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The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH46

He woke with a start and fought the disorientation. Where was the bright light? Omar’s distorted voice?

He felt the arm over his chest. The fur, the nose against his neck, and he relaxed. He was home. It had been part of his training. A horrible part, but a needed one. Thur and his packmates had told him. Made him feel that it didn’t change how they felt about him.

The knowledge, that certainty they still loved him as one of them, helped.

Gral holding him, loving him, ha...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 14

Convincing Heather they couldn’t use the transportation platform proved difficult and, ultimately, something Tibs couldn’t manage, but which an Attendant took care of for him. Or rather, Heather’s letter, once the Attendant read it.

The letter granted her passage, but ended when she used it with her prisoner. She tried to argue Tibs wasn’t her prisoner; therefore, didn’t count toward that. The Attendant countered that the letter granted her, and only her, passage. Tibs would h...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH45

Gralgiran watched the pack exit the chamber, a broken Jer between them. He wanted to go to him. Take him from them. Bring him home and comfort him, nurse him to sanity. But he couldn’t.

Jer needed to believe his pack still loved him before he’d trust anyone else. They were who he depended on in the hunt. They needed to show him they understood what he’d done. They needed to convince him they’d all gone through the same thing.

He remember the mess of a person he’d been on...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 13

Tibs watched Heather move from stall to stall as if it was her first day in the market, instead of the fourth. She bought little; small ornaments for her armor, food occasionally. She glared at Tibs for doing the same, or for the candies he bought and shared with Ruppert so the squirrel would stop stealing them from his pouch.

She no longer voiced her suspicions, but she kept trying to catch him in the act of picking a pocket.

He was tempted to let her, just to see what she’d do...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH44

The music blared, and Jeremy’s eyes snapped open. “I’m awake.” He looked around, eyelids already drooping, as the orchestra quieted. He hadn’t planned on nodding off. But keeping his eyes open was difficult. He never seemed to wake up refreshed anymore.

He stood and the freezing floor helped wake him. Sitting was just asking to fall asleep again. The food panel was closed, so the hunger had to be his imagination.

“So, Jeremy,” Omar’s digitized voice asked. “Ready...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 12

Tibs watched the thugs as he followed Heather through the market. They’d yet to harass anyone, but he figured it would happen. Then, he would figure out how to deal with them.

He stayed outside the shops, observing. On the shop streets, the thugs were of a higher class. Less thugs outright, and more merchants in a trade that involved convincing merchants to hand over some of their profits to avoid trouble. While he wouldn’t steal from merchants like these because, unless he found ou...

Harker, year 0, Selection Process, Claudia

The knock was gentle. “Claudia?” her mother called softly from the other side of the bedroom door. “Honey? Dinner’s ready.”

“I’m not hungry,” she replied from the corner of the dark room, knees to herself, arms wrapped around them.

She was famished, but she wouldn’t endanger her family by leaving it while they were about. She’d already fried the fuse box, forcing them to rough it out. It had been pure luck her father still had the old camping equipment in the b...

Going Home, Part 05, Greak Oaks

There was only one car by the curb this morning, and it wasn’t the one that kept getting the bomb. Well, he now knew it wasn’t the owner of the coffee shop, or the dressmaker who were the target. That still left ten other stores on this block. Maybe he needed to put a camera somewhere? He’d repaired a few, and they could function without any assistance. If he could find a place to hide one that had sight of the car he could review the footage once he was back in his room.

He’d h...

Update for the week ending on 09-26-25

This one is a bit different, because something different happened, and it’s going to have an impact.

This week, for, I think, the first time ever, I was hit by what I’m thinking of a case of the NOPE.

I’ve times before when I haven’t felt like writing. Usually a sense of “bleh” and “what am I even doing this” that creeps up on me. Those will be caused by life stuff sapping my energy. They happened more often before I figured out that having a proper schedule was wh...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH43

Gralgiran punched and used Brel’s block to step into her space and slam his shoulder into her chest, then stepped back to catch his breath.

“I’m worried.”

She gave him a dismissive flick of the ear. “You always worry.”

“I’m the Alpha, it’s unbecoming of me to worry about what they’re doing to Jer.”

