Post by Mouse on Oct 1, 2004 4:02:02 GMT
Well, as anybody who has seen my Livejournal lately would know, I have been waiting to hear back from Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine about a story of mine that was shortlisted there. I finally got the verdict this morning... it didn't make the final cut. Anyway, I'm hoping to get rid of it somewhere else, so I thought I'd stick it up here for some opinions on what I could do for another polish/draft, and also on possible markets it might fit. Tell me what you think, k? Details would be good, if it's not too much trouble. 
One thing, and one thing only, made being a pirate worth it.
The nightlife was to die for.
I hadn’t been part of the pirate clique for very long when the znyih who sponsored my ship got me into the most notorious and elitist bar in the Underground.
Gossip was a common thing on Rae, and the place that most frequently featured in stories was the Baru Mada. In my few months serving as a pirate, I’d heard more things about that place and the people who schmoozed there than anything else. A few times I’d sauntered past. Its door was always closed, it was always louder than any other bar in the Underground, and in the morning there were always more tales circulating.
The night my znyih snuck me in the back door was no exception.
It was musky inside, the thick scent of smoke and sweat breaking over me like a tide. My eyes took a few moments to adjust to the hazy gloom. Over our heads arched a wide metal staircase that led to a catwalk around the walls. I peered between the steps at the main floor. It was surprising, really. For such a small bar the Baru Mada sure attracted a lot of controversy.
My znyih, a raecan that went by the name of Mitza, jabbed me in the back. Folding back his black znyih overcoat, he walked past me to lead the way through the relatively small but contagiously intense crowd. They parted only slightly for the znyih, and I was careful not to be crushed in the wake.
Mitza took a seat at a small round table on a slight dais against the back wall. From this vantage point, I could see that the only illumination came from the bright neon blue tube light that wormed its way across the back wall of the bar. The light made the large old-fashioned flip board that kept tabs and tracked how much pilots were drinking the night before a job clearly visible. There were a few names that even I recognised on that board. Lynx NovaSpeed, Hack Starchaser, Xray LightHugger. All pilots with impressive exploits and notorious histories under their belts.
“How often do those guys hang out here?” I asked Mitza, angling a thumb at the board.
Mitza shrugged, gesturing at a waitress with hair dyed an insane grape purple. “Often enough.”<br>
I accepted his vague answer, focussing on an increasing ruckus by the bar as he ordered from the purple haired waitress. Craning my neck, I saw a woman climb onto the bar. The Baru Mada erupted into shouts and whistles at her appearance, but she quickly quelled them with a gesture.
I thingyed my head, taking her in. The neon blue behind the bar complimented her glacial blue hair and dress. A decidedly confident pout graced lips coloured to match her hair, and it didn’t surprise me that the crowd was mostly quiet while someone passed a mike patch to her. She was a long way from classical beauty, with her generous curves and wide face, but the sensuality and confidence she oozed captivated where no physical attribute could.
With deft efficiency she stuck the mike patch to the front of her throat, clearing her now amplified voice a few times in an obvious tease. She gestured to the DJ on the catwalk and the tek beat that had been assaulting my ears scratched to stop, quickly replaced by a new one.
“Hey y’all!” The woman shouted. A raucous response met her greeting, and this time it did not abate. She didn’t seem to mind. “Floyd here tells me things have been quiet lately,” she said, striding to the other end of the bar to brush the bartender’s hair with a well-manicured hand.
At this her audience burst into their most ear-drum-breaking response yet. I smiled. The girl knew how to work her crowd.
“So,” she continued. “I’m gonna help liven it up a bit, ya like?” She grinned before starting to sing, her voice, even more sultry than before, slipping over and through the crowd like heavy velvet. I watched for a few more moments, caught by how incredibly sexy she managed to be singing and dancing on a bar. I’d never seen a woman pull it off without looking at least a little tacky.
