ALIEN: Manticore
Blackwinter-witch
MemberPraetorianApril 04, 2017UPDATE: September 05 2017***************
ALIEN: Manticore is now past the 110,000 word mark. :D
That's why I've been so scarce around here, busy-busy-busy with writing and housekeeping, Life's usual hurdles, etc..
There's also short-stories coming soon-ish. They're being worked on, but have to be adjusted as the Main story progresses to eliminate continuity errors and such other annoyances.
One short-story ties-in to a work found here having to do with Walter's fate on 'Paradise'.
The other gives my views on the origin of The Alien, which I am titling ALIEN: Origins and it's far more deserving of that title than Alan Dean Foster's Covenant prequel.
A third short-story is loosely-related to the ALIENverse, but will be available for reading also.
END UPDATE*******************
I'll be posting little excerpts and teasers here, entertaining questions (though some I may not be able to answer) and I hope you guys enjoy this little window into my perspective on the ALIENverse. :) This is all partially-edited material, so it's going to be rough and have flaws.
This little bit calls-back to something Ridley Scott wanted for ALIEN, the 'flying mouse drones'. I love the idea, and as a nod of Respect and Appreciation to R. Scott, here they are in their scene.
" The ship tended itself, and it’s hibernating crew conscientiously. It constantly monitored everything aboard and outside, surveilling the cosmos via it’s sensor arrays and their sophisticated instruments. It watched, listened, and in some ways it ‘smelled’ ‘touched’ and ‘tasted’ the universe around it.
In the engine section and elsewhere throughout the vessel, the hundreds of tiny drones that swarmed and flitted about only in the absence of the crew had once again emerged, performing their tasks tirelessly. They were semi-autonomous mouse-sized extensions of the mainframe intelligence, it’s roving eyes, ears and hands, ever-vigilant over their country of darkened, cold, minimal-gravity, nitrogen-filled corridors, rooms and chambers.
As the ship came into range of comm relays, it established contact, checked for messages and other items of information the crew had stated preferences for. It collected what there was to be had, flagged items for each member of the crew and continued it’s vigil and voyage.
Sometime later, a signal impinged on antennae sensitive enough to pick up the extremely weak radio-frequency emission, one in the sub-milliwatt range, and conforming to no known comms protocol. It ran, there was a break of precisely twelve seconds, then the signal repeated again.
The computer recorded it, worked out a fix on the emission-point, and flagged it for the Captain’s attention.
Weeks later, it detected a new signal, from the same emission-point as the earlier one. This one was stronger and clearer: A standard-format distress beacon and Emergency Location Beacon.
The artificial intelligence double-checked the emission-point, re-analyzed the earlier, now silent, beacon and compared it to the Interstellar Trade and Commerce Commission standard beacon it had detected. It examined the distances involved to the nearest comm relay, worked out how many years the EM signal would take to reach it at the light-speed limits of radio transmissions.
Manticore did not possess the ITCC-mandated overrides that would force it to go to the distress beacon. The laws on Shadowfall dictated that responding to a distress beacon was strictly ‘Captain’s Discretion’.
In accordance with that, the computer began restoring the ship to Human Habitation standards, altering course to the star system that the emissions were coming from and bringing the Captain out of hypersleep."
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Well, best I can offer is a PDF version right now, it's a long ways from Publishing-ready. I know what you mean, there's just something about a Book.
Would the PDF be okay?
TY for the compliment!! :D
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
OH. Well, when it's all done, yeah, I can put up a link to a download place and you can print it off NP. :D I have a 4shared account, Mega, etc...
Oh, the above excerpt, that's from page 24. ;)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thank-you and you're welcome!! Glad you liked it!! More excerpts will come, it's a bit of a trick deciding what to reveal and what not to. ;)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
we've all seen Nostromo's bridge, and while Manticore is built-up from a similar ship, a slightly later model, when it's owner and Captain was having work done, he went with a more appropriate bridge for a crew who would be spending a lot more awake-time aboard and working and such.
My Thanks to Ron Cobb (posthumously) for the wonderful concept art he did!!
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thank-you VERY much!!! Glad you enjoyed the read!
If you're inspired, go for it.
Also, always remember: If you don't like what you write/how it 'works'...you can ALWAYS fix it in editing.
Editing is your friend, remembering that keeps the discouragement gremlins away. :) I love it because we Humans usually have great hindsight and Edits allow us to USE that to best advantage. :)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thank-you!! I really appreciate the compliments!! I agree with you about this forum, totally, but I guess you knew that about me already? :)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thank-You!! Glad you enjoyed reading it and like my perspective on the ALIENverse!! This isn't the actual 'Start' of the story, it's from Page 24.
I wanted to have a similar scene as we get in the beginning of ALIEN, both because it has a great 'feel' and as a proper 'nod' to the film that started it all, but had plans for a different Story-start, so I worked it in during an in-story flight. :)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thanks! :) When I first heard about this old idea of R. Scott's, I loved it on the spot. It's interesting, logical, and is demonstrative of technology in the universe. 'Maintenance mice' I guess you could call them :)
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
Thank-you!! Glad you did! I write in this universe because I love the 'feel' of it, it's grittiness and lack of space-opera qualities. (Space Opera is great, but it's like pizza compared to the medium-rare 'steak' that is the ALIENverse).
That all said, part of why I write in this universe is to remind people of the 'feel', introduce newcomers to such, and those of us who love it get a trip back into it. I write for myself, but I enjoy sharing my works with those who share the same perspective as many of us long-time fans do.
IN SPACE THERE IS NO WARNING
