1. Chuck’s twelve when his parent divorce. His eight-year-old sister, Sarah, crawls into bed with him and asks him what that means.
“They’re going to live apart” is his first, wholly truthful, and wholly literal answer.
“Will I have to choose one?”
For Chuck, it’s like his life is slotting into place. He pulls the covers up around her. “Maybe. But you’ll be okay. You and I will be together.”
2. “Welcome to Computer Science,” Professor “Doc” Silver says cheerfully, a robot walking across his desk. “You’re here to learn about the future.
Chuck’s bad at learning about the future. He majors in communications with a minor is Russian, already speaks French. But Doc makes him love computer science. A life-long passion that never dilutes.
3. Chuck’s twenty-three when Sarah overdoses the first time. He finds her on her bedroom floor on a Tuesday in mid-summer after he finishes university. Calls the hospital and falls asleep in the chair beside her, his father pacing outside ranting about how-could-this-happen.
“I’m so lonely,” is the first thing Sarah says. Followed closely by, “I don’t do drugs.”
He takes her hand and tries to make her see reason.
4. He loves being in the army. Loves the uniform and the order and the respect. He still watches geeky shows about science at night, and one day he saves a tour group from a bear. Yes, really. It’s absolutely ridiculous and makes him feel like a super hero, and he gets a lot of recognition for it that he doesn’t really want. People know his name, and that’s embarrassing. He tries to shrug it off, but then he goes to Somali and there’s a convoy that-well. He wins the Victoria cross for it, the first person since 1982. Everyone knows his name after that.
5. “There’s a job.” That’s how the Chief of Land Staff starts. He says more, of course, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s the head of Canadian army, and the rest is about aliens and other galaxies, and Chuck was never going to say no.
He tells his parents and Sarah over the phone. They do not take it well.
At the light-up desk that he inherited from Peter, he implements calm order in the midst of alien wars, and knows he wouldn’t mind being stuck out there forever.
Everyone had a reason for Atlantis, but it’s taboo to ask; there are only a few reasons to travel a galaxy away-exploration or escape. He knows which category he falls into, and doesn’t particularly care. It was worth it.
Chuck! I really like the way you fill in his background here, family and university and joining the military. I especially like the family stories, the divorce and his sister, and I'm fascinated that he felt able to walk away from his sister after what they went through. But I'm also glad that he did--that he was able to go live in the future and not merely study it.
I totally thought you must be posting to the wrong community until I got to #5! :-D And then everything slotted into place. Wonderful! (And I love the shout-out to Peter.)
“They’re going to live apart” is his first, wholly truthful, and wholly literal answer.
“Will I have to choose one?”
For Chuck, it’s like his life is slotting into place. He pulls the covers up around her. “Maybe. But you’ll be okay. You and I will be together.”
2. “Welcome to Computer Science,” Professor “Doc” Silver says cheerfully, a robot walking across his desk. “You’re here to learn about the future.
Chuck’s bad at learning about the future. He majors in communications with a minor is Russian, already speaks French. But Doc makes him love computer science. A life-long passion that never dilutes.
3. Chuck’s twenty-three when Sarah overdoses the first time. He finds her on her bedroom floor on a Tuesday in mid-summer after he finishes university. Calls the hospital and falls asleep in the chair beside her, his father pacing outside ranting about how-could-this-happen.
“I’m so lonely,” is the first thing Sarah says. Followed closely by, “I don’t do drugs.”
He takes her hand and tries to make her see reason.
4. He loves being in the army. Loves the uniform and the order and the respect. He still watches geeky shows about science at night, and one day he saves a tour group from a bear. Yes, really. It’s absolutely ridiculous and makes him feel like a super hero, and he gets a lot of recognition for it that he doesn’t really want. People know his name, and that’s embarrassing. He tries to shrug it off, but then he goes to Somali and there’s a convoy that-well. He wins the Victoria cross for it, the first person since 1982. Everyone knows his name after that.
5. “There’s a job.” That’s how the Chief of Land Staff starts. He says more, of course, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s the head of Canadian army, and the rest is about aliens and other galaxies, and Chuck was never going to say no.
He tells his parents and Sarah over the phone. They do not take it well.
At the light-up desk that he inherited from Peter, he implements calm order in the midst of alien wars, and knows he wouldn’t mind being stuck out there forever.
Everyone had a reason for Atlantis, but it’s taboo to ask; there are only a few reasons to travel a galaxy away-exploration or escape. He knows which category he falls into, and doesn’t particularly care. It was worth it.
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