Worth

The scaled hand set the deep red gem on the counter.  It was a breathtaking specimen, the size of a fist or heart.  “How much is this one worth?” the raspy voice hissed from beneath the cowl of the cloak.

The judge looked up casually eyeing the obscured figure.  He lifted the gem and carefully examined it through his loop.

"I'll give you 10 years."

The breath hissed angrily in and out somewhere in the shadows of the cloak.  The judge looked nonplussed, almost bored as he stared at the figure waiting for the answer.

"Done," the voice finally hissed.

The word was barely finished when the judge lunged forward grabbing it's claw.  The creature hissed in pain or rapture as life flowed back into it.

"Begone." the judge said pushing the creature's claw away from him with disdain.

It turned and left without another word setting off to hunt for its next fix, the next soul.

Word Count: 157
@NomDeBen
Entry For: ThursThreads Week 85

Three

Her heart pounded fiercely under her ribs.  She clutched the rope in desperation knowing that the black maw waited below to consume her again.

"Carmen!" James voice rang out above in panic.

"Still here!" she shouted.  "The harness broke."  She tried to remain calm.

"What!?  You're OK?" he sounded incredulous and hopeful.

Deep Space Hunger

The ship deftly rounded the spinning asteroid sighting the alien cruiser as it attempted to elude

Week 84 Honorable Mention

destruction.  The photon capacitors discharged into space and the fleeing vessel blossomed into oblivion.   The black of space consumed the explosion with a quick snap.

“Nice shooting B9”, squelched the tinny voice over the radio.

“Thanks C7, you keep flushing ‘em out and I’ll take ‘em down.”  He replied performing a nose over and reversing direction in less than a heartbeat avoiding the spreading debris.  “This never gets old.”

It Only Takes One

The nanos had healed his fractured skull and ribs but had left the searing brand on his back untouched. The burn was the last thing they did to him before he lost consciousness. He was wide awake during his brutal beating. The guards took turns trying to one up each other. They knew the rehab-stick would not allow them to kill him, but they swung it like they were trying. Somehow their poison laughter was louder than his agony. “Gotta teach you citizens a lesson” they jeered, “It only takes one bad apple to spoil the lot.” they taunted.

Old Stuff - The Last Say

Ok, to kick things off, I went through some old stuff I'd written as a reminder of how far I've come.  This is an old poem I wrote back in college.  Yes, they had word processors back then.  Only we called it WordPerfect (is that even a thing anymore?).  I promise, I'll get some new stuff up here soon.

The Last Say

A rock tends not to talk too much
and a stone, being simple, says very little.
other than this they are thoroughly the same.
small stones are older than boulders.
But mountains, much more aged than rocks,
simply scream their slow thoughts to the sky.

Writing

In my day job I do lots of business writing.  For fun I enjoy fiction reading and writing.  I am a techno-geek at heart and have grown up on a steady diet of hard core scifi and fantasy.  Growing up I was never seen without a book.  Now, I've written one.  Right now it's in editing/re-writing mode I'll post progress and maybe even a few pages or chapters here as I get closer to some kind of publishable work.
For the most part, I intend to use this blank page to post and write about writing; to practice smaller works and maybe even share some short stories.

Enough said as an intro.