“He’ll be fine.” She attacked, keeping him from replying. Or even thinking as she struck quickly, then stepped back while he gasped for breath. H...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 11

The next day, Heather headed for the markets, and Tibs didn’t argue when she demanded he stay with her.

She spent the morning buying fabrics and getting clothes made. Tibs didn’t bother. Without a role to play, he considered his hide clothing to be good enough. As the sun reached its zenith, he bought them sticks of meat and vegetables.

“I thought you didn’t have money,” she said suspiciously. “Isn’t that why I’m paying for the inn?”

“I said it’ll be ch...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH42

“And don’t ask me how they work,” Jeremy said, highlighting a section of the projection made from the compiled scans of the bridge pared down to only the circuits. “But that controls maneuvering thrust.”

“How can you be certain?” the maintenance technician asked after she made notes on her tablet.

“I can’t be certain. None of this is my department. But the circuits match those in Toom’s shuttle I’ve ‘worked’ on, and they resulted in him being able to drif...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 10

“For this exercise,” Tibs said, unsheathing his sword, “you need to focus on sensing how Force changes around my sword while we fight.”

Heather grumbled something, unsheathing hers.

“I can’t answer your questions if I can’t understand them.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she snapped.

“She said she doesn’t like how you’re torturing her,” Ruppert said. He was on a branch, eating a nut. His hearing was either much better than Tibs, or he was using...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH41

“How are you feeling?” the Psychologist asked once Gralgiran was seated.

“Better.”

The tilted ear told him she’d want more.

“Jer’s mostly back to his old self, and he resolved things with his friend.”

“The beta?”

He nodded.

“You said mostly back to his old self.”

“He has an alertness to his surroundings he didn’t have before, but it no longer takes all his attention. He can sometimes forget the hunt and relax. Those days ar...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 09

“Can’t you make a sled with your water?” Heather asked as Tibs threw a third bag of flour over his shoulder.

“Yes, but I won’t. Those are off limits,” he told Ruppert as the squirrel climbed on top of them.

“Can we get one just for me?”

“Why not?” Heather asked.

“If I do, you don’t touch it until we’ve left the village.”

Heather closed her mouth. “You know. You need to let me know when you aren’t talking to me. It gets confusing.�...

Harker, year 0.5, Acceptance, Colby

“Colby!” the woman yelled from the porch. “Dinner’s ready!”

He lobbed the bale of hay to the loft with a hand.

“Hey,” the girl there exclaimed. “Watch where you throw those things. You almost floored me with this one.”

He smirked as his sister grabbed the bale with both hands and hefted it into place.

“Dinner,” he said.

“I heard. I’m not deaf, you know. Just throw me the last one and well go.”

With a shrug, he picked it up, backe...

Going Home, Part 04, Greak Oaks

“So?” a woman said. “You’re the guy who stole my job?”

Eric looked up from the radio he was fixing. She was a couple of years younger than he was, twenty-two, mfaybe twenty-three, had long brown hair with shimmering red highlights. She had on blue jeans and a white t-shirt with ‘Strongburgh has Strong Vibes’ written over her moderate breasts.

It took him a moment to see the resemblance. “You must be Natalie.” He offered his hand. “I’m Eric.”

She shook...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH40

Jeremy removed the visor to look at the welds. Even with it blocking most of the arc welder’s intense brightness he had trouble seeing his work through the spots in his vision. He knew why Atarikna was forcing him to do this instead of printing the armature for whatever this would end up being. If it was going to be anything.

This was part of his punishment, and while they might be friends, she wouldn’t let him avoid it.

The previous builder had used him to clean up the mess t...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 08

Ruppert complained about being left alone when Tibs retrieved it. Not that it couldn’t sense anything, but that it couldn’t reach all the things it smelled. He gave it chunks of meat to quiet it, but all it did was stop the chittering, not the complaining Tibs only could hear.

It took most of the day to reach the larger bandit camp, having to keep his pace to Heather’s tracking. He couldn’t argue that the crude map was enough to get them there, and not that he already sensed the...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH39

Gralgiran stood in his office, the Leadership projected before him. Unlike his usual interactions, this warranted a full table, so the projection reduced their size to that of the toys they sold to promote military life. Five of them, seated at a crescent shape table, with him in the center of it, if this were in person.

