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Heart Of The Sun
Victoria Zagar
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
HEART OF THE SUN Copyright
© 2012
Victoria Zagar. All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For more information, write to
Cover art image courtesy of http://FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Visit Infinite Love for gay and lesbian short stories and novels:
A story written for the Goodreads Gay Science Fiction Group's 500 Member
Challenge, based on the following prompt from user Bluesky39:
"I would like to read about a future human race at war with an alien race. Two
soldiers, one from each side, are the only survivors left on an alien planet and have to
work together to survive. They should fall in love and have an HEA but the conflict
between the races doesn't have to be resolved. Maybe our heroes escape to another
galaxy or find asylum on a neutral planet. The military aspect and the clash between the
differing races and cultures are key to the story."
Visit the prompt thread at:
Chapter One
Falls To Earth
Day One
Above Rinax One
I’m hit.
Alan feels his fighter break into a spin as a laser blasts through his wing. The
stars blur as he struggles to find a focal point, some fixed object to remind him which
way is up and down in the vastness of space. A sleek Karalian fighter swoops past him
in a victory dance, mocking him by leaving him for dead. He flips his middle finger at the
Karalian. It’s a crude gesture straight out of the mess hall, flippantly delivered as if he is
only cursing a bad driver and not the Karalian that might kill him. It helps to alleviate the
panic that tears through his gut as his cockpit explodes into a disco of flashing lights
and buzzers that Alan knows can only mean one thing.
Death is on its way.
Desperation coils through his bowel like a snake as he realizes that it’s all over for
him. The Humans will go on fighting and the war effort will continue, but he’s out for the
count.
Only the count is forever.
He remembers the emergency handle in a flash of inspiration.
Lord knows if it will
still work, but I have nothing to lose,
he realizes, and with a shaky hand he pulls on the
cord. His ship falls away around him like so many pieces of a child’s construction set,
leaving only an egg, a capsule designed to preserve a life until rescue can be found. It
spins through the darkness, propelled by the last gasp of his fighter pushing him away.
Only somehow he’s getting pulled into the gravity of Rinax One.
That’s not good. I
could burn up on re-entry. Perhaps this is the end after all,
he realizes with a heavy
heart, his bright hopes suddenly dashed. His emergency beacon pulses with light, but
his signal falls on deaf ears in the heat of the battle.
It’s too late. They’ll never find me.
By the time the battle is over, I’ll be a charcoal briquette down on Rinax.
He closes his
eyes, trying to force away the sudden rush of sentimentality as he thinks of his family,
his mom, his dad, his little brother Chester who’s attending medical school back on
Earth. There’s a photo back on the ship of them all standing together, beaming pride on
his parents’ faces.
They’ll cry. They’ll be proud, but they’ll cry. Keep Chester safe, okay
Mom?
Not that any of you can hear me.
He feels suddenly alone as he drifts away from the battle, the space war behind him
seeming like a distant memory from another life as he’s pulled closer to Rinax. The
capsule is a tight shell around him, suddenly claustrophobic and he puts his hands up
against the glass as if he can will it away from the planet, or maybe just to take one last
good look at the stars. The capsule is being pulled into the corona of Rinax now, and he
can see more of what’s beneath the atmosphere than up above. Rinax is purple, the
purple of amethysts that grow on its surface like plants. It would be beautiful if not for its
harsh climate, swirling storms that tear the planet to pieces, leaving only rocks and
crystal dust in their wake.
It’s getting warm in the capsule, a slow heat rising by the second as he is pulled into
the atmosphere and the capsule begins to burn. He prays to the Gods to be knocked
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Heart Of The Sun
Victoria Zagar
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
HEART OF THE SUN Copyright
© 2012
Victoria Zagar. All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For more information, write to
Cover art image courtesy of http://FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Visit Infinite Love for gay and lesbian short stories and novels:
A story written for the Goodreads Gay Science Fiction Group's 500 Member
Challenge, based on the following prompt from user Bluesky39:
"I would like to read about a future human race at war with an alien race. Two
soldiers, one from each side, are the only survivors left on an alien planet and have to
work together to survive. They should fall in love and have an HEA but the conflict
between the races doesn't have to be resolved. Maybe our heroes escape to another
galaxy or find asylum on a neutral planet. The military aspect and the clash between the
differing races and cultures are key to the story."
Visit the prompt thread at:
Chapter One
Falls To Earth
Day One
Above Rinax One
I’m hit.
Alan feels his fighter break into a spin as a laser blasts through his wing. The
stars blur as he struggles to find a focal point, some fixed object to remind him which
way is up and down in the vastness of space. A sleek Karalian fighter swoops past him
in a victory dance, mocking him by leaving him for dead. He flips his middle finger at the
Karalian. It’s a crude gesture straight out of the mess hall, flippantly delivered as if he is
only cursing a bad driver and not the Karalian that might kill him. It helps to alleviate the
panic that tears through his gut as his cockpit explodes into a disco of flashing lights
and buzzers that Alan knows can only mean one thing.
Death is on its way.
Desperation coils through his bowel like a snake as he realizes that it’s all over for
him. The Humans will go on fighting and the war effort will continue, but he’s out for the
count.
Only the count is forever.
He remembers the emergency handle in a flash of inspiration.
Lord knows if it will
still work, but I have nothing to lose,
he realizes, and with a shaky hand he pulls on the
cord. His ship falls away around him like so many pieces of a child’s construction set,
leaving only an egg, a capsule designed to preserve a life until rescue can be found. It
spins through the darkness, propelled by the last gasp of his fighter pushing him away.
Only somehow he’s getting pulled into the gravity of Rinax One.
That’s not good. I
could burn up on re-entry. Perhaps this is the end after all,
he realizes with a heavy
heart, his bright hopes suddenly dashed. His emergency beacon pulses with light, but
his signal falls on deaf ears in the heat of the battle.
It’s too late. They’ll never find me.
By the time the battle is over, I’ll be a charcoal briquette down on Rinax.
He closes his
eyes, trying to force away the sudden rush of sentimentality as he thinks of his family,
his mom, his dad, his little brother Chester who’s attending medical school back on
Earth. There’s a photo back on the ship of them all standing together, beaming pride on
his parents’ faces.
They’ll cry. They’ll be proud, but they’ll cry. Keep Chester safe, okay
Mom?
Not that any of you can hear me.
He feels suddenly alone as he drifts away from the battle, the space war behind him
seeming like a distant memory from another life as he’s pulled closer to Rinax. The
capsule is a tight shell around him, suddenly claustrophobic and he puts his hands up
against the glass as if he can will it away from the planet, or maybe just to take one last
good look at the stars. The capsule is being pulled into the corona of Rinax now, and he
can see more of what’s beneath the atmosphere than up above. Rinax is purple, the
purple of amethysts that grow on its surface like plants. It would be beautiful if not for its
harsh climate, swirling storms that tear the planet to pieces, leaving only rocks and
crystal dust in their wake.
It’s getting warm in the capsule, a slow heat rising by the second as he is pulled into
the atmosphere and the capsule begins to burn. He prays to the Gods to be knocked
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