Exerpts of Part of my First Chapter in a Sci-Fi Novel.

A mixture of soft/hard sci-fi and my aim for this book is to take the reader on a journey through space at a molecular level.

These are exerpts from my now complete first chapter.  Fictional names, places including astronomical objects have been changed and subsitutes have been used to fill in the blanks. 

 

I would like to know what you think, Chrissy.

 

Exerpt 1

 

His hair was a single wispey strand of silver and grey combed back from his furrowed brow.  His eyes were tired yet passionate and his body trembled slightly whenever he stood.
The sky was pitch black, if you were to look on from the distance the only thing which could be seen was the orange end of his cigarette and the occasional spark which blew from it in the wind.  Litter adorned the cobbled streets, crisp packets and loose leaves of newspaper flapping like butterfly wings against the footing of the old building. 

 

Exerpt 2

He stomped out his cigarette onto the icy pavement and let out a loud sigh.  His calligenous breath glowed in the cold night air, illuminated by street lights which lined the pavement.  He glanced down at his watch then made his way back to the lab.
William Gartshore was a proffessor of quantum mechanics at the university of Chicago.  They had sent him to work on a project to help seek out extra-terrestrial lifeforms, the university wanted to keep it top secret so they chose him and a small group of others to study molecular properties.

 

Exerpt 3

There had been an argument in the lab earlier between him and one of his colleagues,  Will could hardly believe his ears when they told him they would be working together as a team.  There had been a few harsh words between them in the past but that all blew over when William went to work for the institute of Research.  It was a shame really, they were very much alike which was probably the reason they never saw eye to eye. 

 

Exerpt 4

William was very much against the research, he felt it was a waste of time, effort and money, especially if they were going with the sole intentions of finding life out there.
James disagreed however, well he would anyway if William said the sky was blue, James would argue it was red.  It was ridiculous and William wondered whether he should actually just give up now and say it was too much for him to deal with, on the other hand he quite enjoyed the idea of proving them wrong.
'How would he know whether extra-terrestrial life existed on the Moon, there could be aliens who lived there who were green with yellow spots and purple blood.'  How would he know indeed! 

 

Exerpt 5

He glanced down at his watch then made his way back to the lab.  Arriving at the footpath of the building Jmes was stood in the doorway, his shoulders were broad and his head hung in a cowering position.
He had short, black hair which was closely cropped to his face, strong jawline and usually clean shaven. 

Although he and William never got on they did acknowledge eachother however uncomfortable the situation and William dreaded the thought of having to pass him in the doorway.  As he approached James stretched out his arms then angled his chin defiantly.  William almost spoke but kept quiet as he figured James must have something to say.  " Dr Atkins wants to see you in his office" he said with a serious look on his face.  This was unual as it sounded like it might be trouble but James wasn't smiling, in that case, it must be bad... very bad.  As he approached the office he could feel the tension in the atmosphere getting even more tense as he neared the doorway.  He was about to knock on the door but noticed it had been left open.  "Come in" said a growling voice from behind the door.  William entered with caution, not knowing what to expect.
He could almost see the smoke coming from old Atkins' ears as he sat behind the desk.  "Did you do this?" he said, throwing a top heavy pile of closely packed papers his way on the desk.
"Do what?" William replied in a somewhat squeaky yet defensive tone.  "Don't ask what" he said, his face reddening further. "Just take a look and then tell me honestly, did you do it."
William didn't need to go through the papers, he knew what Dr Atkins was talking about.  He feared this might happen, now he would have to come clean about the whole thing.  It wasn't going to be an easy task.  He pretended to go through the papers then buried his head into his hands.  "I'm sorry" William said with a huge sigh.  "It's a little too late for sorry don't you think" said Atkins rising from his chair, pacing up and down impatiently and rabidly scratching his baldy head.  "How could you do it" he said, slamming his fist onto the table.  "I trusted you with this and this is how you repay me." 
"Do you know they are thinking of calling off the whole investigation."
" I just felt somebody needed to know, I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen."    "So you thought you'd leak this to the press?"
"How very clever, you know I could fire you for this"  he took a few moments to reveiw the situation and continued to stroke his chin aggitatedly as though he were looking for an answer, he did this for several minutes then sat back at his chair.
"I'll deal with this, you get back to work, but if you ever pull a stunt like this again, your a*s will be out the door faster than you can say *****, got it!"  He gazed at him with an air of astonishment as he cried a sigh of relief. "Sir" replied William.  "Oh and by the way, there's a meeting in the boardroom in fifteen minutes, I expect you will be there" Atkins said finalising the conversation.
In the discussion room everybody sat next to each other, and when William entered they all immediatly looked up.  It was like they expected some kind of an answer.  However the answer he had for them was not the one they wanted to hear. 
He sat down at the table and pushed the chair inward with his legs.  They watched on in eager anticipation and it was clear they all expected him to start the talk.  "Ah ahem, I'll begin", said william as he cleared his throat and organising the papers against the desk like a deck of cards.
"I don't believe it is likely that there will be any life on our Moon, if there is other life out there it will probably be similar to the life which was and is on this planet. 

