Monday 9th December 2024

Twice I went out today. I sat with a coffee (and a blueberry muffin, the first time) and wrote. I also bought a coat, a shirt, a Christmas present for my son and some Mango Loco Monsters … 

I’m continuing through the Human Cargo Prologue: it has been some time since it morphed into something more than a prologue and a much larger part of the book. The world-building and setup for what is to come next. Now it’s Part One. I’m coming close to finishing it, or at least the broad outline of what it will be. Today, the festivities are over. The handshakes are over, and everyone is onboard the ship for their final voyage. The ship is now off the ground and into space. Utnytter, our Captain, is shown appreciation by his crew before they join the rest in stasis, and he delays enacting his plan. He wants to make sure everything will go as planned without him. But is also still unsure about doing it.  Leaving his post is obviously a huge deal, the repercussions of which he remains unsure of. Will not be known until he and everyone is awoken. If they ever are. He has a huge choice to make. Two paths to travel. Does he do as he is instructed? Does he do his job, knowing he will die doing it? Or does he enter stasis and face whatever consequences there may be at the other end? 

My second little jaunt for a coffee, and I was with Captain Utnytter as he stood before the frozen Janitor. His chosen replacement. Still Umming and Ahhing about whether or not to release the man and take his place in paradise. I accidentally wrote the first two lines of a haiku:

The fate I’m fleeing,

I’m forcing on another.

I might finish it at some point! Anyway, he stares at the frozen Janitor, considering his options. Images of the empty, miserable ship. Automated protocols leaving nothing but time. Lukewarm rations dripping from a tube. A tropical paradise. Fresh air. Trees. Mountains. A rushing river. Happy, smiling women. 

No contest is it, really? And there we’ll likely wrap up Part One of Human Cargo. Part Two, we’ll meet The Janitor and follow his journey as the New Captain of the Sorbernash.