I nudged Mitza with my elbow. “Who’s that?”<br>
Mitza actually laughed. “Shut your mouth before you drool all over your knees. That’s Gigabyte Starchaser. So far out of your league she’s in another universe.”<br>
“That’s Gigabyte?”<br>
“The one and only.”<br>
I paused. “Starchaser. So she works on the same team as Hack?”<br>
“Sure does.” Mitza nodded. “I know, I’d kill to get a team with even one pirate like them on my payroll, but hey,” he shrugged. “We all know Gig and Hack Starchaser are freaks of nature and Cale Starchaser is the luckiest son of a bitch ever born to get both of them.” He pulled a cigarette case from a pocket in his znyih overcoat, offered me one. “Anyway. I suppose you know what I want.”<br>
I took the proffered cigarette, allowing him to light it. “Yes. The Scrambler protocol I wrote.”<br>
Mitza nodded. “A few of my clients have heard about it, and think it might have application potential in their own…lines of work.” He paused for a moment, lighting his own cigarette and tucking case and lighter away. “I was thinking perhaps we could come to a mutually lucrative arrangement.”<br>
I took a long drag on my cigarette, blowing out a thin stream of smoke. For a moment I let my eyes slip back to Gigabyte. Then I focussed on Mitza. “Alright. Draw up the numbers, and if they’re as mutually lucrative as you suggest you have a deal.” He grinned, but I held up a hand. “One condition.”<br>
His eyes grew dark. Znyih didn’t like other people, particularly people who worked for them, calling the shots. “What?”<br>
“Introduce me to Gigabyte.”<br>
The darkness dropped from Mitza’s eyes, even if he still didn’t look entirely happy. “I can’t do that. How would I do that?”<br>
It was my turn to laugh. “Come on Mitza. You got us into the Baru Mada, and everyone knows that she pretty much runs this joint. And you don’t talk about her as if you only know her by name.”<br>
Mitza shrugged, tapping ash into the tray. “You’d just end up screwed. Not that I do know her.”<br>
I frowned. “I’m smarter than letting some woman get one up on me.”<br>
A suspicious cough met my reply. “No,” Mitza said. “I mean literally screwed. Fucked, laid, whatever you want to call it.” He grinned. “And this is not some woman we’re talking about. This is Gigabyte Starchaser. She’s sly. You now, there’s even a phrase around here for getting screwed…literally and figuratively… by her.”<br>
My eyes rolled of their own accord. “Stop trying to talk me out of it and tell me if it’s a deal.”<br>
Mitza drummed his fingers restlessly, twisting his cigarette out on the edge of the ashtray. “Deal,” he said finally, tugging his distinct black overcoat into a more visible arrangement as he stood. “Wait a minute.”<br>I watched as he threaded his way through the crowd to a set of tables right in the thick of things. It was hard to see clearly through the haze and blue light to those tables in the midst of the shifting press of bodies, but I could see well enough to make out the man he was talking to. Pale blonde hair, iridescent blue eyes, and short enough to be almost lost in the crush. After a few moments the blonde man nodded, and Mitza worked his way back to our table.
“You’re gonna get your wish,” he said, lighting up again. “Don’t come crying to me if she lands you in shit.”<br>
I ignored his muttering. He was just bitchy because I’d called a shot. “Who was that?”<br>
“That?” Mitza gestured in a dismissive manner. “That was Hack.”<br>
“That was Hack StarChaser?” I scanned the crowd for the diminutive blonde man, but he had been swallowed by the crowd. “Do you know the whole StarChaser team?”<br>
Mitza shrugged. “That’s my business, not yours.”
A swell of shouts and cries interrupted him, and we both looked to the bar where Gigabyte was abandoning the spotlight. When I looked away again, I noticed Mitza staring at me with a strange look in his eyes.
“What?”<br>
He shook his head. “Nothing. Look, here comes Gigabyte.”<br>
I spotted her, shimmying her way through the crowd towards us. She flounced over to our table, and I wondered where her spirit came from. Rae was a place that usually quenched such things.
With a movement that looked very practised, she swung a chair from a neighbouring table around and sat very close to me. The movement almost masked the look she gave Mitza, the look you often see pass between people who once upon a time shared a good shag or two but are now only friends.
I wondered what else Mitza wasn’t telling me.