“We need one of those machines,” Admiral Thromakarin Omeritamil sel Stafey said before anyone else could bring up the subject of their interest.

“I can ensu...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 07

Hardly anyone moved about within the walled village, was what Tibs sensed. They were in the building, and when someone exited one, they hurried to another. The sense he had was that being outside was enough to put them in danger. The fields were worked, by the partially cut wheat, which meant their fears were for the nights.

“Why’s the gate closed?” Heather asked as they approached.

“Everyone must be inside.”

“How do they know? What if a kid sneaked out when no o...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH38

“How are you feeling?” the Psychologist asked.

Jeremy couldn’t stop the shrug. The desire not to think about what had happened. Not to acknowledge it had happened. The hunt was done. He should move on. Get on with his life.

“Do you understand why you need to do this?”

“So I won’t dwell on things I can’t do anything about.”

“Not the counseling. Living. Do you understand why we don’t let hunters simply return to their work? Why we force you to take ...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 06

“I don’t get it,” Heather said, lobbing the stone back to him. “Why does the Force essence change as we throw it?”

Tibs lobbed it back. “That’s because the essence is sticky.”

She caught it and rolled her eyes. “Really?”

“It’s how it’s described in most of the books, but you need to remember that just like you, the adventurers who speak with scholars have to approximate how they describe what they feel.”

“Alright, what do they mean then?�...

Going Home, Part 03, Greak Oaks

The address was a narrow blue brick building that had seen better days. The large display window had television sets in it, old, new, and some he only guessed were televisions because they were surrounded by them. Those had no switches, no dials and were extremely thin.

The prickling brought the diagram to the fore, and Eric was curious enough to let it happen. It was a complex set of circuits with extremely small light generating components. Those enlarge and he was amazed at how beaut...

Harker, year 0, Selection Process, The Sanders

Diane Parker rushed through the freshly painted corridors, tablet in one hand, briefcase in the other, listening to the meeting’s transcript. The Faculty—as she’d started thinking of the six silent backers of the academy—always sent her a copy even when what they talked about didn’t relate to her job as dean.

As always, Valiant’s speech was filled with so many technical details she suspected he did it on purpose to come across as more erudite. She thought the contrast with t...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH37

“Energy spike at the station,” sensor stated.

“On screen,” Gralgiran instructed, and the image of the dreadnought with the occasional flash of explosion making it to the outer hull was replaced with the small form of the station. “Weapons?”

“Negative, too low output for weapons coming online. It’s engines.” The image shifted, and the station doubled in size. Not enough to let him make out ships at docks, but he was the burst of light. “Signature matches that of...

Update for the week ending on 09-13-25

Chapters written

This week was a normal week. So there were 3 chapters for Mind Your Steps, 3 chapters for The Technician’s Fight, one for Harker, and one for The Daughter.

Chapters edited

On the editing front, it was the 2 chapters of The Technician’s Fight from the previous week, as well as the on from Harker, and one for Going Home. They have all been scheduled to be posted on Patreon.

Other stuff

Because ...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 05

“Let me out of this thing!”

The branch over Tibs’s shoulder slid off as the squirrel ran against the bars of its cage, making it swing. He’d attached it there because carrying it in his hand had grown tiresome, even after making a handle for it.

“I don’t think it likes being in a cage,” Heather said.

“Not when there’s so many interesting smells out there,” it said.

“Not happening.” He replaced the branch over his shoulder. He was tempted to hold...

The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH36

The Earther before him was thinner than Jeremy remembered and seemed tired, but he smiled.

“I knew this would work. I knew that if I provided the right bait, you and your cat wouldn’t be able to stay away.” Omar Seywan looked around Jeremy. “I had given instructions to be sure you came alone, though.”

The snort let Jeremy cover some of his confusion behind anger. “Like I’d ever be around Earthers again without people to look after me.”

“I’d look out for y...

Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 04

“Why isn’t it doing anything?” she grumbled, and Tibs opened an eye. He’d been sensing her move her essence around, send it at the fire, at a bush, a tree.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Something, anything!” she said in exasperation.

“You aren’t at the point where you can just cause anything to happen,” he said, and she glared. “What I mean, is that until you can etch with your element, there are only a few things you’ll be able to do.”

“F...