or M’that. So I got Flex and Naddoc and Cam and Beft and Maht. And a lot of red lines in the document since I’ve not started a WIP specific dictionary yet.