Gigabyte picked up his cigarette from the tray, taking a thoughtful drag as she sized me up shamelessly. As her eyes drifted up and down, she blew out a thin wisp of smoke.
GIGABYTE DOWNLOAD
By Narelle Bailey
Please don't take this anywhere without asking me first, okay?
One thing, and one thing only, made being a pirate worth it.
The nightlife was to die for.
I hadn’t been part of the pirate clique for very long when the znyih who sponsored my ship got me into the most notorious and elitist bar in the Underground.
Gossip was a common thing on Rae, and the place that most frequently featured in stories was the Baru Mada. In my few months serving as a pirate, I’d heard more things about that place and the people who schmoozed there than anything else. A few times I’d sauntered past. Its door was always closed, it was always louder than any other bar in the Underground, and in the morning there were always more tales circulating.
The night my znyih snuck me in the back door was no exception.
It was musky inside, the thick scent of smoke and sweat breaking over me like a tide. My eyes took a few moments to adjust to the hazy gloom. Over our heads arched a wide metal staircase that led to a catwalk around the walls. I peered between the steps at the main floor. It was surprising, really. For such a small bar the Baru Mada sure attracted a lot of controversy.
My znyih, a raecan that went by the name of Mitza, jabbed me in the back. Folding back his black znyih overcoat, he walked past me to lead the way through the relatively small but contagiously intense crowd. They parted only slightly for the znyih, and I was careful not to be crushed in the wake.
Mitza took a seat at a small round table on a slight dais against the back wall. From this vantage point, I could see that the only illumination came from the bright neon blue tube light that wormed its way across the back wall of the bar. The light made the large old-fashioned flip board that kept tabs and tracked how much pilots were drinking the night before a job clearly visible. There were a few names that even I recognised on that board. Lynx NovaSpeed, Hack Starchaser, Xray LightHugger. All pilots with impressive exploits and notorious histories under their belts.
“How often do those guys hang out here?” I asked Mitza, angling a thumb at the board.
Mitza shrugged, gesturing at a waitress with hair dyed an insane grape purple. “Often enough.”<br>
I accepted his vague answer, focussing on an increasing ruckus by the bar as he ordered from the purple haired waitress. Craning my neck, I saw a woman climb onto the bar. The Baru Mada erupted into shouts and whistles at her appearance, but she quickly quelled them with a gesture.
I thingyed my head, taking her in. The neon blue behind the bar complimented her glacial blue hair and dress. A decidedly confident pout graced lips coloured to match her hair, and it didn’t surprise me that the crowd was mostly quiet while someone passed a mike patch to her. She was a long way from classical beauty, with her generous curves and wide face, but the sensuality and confidence she oozed captivated where no physical attribute could.
With deft efficiency she stuck the mike patch to the front of her throat, clearing her now amplified voice a few times in an obvious tease. She gestured to the DJ on the catwalk and the tek beat that had been assaulting my ears scratched to stop, quickly replaced by a new one.
“Hey y’all!” The woman shouted. A raucous response met her greeting, and this time it did not abate. She didn’t seem to mind. “Floyd here tells me things have been quiet lately,” she said, striding to the other end of the bar to brush the bartender’s hair with a well-manicured hand.
At this her audience burst into their most ear-drum-breaking response yet. I smiled. The girl knew how to work her crowd.
“So,” she continued. “I’m gonna help liven it up a bit, ya like?” She grinned before starting to sing, her voice, even more sultry than before, slipping over and through the crowd like heavy velvet. I watched for a few more moments, caught by how incredibly sexy she managed to be singing and dancing on a bar. I’d never seen a woman pull it off without looking at least a little tacky.
