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Cryo
Need to know if you like where this is going. It'll be a short story, maybe 12k words or so. Nothing big. If you like it, give a nod.
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An elderly man limps to a control panel and then rests his rear on a button less section. He turns his head, avoiding the attributes of the surrounding slum, and focuses his eyes on a glass cylinder. He sees the reflections of stars and empty space—and the hole. The burning masses are being drawn into it, and even as he sits he can tell Tragadon is being drawn to it as well… in centimeters; it is a small progression but he can see it. Then his eyes adjust to the frost inside the tube and the image of a naked boy appears marred by liquid. The lad looks like a newborn and, at the same time, aged. Six, or maybe seven, years old, physically. The man’s eyes dart to the letters heading the tube:
Cryo
Ah, before the Tragadon extermination, then. This boy is very old, the man thinks. Probably older than me. He removes his saggy, drooping ass from the control panel and turns to study it. With his wrinkled hands he hovers over several buttons; reading descriptions in a language he thought he had forgotten some two hundred years ago. His memory is vague, but with optimism and feigned certainty he thumbs a multi-colored button. He ushers back, and then grits his teeth. At first there is nothing, but as he focuses on the cylinder, he can tell that it is defrosting. The boy’s image becomes clearer to him. The man looks up and watches the stars as they jitter over him and toward the gargantuan hole. Then he bends over and scans the ground for rocks. He finds one and picks it up. Bored, the man leaves and finds a place that is safe to toss the rock. He climbs over garbage and wrecked starship components and then settles himself on a mound. He tosses the rock. It soars through the air and then gently—floats—to the ground.
The man sighs.
It’s going to be one hell of a night.
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Also, I'd rather not hear any "there's not enough information!", "why haven't you developed the characters?" It's three hundred words, folks. I just need to know if this is a good direction. Would you keep reading, in other words?
That's all.
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