Rainbow Snippet for 12-10-2016

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).   Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

I’m still posting from Onyx Sun, a science fiction novel that is currently in revision. The revisions are turning out to be more complex than originally expected so the release date is, um, to be determined. (I’ve given up trying to predict one, but now that NaNoWriMo is over I’m going to be diving back into work on it.)

I’m picking up from last week.  Taliya is interviewing Ayess, and alien she is planning to buy to help on board her ship.

How did you become a slave?”  Somehow it had become important to start with that question.

His eyes flared briefly.  “Treachery.”  He flinched, as if expecting punishment for his tone of voice, then went on more softly.  “I was part of an exploratory expedition.  It was a small planet, lush plants, lots of fresh water, geologically stable but riddled with caves and tunnels.  I do not know if your people have named it.”  He pulled himself back to the present.  “I was away from the base camp when it was attacked. When I returned, there was nothing left of the others except bloody bodies: they had been torn apart, as if attacked by an animal – throats ripped out, guts ripped open… One…one of them had managed to get video of the attacker.  I will never forget that image.” 

Taliya reached across the table and touched his hand gently.  He looked up at her, startled by the gesture, and managed a tentative smile.

“Whatever it was, it was gone.  I performed funeral rites for the others and fortified our base in case whatever it was came back, and I sent out a distress call.  A ship made contact with me and I thought I had been rescued.  Instead, I was captured and sold.”