BACKUP STORY:
KNIGHT BOOK
The Tin Universe,
In the deep profound yawning depths, way out there in space, a vessel was racing through the Shard System.
The Shard System contained twelve planets. It was so deep in space that nothing on Earth could even think of viewing it in any way. The planets were some of the most beautiful in all of creation and they had for the most part stayed that way since the day of creation because of the deadly plant life that keep intelligent life forms from setting foot on them because we know those same intelligent life forms are not the best at keeping things beautiful.
The deep space vessel spoken of resembled a human calculator to such an insane degree it might make you wonder if one of the spaceship’s designers had visited Earth and dropped a hint for the design of the modern terrestrial calculator. On top of the craft, where the buttons of a calculator would be, was circular docking bays for smaller ships.
Battle ships to be precise. The portion of the ship that resembled a display screen was actually part of the transparent ceiling of the bridge. The ship did not have a viewer window and was piloted by computers for the most part.
A human woman was standing on the bridge, looking up through the transparent ceiling above her, watching stars pass by as the ship traveled at a slow speed for it, but at a speed nothing on Earth could travel.
Her husband was the alien space law enforcer Knight Book, and they were both on a spaceship of the legendary Caspery race, who were known as the protectors of the universe.
Desiree looked very much the part of a stranger in a strange land in her human clothing.
Her stopped the looking up because it was starting to make her...car sick? Space sick?
The main flight crew on the ship was made up of about twelve members of the Caspery race. Even though the ship was flown by computers, they monitored every inch, every movement, every sound the ship made, and every sound and movement made within it with precision unmatched in any galaxy.
At that particular moment, out of the corner of at least one of each of their sets of eyes, they were monitoring every movement Desiree made. None of them had ever encountered a human before, and ever since she came aboard the ship with her husband, the crew hadn’t been all that friendly or open to her. They only spoke to her when she needed something or to tell her not to touch something, or to inform her of places onboard she was allowed not allowed to be.
Knight Book entered the bridge and all eyes snapped back to their work with total concentration. Knight Book is known by many titles including: Privy Councillor, Knight of The Thristle, Admiral of The Royal Caspery Squadron, Grand Master of The Guild of Planets, Field Marshal of The Tiicks, Knight of The Garter, and Chancellor of The Knowledge of Prosperity.
Knight Book walked up to his wife, who just calls him Knight, and they embraced. Since joining the crew they had hardly seen each other. She held on tightly.
‘Can I come with you?’ she whispered, ‘I don't think they like me being here.’
Everyone on the bridge crew heard her and gulped, afraid of how Commander Knight Book would react.
‘They only look at you funny because they don’t know what cool Goth is.’
Desiree started smiling, listening to his voice, and she looked up to see the face of the man of her dreams.
‘I have to go speak with the Chief Engineer but I wanted to let you know we could have dinner together in an hour in our quarters. I think the cook has finally figured out how to reproduce the taste of tofu like you requested.’
Desiree hugged him once more really tightly and then let go. He kissed her on the cheek in a sign of affection that normally members of the Caspery race would never show. Then he walked away to leave the bridge.
Standing in the doorway, he turned back to face her.
‘I love you, Desiree.’
Standing there she saw him as she had the very first time she ever laid eyes on him, when he was standing over an alien that crash landed in a tobacco field in Tennessee.
That was when he helped Pulpy defeat a secret weapon from an intended alien invasion of Earth.
He stood 6’8 in his green and brown uniform, the uniform of a Caspery High Commander.
Commander Knight Book crash landed on Earth in 1974. He wandered the streets with no memories for a while and then found a job doing construction work and slowly regained his memories, and his abilities, which were beyond human. Once back on his feet he wanted to repay humanity for their kindness; so he adapted the beyond human hero identity of Knight Book.
‘Desiree, how about a tour?’ He smiled at her from the doorway.
‘What about the Chief Engineer?’
‘I’m his commanding officer. He’ll wait.’
‘You know you’re the only person who ever calls me Desiree. Everyone else calls me Des.’
‘My love, I am not everyone else.’
Two years ago a message came from Caspery High Command. They sent a vessel for him and he and his wife left for deep, profound…Oh, yeah, already did that bit.
Now the vessel is traveling to join up with the rest of the Caspery Space Fleet. They are drawing a line in space to protect the rest of the universe. To do this they will risk everything.
Commander Knight Book was trying to make his wife feel more welcome. He knew from his own experiences on Earth what it was like to be suddenly knee deep within an alien culture.
She walked over to the bridge doorway and he reached out his hand for her to take.
In a few hours Earth time 142,857 Caspery lives will end.
Demons love the number 142,857. If you multiply it by 7 it equals 999,999 which is a holy number because it is Lucifer’s Heavenly number. It is a cursed number.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Landmarked To Death was my first time experimenting with putting a story online for free on my blogger and also having it available for download for a price. The experiment worked and I found another way to present my stories and that’s why I’m using that method for all of my Original Sin stories. I did a quick re-edit of it but for the most part it’s just as it was originally shown to the world.
The same with the backup story Knight Book; which was original a chapter in the first edition of Stereo but when I did the new Stereo 2.0 edit I cut that chapter out. I think it works better as a quasi short story anyways.
The new cover was one of the alternate cover choices for Stereo that I had commissioned but I think it works better with this story since Record fully appears in Landmarked To Death and is basically only mentioned in Stereo and even then I don’t think by name.
I hope if you found something you like about this story you will check out more Tin Universe stories.
Thanks for reading,
Brian C. Williams
[email protected] OTHER SYSTEM*PRODUCTION SITES
UNDER THE TRAINING BOOK: Official site of Brian C. Williams https://underthetrainingbook.blogspot.com/
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CHAOS READ: Short Story Series. You Pick The Price! https://chaosread.blogspot.com/
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