This week, I finished up chapter fifty-nine of Pathway of the Moon. One more to go, and then it’s done and off to my list of works to edit (which currently consists of only that one piece and part of another, so it’s a short list of books for my own work, at least). I’m extremely excited about this (as I know I’ve said before), and this week’s work-in-progress comes from the most recent chapter.
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Alrian glanced up at the Numahi. “Is this what we need to activate?”
She nodded. “It should be touch-activated. The one on our world was accessible to anyone in Sedra’s circle, but we couldn’t open it. She made sure of that.”
Brennan frowned. “You’re sure this is it? Is it even functional?”
“It is the record system. I’m sure of that, at least. But I don’t know if it will be functional or not. If it isn’t, the written records abandoned here should be enough. It’s written in an older dialect than what you use now, however.”
“Neither of us can read the dialect that far back.” Alrian leaned over and pressed her palm against the dark surface of the orb. “So, let’s hope this thing turns on and translates for us too.”
Just after she touched it, the orb began emitting a pale glow, which grew brighter until it became a piercing beam that scanned over her. What was it doing? Hopefully it wouldn’t kill her. She squeezed her eyes shut and stood still. If it was going to hurt her, it was too late to get out of the way. If she froze, maybe it wouldn’t hurt her? A tiny trill emitted from the glass orb, and she peeked at it. The beam dimmed back to a tolerable glow, and she opened her eyes fully.
“Records activated,” a robotic female voice chirped. “Please request an option from the navigation menu.”
She glanced at Brennan then back to the orb. “What are the options?”
Something whirred, and then the voice came back. “Review log files. View recordings. Enter a new log file. Record a new video file.” The voice spouted off a few more things she didn’t understand then said, “Please request an option from the navigation menu.”
Brennan’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Umm… View recordings?” He glanced over at her. “What is a recording, anyway?”
The Numahi laughed. “A recording is simply a record that contains audio and sometimes visual that was taken down in the moment it happened. You can communicate using those devices that are programmed to one another, yes?”
She nodded.
“Well, this device is more sophisticated. It can capture that communication and save it.”
Alrian shifted from foot to foot. A device that could capture their words and faces? Didn’t really sound like it led anywhere good, but maybe it could be useful. After all, without that, they wouldn’t be able to activate this old thing and find out what was really going on. She sighed and crossed her arms as the device whirred once more and projected an image onto the table. She squinted down at it with a frown.
Brennan looked equally confused. He poked his finger through the glowing stretch, but the image only moved over his finger too. “What is this?”
The Numahi snickered. “I forget that your communications are primitive here. It’s what we call a holo.”
“How does it work? Magic?”
“No, not magic. Technology. But never mind how it works. You need to tell the device which video to play. If it’s like the ones back home, you can choose based on the dates on the bottom left corner of each still image. If you don’t see something interesting, you can tell the orb to scroll to the next set.”
Brennan looked over at her. “You ready?”
She sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s just start at the beginning.”
Brennan turned back to the video display. “Show us all the videos starting with Entry One, Year 0.”
The screen changed, and sound poured out into the room. What she heard in that first video made her stomach clench, and sweat beaded her forehead. The creature hadn’t been lying. Maybe it had lied about other things. Who knew? But it hadn’t been lying about this, and even minutes into the first video, she was ready to shut this whole thing down and run. Still, she couldn’t move, couldn’t flee. This had to be heard. The threat was still out there, and who knew what might happen if it found out they still existed? They could all end up in dire danger if the organization backing the odd experiment Sedra was describing on the recording had the power to help her create life itself. This organization played the part of a god, and they had no problem with doing even the profane. If they found Alcardia, everything would be lost.
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That’s it for this week, everyone! Next week, I may have something from the final chapter to share. Then that’s it. No more excerpts from Pathway of the Moon for Work-In-Progress Wednesdays because it’ll be done. I’ll be moving on to new things.
Speaking of new things, I’m participating in Wattpad’s Open Novella Contest this year! I did this last year too, and Bane of Ashkarith was the result. (So everyone who has really like the book, you have that contest to thank. 🙂 They’ve got some pretty good prompts.) This year, my piece is shaping up to have more of a sci-fi feel, but I’m basing it around the prompt “If all else fails, throw a little magic at it.” I’m liking it so far, so you may be seeing some of that on this section of the blog through until April when the novella has to be finished.