 

Exerpt 6

Life is formed wherever it is able to and with the trillions of stars in space, I think it is more probable that there will be life on a planet which orbits one of these.  However I do think there is potential for life on the other planets in our solar system and I also believe it could be possible that life existed on Venus before our time.  Like Earth it has a rocky body and is very similar in size.  My research suggests that several billion years ago Venus' atmosphere was a lot like the Earth's is now.  They also believe it had liquid on it's surface."
"Is this all you have to say?" said Atkins clearly expecting something more to be said on the subject.
The room was filled with utter silence, apart from the odd sniffle which could be heard here and there.  Everybody had got their hopes up expecting to find some hole in Williams theory but it was solid and that was final.  not only did it suggest there is no possibility of life on the Moon, but it also suggested that there was unlikely to be ever.  The remnants of the discussion room began to disperse one by one.  There were no handshakes, no polite exchange of words and the bitter dissapointment in the now empty room became apparent.
"Fancy stepping outside for a ciggy" asked James who by now was feeling the full force of Williams tension.  "Sure" replied William in a strained yet faint voice.  Although he and James never got on, he was greatful for the comforting 'shoulder to cry on' routine.  They both stepped outside, the darkness was now hindered by a bright full Moon and grey, scattered clouds.  James took a packet of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and sighed, looking at William sternly through one eye he flipped open the lid on the cigarette packet and waved it towards William.  It was almost as though they had some kind of phsycic thing going on between them, as though each knew what the other were thinking.  They both stood, puffed out torsos gazing up at a clear patch of pure black sky, swapping silent insults while acknowledging each others stupidity.
"What's that?" cried James pointing over to something which was lying at the side of the road.  "It's probably a dead rat or something" replied William, his mind clearly on othe things.  "Whatever it is, it's not dead said James, it's still moving.  James walked over to the side of the road where the as of yet unidentified object lay.  As he got closer he grew more cautious as the determination of the species lying in the middle of the road became less apparent with each step.  He turned it over with the side of his foot.  "It's a rabbit or something,  just leave it to die" shouted William.  "Shh" said James loudly as he took an even closer look.  "Over here"  he requested in a loud, fading tone.  "Quick here" he called again. 
A concerned William walked over to where James was stood and glanced at the dying animal.  How the hell did that happen? asked William backing away.  "I don't know" answered James "and I don't think I wanna hang around to find out either."  The creature looked like a large, brown hare. Innocent enough but as they got a closer look, they could see it's eyes had been removed.
"Shall we take it into the lab and find out what happened to it?" James asked.  "I've kinda got more important things on my mind right now other than messing around with a dead rabbit" replied William hastily.
"It's probably just been run over or something, just leave it to die."  James agreed and they both went back inside.  Once inside the lab they immiediately got back to work.

 

Exerpt 7

 

He stood back and and assessed his own theoretical structure. Something was definately amiss. He noticed that as the volume level increased, the heat began to decrease, yet it changed with the variation in properties used.  This totally threw his whole theory out of the window, all of this just to find nothing but chaos at the end of it.

 

 

Reviews

[Phill Oz O'fee]

As an instructional observation, I would suggest spell checking the whole composition, as there are quite a few typo errors (most obvious being the subtitles - ex(c)erpt 1 etc. Having said that; I encourage you to continue building up the plot and character descriptions; this adds intrigue and bulk to the story.

I found it an easy and enjoyable to read and if it were on the book shelve, I would certainly pick it up!

God's Blessing
Phillozofee