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Stories from the Verse
Garden of Versers
Chapter 99: Beam 27
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 98: Kondor 151
“Sleep,” the white-haired man said.
“Sleep?” the blacksmith replied.
“No?” Beam asked. “Thanks to this accursed amnesia, I have no idea what time it was when we left that last world, and since I don’t have a watch and my phone died long ago I don’t know what time it is in this one. But we’ve established that the area is fairly secure, we have found food and drink, and some of those rooms had what looked to be if not comfortable beds at least cots with some kind of padding. I say we let Dawn stand watch and the rest of us get some rest.”
“Whatever happened to, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead?’” Bron asked.
“Yeah, well, I think I’ve died, and apparently I don’t get to be dead, or else maybe I am dead and this is what the afterlife is like, but if I’m going to avoid being dead again I want everyone rested and alert. So I think it’s time to get some rest. Dawn? Which one of these rooms do you think most defensible if something does happen?”
Dawn lifted her head, turned sharply, and went back up the hall several doors, opening one on the opposite side into a somewhat smaller room with half a dozen beds--officer’s quarters, Beam guessed, although he had no idea really. There was only the one door.
“Looks good to me,” he said, rolling the food trolley in with him and putting it along the wall by the door. “Let’s get settled.” He went to the cot by the far wall, pressed it against the wall, dropped his gear at the foot, and stretched out with his back against the wall.
“Well, wifey, it’s not the honeymoon you expected, and we don’t even have privacy, but you can decide whether you want to squeeze on here with me or take one of the other cots for tonight.” Already his eyes were closed; he was very tired, and decided he didn’t particularly care what she chose.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twelve other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #310: Versers Mobilize. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