I nudged Mitza with my elbow. “Who’s that?”<br>
Mitza actually laughed. “Shut your mouth before you drool all over your knees. That’s Gigabyte Starchaser. So far out of your league she’s in another universe.”<br>
“That’s Gigabyte?”<br>
“The one and only.”<br>
I paused. “Starchaser. So she works on the same team as Hack?”<br>
“Sure does.” Mitza nodded. “I know, I’d kill to get a team with even one pirate like them on my payroll, but hey,” he shrugged. “We all know Gig and Hack Starchaser are freaks of nature and Cale Starchaser is the luckiest son of a bitch ever born to get both of them.” He pulled a cigarette case from a pocket in his znyih overcoat, offered me one. “Anyway. I suppose you know what I want.”<br>
I took the proffered cigarette, allowing him to light it. “Yes. The Scrambler protocol I wrote.”<br>
Mitza nodded. “A few of my clients have heard about it, and think it might have application potential in their own…lines of work.” He paused for a moment, lighting his own cigarette and tucking case and lighter away. “I was thinking perhaps we could come to a mutually lucrative arrangement.”<br>
I took a long drag on my cigarette, blowing out a thin stream of smoke. For a moment I let my eyes slip back to Gigabyte. Then I focussed on Mitza. “Alright. Draw up the numbers, and if they’re as mutually lucrative as you suggest you have a deal.” He grinned, but I held up a hand. “One condition.”<br>
His eyes grew dark. Znyih didn’t like other people, particularly people who worked for them, calling the shots. “What?”<br>
“Introduce me to Gigabyte.”<br>
The darkness dropped from Mitza’s eyes, even if he still didn’t look entirely happy. “I can’t do that. How would I do that?”<br>
It was my turn to laugh. “Come on Mitza. You got us into the Baru Mada, and everyone knows that she pretty much runs this joint. And you don’t talk about her as if you only know her by name.”<br>
Mitza shrugged, tapping ash into the tray. “You’d just end up screwed. Not that I do know her.”<br>
I frowned. “I’m smarter than letting some woman get one up on me.”<br>
A suspicious cough met my reply. “No,” Mitza said. “I mean literally screwed. Fucked, laid, whatever you want to call it.” He grinned. “And this is not some woman we’re talking about. This is Gigabyte Starchaser. She’s sly. You now, there’s even a phrase around here for getting screwed…literally and figuratively… by her.”<br>
My eyes rolled of their own accord. “Stop trying to talk me out of it and tell me if it’s a deal.”<br>
Mitza drummed his fingers restlessly, twisting his cigarette out on the edge of the ashtray. “Deal,” he said finally, tugging his distinct black overcoat into a more visible arrangement as he stood. “Wait a minute.”<br>I watched as he threaded his way through the crowd to a set of tables right in the thick of things. It was hard to see clearly through the haze and blue light to those tables in the midst of the shifting press of bodies, but I could see well enough to make out the man he was talking to. Pale blonde hair, iridescent blue eyes, and short enough to be almost lost in the crush. After a few moments the blonde man nodded, and Mitza worked his way back to our table.
“You’re gonna get your wish,” he said, lighting up again. “Don’t come crying to me if she lands you in shit.”<br>
I ignored his muttering. He was just bitchy because I’d called a shot. “Who was that?”<br>
“That?” Mitza gestured in a dismissive manner. “That was Hack.”<br>
“That was Hack StarChaser?” I scanned the crowd for the diminutive blonde man, but he had been swallowed by the crowd. “Do you know the whole StarChaser team?”<br>
Mitza shrugged. “That’s my business, not yours.”
A swell of shouts and cries interrupted him, and we both looked to the bar where Gigabyte was abandoning the spotlight. When I looked away again, I noticed Mitza staring at me with a strange look in his eyes.
“What?”<br>
He shook his head. “Nothing. Look, here comes Gigabyte.”<br>
I spotted her, shimmying her way through the crowd towards us. She flounced over to our table, and I wondered where her spirit came from. Rae was a place that usually quenched such things.
With a movement that looked very practised, she swung a chair from a neighbouring table around and sat very close to me. The movement almost masked the look she gave Mitza, the look you often see pass between people who once upon a time shared a good shag or two but are now only friends.
I wondered what else Mitza wasn’t telling me.
Gigabyte picked up his cigarette from the tray, taking a thoughtful drag as she sized me up shamelessly. As her eyes drifted up and down, she blew out a thin wisp of smoke.
