{"id":1498,"date":"2020-04-06T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2020-04-06T09:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T13:00:08","slug":"circling-the-issue-sequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/?p=1498","title":{"rendered":"Circling The Issue – Sequence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Issue was listing badly in a failing orbit around Jupiter.\u00a0 She was dead in the water and her distress signal cut out abruptly on our approach.\u00a0 She was a heavy freighter loaded with uranium ore, bound for the refineries on Mars and long overdue\u2026something didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

We circled The Issue slowly about ten miles out \u2013 but with our engines hot in case it was a trap.\u00a0 There were raiders in this sector who often used derelicts to stage their attacks.\u00a0 There was no response to my hail, no wi-fi, no beams\u2026no strobes.\u00a0 Sensors showed cold engines and no (human) life signs. \u00a0I found a weird glitch in the data, something unrecognizable\u2026.but not enough to put the crew off their prize.\u00a0 The salvage on The Issue would make every man on board filthy rich.\u00a0 I was the only one still arguing for caution but none of the men wanted the opinion of someone like me.\u00a0 I was property and was not entitled to a share anyway.<\/p>\n

When the Captain (despite my misgivings) gave the order to board, we moved in and docked with\u00a0reckless abandon.\u00a0 A combat team stood at the ready as I popped the air lock.\u00a0 They made me go first.\u00a0 They always made the android go first. \u00a0I was the most expendable\u2026expensive but not valuable.<\/p>\n

And\u2026as I swung the hatch open, a sudden violent flood of spidery greenish critters swarmed through the airlock by the hundreds.\u00a0 I guess I didn\u2019t taste good because they left me alone and flowed past me, devouring the crew as they went. \u00a0I waited.\u00a0 It took them 19 minutes to scour the ship from bow to stern and I listened to each and every man screaming his last \u2013 the men who treated me like shit for two solid years \u2013 the men who sneered at my warnings.<\/p>\n

I waited\u2026to see what this\u00a0NEW crew had to offer.\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t be any worse than the last one\u2026..this could be interesting!<\/p>\n

***Above, we’ve posted the rough sketch sequence for an illustration originally commissioned by Analog Magazine for their May 2006 issue.\u00a0 Now it is a feature in our new book, “A Short Burst” along with it’s new flash-fiction short story (also posted here).\u00a0 It is one of our favorite robot stories.\u00a0 Find “A Short Burst” and all our books at www.sallemander.com.\u00a0 \u00a0 -Marsha<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Issue was listing badly in a failing orbit around Jupiter.\u00a0 She was dead in the water and her distress signal cut out abruptly on our approach.\u00a0 She was a heavy freighter loaded with uranium ore, bound for the refineries on Mars and long overdue\u2026something didn\u2019t feel right. We circled The Issue slowly about ten … Continue reading Circling The Issue – Sequence<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242,150,106,124],"tags":[79,56,250,28,38,10,131,19,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1507,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}