Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Writing Warriors. While it might be another fog-enshrouded winter day here in the Pacific Northwest, on Mars, the sun is always shining. Unfortunately for Eli, he’s not there yet, and might never be. The slave ship that abducted him is setting its coordinates for Titan, notorious for flaunting the inner-system anti-slavery laws. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m continuing with my space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love. Things go from bad to really bad when Eli sees who his captors are and what they have planned for their prisoners.
***
Asteroiders were rarely seen on Earth, especially at ground level. They’d been developed in the asteroid belt beyond Mars and were a most reviled class of altered human; most of them were more artificial than flesh. The one that moved closest to Eli had a neck and forearms made of black rubber tubes twining around coiled copper muscles. What went on beneath the jumpsuit was anyone’s guess. His fleshy human fingers tapped at a wisepad as he scanned each prisoner in turn and made disparaging remarks to the security bot about their potential value. “Bottom of the barrel sweep, if you ask me. I hope the captain didn’t shell out full credits for this lot.”
A human voice crackled out of the hovering bot, “Hardly seems worth the trip, but some alterations while they’re in stasis might help.”
***
Farscape improved dramatically when Crichton ditched his white jumpsuit.
This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com
Alexis Duran 
Oh yuck! And I mean that in the best possible way. Loved your description. Excellent writing.
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It keeps getting worse. Now they’re going to “alter” him??? Yikes.
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That asteroid gives me the heebie-jeebies. And alterations? Yikes! A pic of Ben Browder looking hot is always welcome, however. 🙂
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Please send me a wisepad, Alexis. I love the sound of it. You do make fun with word selections in this outer space journey.
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Excellent world-building. And alterations? eep!
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Love, love, love the world-building!!The description of that Asteroider was out of this world (pun intended). Stasis sounds like a wickedly scary place/condition to be in.
I miss Farscape. Is there a movie coming??? We’ve had nothing since the Peacekeeper Wars that I know of… ~sigh~
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“Wisepad” is brilliant. Concise, but descriptive.
This scene gives off such a scary vibe. Being altered sounds like a nightmare.
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I don’t like the sound of that! He definitely does NOT want to go into those stasis pods, I doubt he’ll like whatever they do to improve his value.
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Oh man!! Alterations in stasis really doesn’t sound promising. Way to build suspense in this snippet! (And I loved the Farscape reference. A show that ended way too soon.)
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Uh oh, alterations has a bad sound to it…the description of the Asteroider was amazing. Great excerpt!
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Well done! I got a clear picture in my head immediately!
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Visual world building, easy to fall into. Alterations, oh no!
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Vivid worldbuilding there. Almost entirely unrelated to the story, but: major kudos to the Farscape reference.
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Things are getting worse and worse! I wonder what kind of alterations they have in mind.
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Must agree with the above comments, great world-building and alterations to improve his value cannot be good considering the source for that idea.
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Oooh…interesting! Alterations in stasis, eh? Could be bad. Could also provide great story fodder moving forward. Very very interesting. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
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