B en looked across the vast open space between the ruins of houses and the suspected community center of this ancient neighborhood. He stood in the center of what looked to be a large depression from the satellite imagery.
“I just don’t get it. Why would this be collapsed down like it is? The geologists didn’t find anything strange about the area. The substrate is all granite and they didn’t find evidence of caverns in the area.” Ben connected a coax cable from his tablet to the radar unit. “We’ll get to the bottom of this in just a few moments,” he said to himself then happily whistled a cheery tune as he finished connecting the equipment.
“Ben,” Camille shouted from the upper camp area. He turned to see the flapping orange tent material over the sandy ridge. Camille waved down at him. “Lunch is ready whenever you are.”
“I’ll be right there. Just let me test the sensors real quick.”
“Be safe!” She gave him a thumbs up and disappeared back behind the rise.
“Alright,” he said with an excited sigh. “Let’s see what secrets you can uncover for me today old girl.” He stood on the small platform of the radar ignitor and pulled the trigger. The unit, with him on it bucked and leapt a few inches from the ground. “That’s always a fun ride, right there.” He wiggled a pinky finger in an ear to clear the noise from the explosion as he checked the equipment readout. The obvious image of a skull and a scattering of other bones lined the area beneath the sensor pad. “Wait. That sort of resolution means it’s nearly on the surface already.”
Ben moved the sensor plate to the side and began to brush away ages worth of dusty sand. Quickly the bright white of bone revealed itself. He pulled a brush from his back pocket and skillfully brushed it away from the specimen.
“This can’t be right.” He frantically began to brush.
“Camille!”
Camille reappeared above the sandy rise. “Is everything alright, Ben?” Then her eyes caught on the unmistakable thing that he held high overhead. “Oh my,” she gasped.
Two human eye sockets and a complete jaw jeeringly glared back at her from across the dusty distance.
The End
Copyright © 2019 by William Joseph Roberts
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https://www.williamjosephroberts.com
Published by Three Ravens Publishing
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160 Park St. Chickamauga, Ga 30707
https://www.threeravenspublishing.com
By permission of the Author, Sara Brooke, and publisher, Crossroads Press, an extended quote from “The Bed” by Sara Brooke is included in “fLUX Runners”.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, contact the publisher listed above, addressed “Attention: Permissions” to the address above.
Publishers Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Credits:
fLUX Runners written by William Joseph Roberts/Three Ravens Publishing -- 1st edition, 2019
Cover art by Brendan Smith
ISBN 978-1-951768-00-3 Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-1-951768-01-0 Hardcover
This is a blank page.
Why you ask?
Just because that’s just the way that it all laid out. I couldn’t help it. I had to toss something in here.
OMG, you have a problem with blank pages, don’t you? Are you prejudice against a page being blank? Sometimes it is what it is and there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Shhhh, just let it happen. It’s all good, man. Nothing but rainbows and butterflies….
(Just for you, Tata. �� )
dEDICATION:
T o Meg, my loving, patient, and very tolerant wife; who has put up with my crazy caffeine induced ramblings over the years. You have been my rock, my sanity, and my voice of reason while I found my way through the darkness of self-doubt and fought my demons. Without you, I may never have completed any of my works. Without you, I would have been lost… er well? I’d probably be missing a few fingers or limbs by this point if it weren’t for you.
Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself.
Le grá go deo
Also, a thank you to my friends and family that have been there to support me through all of my craziness, and to help spur the ideas within this book. (I know by now a few of you are sick of hearing about it and just want me to be done.) A few of which I will list, namely our lovable crew. Y’all know who you are without last names, ya’ goofy bastards:
Meg, Doug, Krista, Wes, Kara, Pat, Amanda, Leah, Mel, Andy, Trae, Tiff, Cammie, Janey, Jenny, Denise, Cara, Danny, Chris, Flip, Bob, Richie, Rachel, Jamey, Ben, Camille, Steph, Becky, Perry, and all of the others that I’m forgetting in the wee hours of the morning.
Also, a huge thank you goes out to Project Gutenberg for allowing me to mention them and to make their efforts a huge part of my backstory. Check out the actual Project Gutenberg page here: https://www.gutenberg.org
Last but not least, a great big thank you goes out to some of my fellow authors. To those who have been there to bounce ideas off of and offer input, no matter how painful it might have been. Thank you to Dan Hollifield, Christopher Woods, Taylor Anderson and especially to Benjamin Smith and R.J. Ladon. You two have probably heard more of my insane mind squirrel ranting than anyone else. Thank you, guys. Thanks for putting up with my sorry ass on this crazy ride
aUTHORS nOTE
T his novel, along with so many of my other stories have been a long, drawn-out labor of love. I have conquered, or at least temporarily vanquished those evil demon voices of self-doubt that we all must deal with when completing the first novel of what I hope will be many more to come.
This particular story began life as a nifty idea back in 2010 or so. The thought was how could a crew of asteroid miners pirate another vessel and get away with it. It was jotted down and tossed into the slush pile for later use. Well, this one didn’t take too kindly to just laying around collecting dust. It nagged at me. It beckoned to be heard. So, I started adding to the thought, a note here, a scribble there and the story grew. After piddling around for the better part of a year with the outline I sat down in September of 2018 and punched out the raw meat of the story in a few months’ time. It has been one hell of a learning and growth process, which I think has paid off tremendously. I have grown on many levels as an author with this particular work. I’m relieved that it is done, but the story isn’t finished yet. I have another 6 or so books to write in this series, time and life-permitting.
Part of the inspiration for fLUX Runners comes from what is, in my opinion, the best space opera game to date, Starflight. It may not have had the best graphics, but what game really did in 1986? It was the gameplay and the emersion into the universe that I loved. The feelings of adventure and curiosity that it evoked overwhelmed me at times. I discovered new worlds, hidden mysteries, and alien races. I learned so many things about elements from the periodic table and how to physically measure a cubic meter because of this game. Hell, I still have my notes from all those years ago. I’m sure that I played way too many hours of this game like many others on my ancient, dual floppy drive Franklin 2000 personal computer. If I think hard enough, I can almost hear the drives grinding as they processed the massive amounts of data for this game; (everything for this game was contained on two 360K diskettes.)
So, needless to
say, this story has brought back a bit of nostalgia for me. I have laughed, I have cried, and I have gotten pissed off along with these characters as their lives have been fleshed out into something for all to enjoy.
Also, as a thank you and a bow down of my unworthiness to all of those who have inspired my thoughts and my style, you’ll find more than a few Easter eggs laced into the pages of this work of fiction. Good luck finding them all, because I’ve started missing them myself at this point.
I hope that you truly enjoy fLUX Runners and fall in love with these characters and this universe as much as I have.
Prepare yourself for an adventure with a lovable crew of degenerates and misfits as they dive into the dark unknown….
Flux Runners Page 45
