Pippa Jay: #SFRBShowcase: Backtrack #scifi #romance #spaceopera #sfrb

Friday, 1 July 2016

#SFRBShowcase: Backtrack #scifi #romance #spaceopera #sfrb

Hello! Welcome to another SFRB Showcase. This month I'm going to share an excerpt from a WIP, working title Backtrack. This is a follow on to my space opera short Quickshot (since a couple of reviewers expressed an interest in seeing more of these characters and this universe). No promises when this will be available (sorry!) but you can always go read the current Imperium book if you haven't already. ;) (Warning: this isn't edited yet).

A hissing sound woke her, and she reached for her guns, adrenaline a cold jolt that blasted any sleepiness away. Devin stood at the end of the bed, in front of the multi-screen currently set to reflection. His pure white torso gleamed with a sheen almost like mother-of-pearl as he steadily passed a spray can back and forth over his body.
She rose and joined him.
"What is that?"
"Chromatic spray." He grinned at her puzzled expression in the mirror. "Watch." His brow furrowed, and his white skin shifted to jet black as if a shadow had run across it. An instant later, he turned light brown, then sickly gray, then a gleaming gold.
"Wow. And how does that work?"
"Chromatophore elements in the spray, combined with nanotech and my cybernetic implants, I can turn it any colour just by thinking about it. I can even change my face."
"Really?"
"Yup." He concentrated, and his face narrowed as his cheeks sunk as though sucked in. His eyebrows stretched out, points rose on his ears, his jawline widened, before snapping back to how he'd looked before, like the strings pulling it out of shape had snapped. "My visor too." The curved glasses morphed into a single strip of silver, then to huge disks almost covering his face.
"A man of many disguises," Sal murmured, swallowing the slight sense of nausea at the transformations.
"Yeah. When I need them." His skin became the warm light brown she remembered from their first meeting.
"You know, you don't have to do that just for me."
"Thanks. But..." He glanced at her reflection. "It's not just for you, or anyone else. It's for me. So I can look in the mirror and not see some albino freak staring back."

If you enjoyed that you can pick up Quickshot for 99 cents from any of the retailers listed under the book cover below - just click and go! (pssst, I was going to put the price up at the end of June but thought I'd keep it low for the Showcase so it'll go up next week instead). Then hop along to the other participants in the Showcase by clicking HERE to return to the main list.