spacepaladin15

Prisoners of Sol 38

Showing up at the nearest Elusian portal unannounced, I wasn’t sure what to say to the interdimensional pioneers—and I was even less certain about what they might tell us. The way Capal had said that our dimension was artificial, as if it was self-evident, stuck in my brain. Sofia had the official script from the ESU, but I wasn’t planning on reading from a teleprompter like a good boy. I would’ve once called such behavior robotic, except knowing Mikri had good improvisation skills, t...

Prisoners of Sol - Derandi Chef (4/7)

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While the two human astronauts set out to discover why the Elusians placed a wall around their unusual dimension, I set out on some sleuth...

Prisoners of Sol 37

Humans had three basic wishes: life, liberty, and the ability to pop bubble wrap while sinking into a mind-numbing contemplation of oblivion. Meetings and lectures had none of those things, since they deadened your soul, removed your free will by trapping you in a room, and didn’t even offer any bubble wrap. That was one of many things that Mikri could never understand about humans seeking pleasure: that we could find it in something so pointless as squishing away air pockets. ...

Prisoners of Sol - Derandi Chef (3/7)

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Though it was irksome to admit it, Preston Carter was right to list jambalaya among the finest dishes his people had to offer. The humans ...

Prisoners of Sol 36

Our circumstances had shifted in the blink of an eye, as I listened to our internal chatter for any hope that humanity might not be a doomed race. I’d seen the camera drone go through the portal faster than light, and I knew what the results would be. My hands lifted away from the steering column, before I floated like I was in a dream. Let Larimak’s ships gun me down; there was no point in living for a small military base in a universe we didn’t belong to. I remained slumped o...

Prisoners of Sol - Derandi Chef (2/7)

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The first thing that I found peculiar was that the dimension-hoppers had wanted their food to be painful, despite being informed of capsaicin’s chemical sting and our reasonable recommendation of removing it from the dishes. I wondered if it exhilarated ...

Prisoners of Sol 35

What I noticed, as I pursued Larimak’s fleet, was that they were in a holding pattern way further off than traditional engagement ranges. Precognition could only go so far, with the blinding speeds of their looping paths and the far-off distances they kept to. In dumb people words, they were moving away from us almost as fast as we could chase them. They saw us coming, and crossed to the other side of the proverbial street. Without Sol engines, I wouldn’t be gaining the space equ...

Prisoners of Sol - Derandi Chef (1/7)

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The text logs stared back at me, unchanging without any cell reception, as I re-witnessed how I’d told Etra goodbye twice. This shelter was near unoccupied, sitting in close proximity to the base’s kitchen. I hadn’t known if I’d ever see her aga...

Prisoners of Sol 34

Just because I hadn’t been on Earth in years didn’t mean that I’d lost my love for my planet. As much as I needed to escape from my parents, there were good memories on the blue marble. I remembered being the class clown, savoring the moment where I got even the teachers to crack and laugh at one of my comments. My father thought the military would turn me serious at last—and I was determined to prove him wrong. There was no awakening out in space, other than a wistfulness for looking...

Prisoners of Sol - Derandi Chef (Prologue)

The entire artform of choreographed cooking had been my invention, with Culinary Island in its 24th season and several other spinoff shows getting greenlit over the years. My fine dining restaurants spread the breadth of the globe. As Chef Vanare, I’d gotten to cook for many important people on both Temura and Doros; I was a personal friend of Prime Minister Anpero, often summoned to craft banquet dining for most diplomatic functions. When Larimak attacked our diplomats for speakin...

Prisoners of Sol 33

As we pulled up to our base at the Space Gate, ESU Command relayed word that Larimak had gotten clapped at Temura; our favorite feathery critters lived to fight another day. The prince wasn’t getting past us, and word that we’d saved the Derandi caused both Jetti and Vanare to warm up. The good news of this all was that Vanare was much more willing to cook, now that he didn’t have to worry about inconveniences like his whole family dying while he was here. The bad news was that I was no...

Prisoners of Sol 32

Getting off of Temura had been a whirlwind, as we’d grabbed Hirri and bolted out to a waiting vehicle. The car sped off to the landing pad to retrieve our spaceship; I wondered whether we should try to rescue more civilians. Back at the resort, Vanare had seemed distraught about leaving his family and panicked about being carried on foot at such high speeds. I felt a little bad for the chef, noticing that he was frantically texting again. It was already going to be a tight fit, but...

Prisoners of Sol 31

Earth Space Union’s Prisoner Asset Files: #1284 - Private Capal 

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I found the history of humankind to be a source of complete and utter fascination for me. Earth had once had its monarchs and empires, just as we had, but had emerged with democratic states like the Derandi and Girret. The humans were in the process of coalescing into larger regional territories, a sociological phenomenon known to Vascar scholars as P...