For Want of a Nail (6 page)

"That will probably be the easiest thing I do
all day." Rue put her hands to her helmet. "Can I take this off
now?"

"It'll make it harder for me to talk to you
since your glasses are hanging by a cable."

"Curses. Foiled again." Rue stalked down the
hall, as best she could in the giant EVA suit. She had to lift her
feet uber-high to avoid dragging the toes on the ground. "So... you
going to be okay in the probe, after having an entire ship to
run?"

Cordelia cocked her head, floating away from
Rue. "My dear, I'm going to get to see things that no thinking
being has seen before. Do you honestly think I'd give that up for
piloting a ship?"

"But you might not come back." Rue stopped
outside the cargo bay. "What if he undid more than one cable?"

"Then we will find them and reconnect them."
Cordelia seemed to lean forward, her eyes intent on Rue. "Promise
me that you won't let them scrub the mission because of this."

"Even if I have to jam my entire arm into
someone's access hatch and squeeze till you to launch." Rue opened
the door to the cargo bay. "You'll get to go."

END

When I start writing, even with short fiction, I
usually try to have a minimal outline so I know where the story is
going. I brainstorm on the page because that helps me capture what
I'm thinking about in a given moment. I can see the relationship
between ideas.

Here are the notes I made from that first
brainstorming session. I don't promise that they make sense to
anyone but me

Observation ship, drone orbiting a black
hole.

Rebellion -- Who is rebelling?

Robots? Sure, it's a drone orbiting. The AI
could be rebelling.

Religious rebellion. Sending a drone into the
blackhole is murder.

Rebellion against government. My character is
just there for the science. Telescopes scattered around the
planet.

"Let me show you how to hold it"

---

Lelta is an AI wrangler. She's on an exploration
ship from Cygnus University studying black holes. Their grant is to
send an AI into orbit around a black hole and then into the black
hole. A religious faction sees this as murder and has sent
operatives to take over the ship. Lelta and the AI work together to
stop the rebellion. AI continues the trip, uploading constantly.
Melancholy ending. Hurrah for science but thinks about the rest of
the AI that is now in the disc.

#

Mutiny!

Struggles to get to Cordelia. Trapped in
room!

Big fight scene in the dark. Wins because
Cordelia gives her glasses a infrared signal from Cordelia's
cameras.

Scooby-doo moment.

---

Lecia is an AI wrangler. She's on an exploration
ship from Cygnus University studying black holes. Their grant is to
send an AI into orbit around a black hole and then into the black
hole. A religious faction sees this as murder and has sent
operatives to take over the ship. Lecia and the AI work together to
stop the rebellion. AI continues the trip, uploading constantly.
Had the operative succeeded, she would have been unable to do so.
THAT would have been the same as death. Happy ending, hurrah for
science!

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of
Shades of Milk and Honey
(Tor 2010). In 2008 she won the
Campbell Award for Best New Writer and has been a finalist for the
Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Her stories have appeared in
Strange Horizons
,
Asimov’s
, and several
Year’s Best anthologies as well as in her collection
Scenting the Dark and Other Stories
from
Subterranean.

Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor,
has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim
Henson Pictures and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs
have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest
award an American puppeteer can achieve. She also records fiction
for authors such as Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.

She is the Vice President of Science Fiction and
Fantasy Writers of America. Mary lives in Portland, OR with her
husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit
www.maryrobinettekowal.com
.