Binary War: More Beginnings

WizardofWestmarch
Nov 4 · 3 min read

After I’ve introduced Melody and her internal conflicts, as well as the end of an external conflict heavily driven by her actions, I need to bring in the second point of view. Damon’s going to get a lot of screen time as the antagonist/mirror to Melody’s journey. Also, it gives me a chance to show Melody from someone else’s perspective, the way the universe views her and not how she views herself. A powerful opportunity.

If I do my job you won’t like him, but you’ll understand why he does what he does. The specifics, well those can wait until you read the book. But know that if you cannot relate to every character that gets significant page count associated with them, I as a writer have failed.

Much like with Melody, he needs a Wound. Something that shapes his opinion. And as her antagonist, her opposite, it should be the other side of the coin, the yang to her yin. This gives me the ability to show the audience two opinions, whether one is true and the other is false, or both are flawed towards some balance, a middle that seems impossible to attain. These things are how we offer the reader an opportunity to explore an idea. Come to their own conclusions. Without that, a book offers at best an afternoon’s entertainment. A trifle, but not something to be considered later. It offers nothing to talk about, no reason to put that book into a friend’s hand and say “no, really, you need to read this.”

And if that isn’t the goal, what’s the point? Inspire. Offer possibilities without insulting the audience enough to demand that they think the way you do. Only that they take what you’ve said and think about it.

Excerpt:

Heart pounding, he takes advantage of a bonded connection to jump directly from his current location to the Andromeda Five. And there she stands. He knows that avatar. Melody Flynn. Famously angry, famously efficient. A significant pick up for this operation, and yet here should stood. Never should have gotten in, but no alarms are going off. Hooking into the systems, Damon realizes why. The contractors were put in a group with an unintended clearance specific to this ship. Since most never heard about the mission of Andromeda Five, no one would have checked for this. Damon should have.

Information traverses into her system too fast. If he tries to stop it she’ll know someone has caught her transgression. A direct confrontation will likely lead to his own death, based on her track record. No, he cannot confront her. Not alone now, and frankly not ever. Damon needed to prevent her from leaking anything she learned, before everything came apart. Worse, he would have to do it without letting anyone know the real reason the contractors had to be dealt with.

First he had to be sure she knew something damaging. No point destroying a valuable asset before she proved problematic. Instead he stays well back and waits. Melody shakes something off and turns, heads back towards the exit port that would take her out into the wider network. Probably the route she entered the ship’s system through, for whatever reason she came to be here.

Thankfully her software for navigating this part of the system had been supplied by the Concord, so his security clearance allowed him to mask his presence from her. Under normal circumstances, she would have caught him following instantly. This time she needed private channels only the Concord could supply, for her safety. Or, in this case, for his safety.

Minutes slip by as he follows her. Everything he worked so hard for, bound up in that one bit of humanity hidden behind a digital facade. A person with hopes and dreams, much like his. A sick father, her dossier said. No other living relatives. A career that cuts a trail wider than a star across the galaxy, despite barely cracking thirty. Everything you want from an operative on her side. Perfect to win great battles, as she accomplished minutes before. Someone who might be worth knowing, in another time line. Someone who might have been worth learning more about. Instead, he would either have to keep an eye on her, or kill her for the safety of the Concord.

All because he screwed up.

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