Earlier this week Dominick Mattero and I sat down amongst the squeamish at the Barnes & Noble’s coffee bar and outlined the rest of our Hemavore collaboration. Hemavore will be released as a print novella sometime in 2015. Dom created this setting and I created a number of characters to stock it. My insertion of the Jeanot character required a meeting so that we could figure out how to use him without trashing the setting. As we complete this book we will make about another six posts, three being the bookmarks of Dom’s Chapter 9.

Hemavore is sci-fi horror, with Dom designing the setting and writing the Lunar humans of Chinese descent, who escaped a nuclear exchange. I write the earth-marooned characters. The complete novella will run to 16 chapters with a prologue, which I will post for free on the site, and an epilogue that will only show up in the print edition.

'Fate brings people together, no matter how far apart they may be'

-Chinese Proverb

The horizon of Terra was still beautiful despite all the old junk floating around. One could see the outline of the land masses and see how they compared to before the Wars, where changes had been made geographically thanks to the atomic weapons that combatants swore not to use.

The Middle Empire had not used them. They had warned the others and nobly did not respond with such horrific weaponry. Time and time again the Middle Empire had to endure the unendurable in order to show the barbarians who surrounded them the folly of not following their example. Had the Middle Empire not existed the longest? Was this not a sign that they had been the Creator's first and chosen people? Why had this been so hard to understand and why had the help the Middle Empire extended to its ungrateful recipients not been reciprocated?

Calamity, after calamity came. The Judgment of Heaven had ordained the firestorm, sparing only the Han safely away from the inferno, to a new righteous home on Luna where humanity would survive and continue in a more pure and distilled form.

Dong Shen Yin of the 237 squad of the 34th Chang'e Contact Division stared at the 'Earth' from the observatory viewing port of the shuttlecraft with her hand on her cheek. The Han had been so cheap as to not even clear the debris in the atmosphere which not only would have made these jaunts easier but would have restored some of the Pre 20th Century charm they always went on about.

Words and words and words, they were quite flexible for her people. Being in the Chang'e division was almost like a revelation about the way things really were. One needed a near fanatic loyalty for it to pass through without some kind of existential crisis. Her comrades, who she loved and had affinity for were all like that. They had to believe in all the 'Han' crap in order to deal with what they saw on the surface of Terra.

But she was different.

Was she one of those rare souls who sought only the truth; the truth over any sort of comfort or easy psychological adaption? It was not even that noble a quality. The truth had been known to her since her infanthood. All the nice talk and assumed notions of life and service and duty; a metallic cardio-implant was what made that possible for her. All the genetic engineering and foolproof birthing technology and still one got through. A tiny little valve, the mitral, had not been developed in her incubation.

"Oh, Defiant One, not smiling again? How do you manage to summon up the smile for the video 'Eval's I wonder?" A voice piped behind her.

"Smiling was not a common facial expression for any human for the majority of existence, particularly not the Han. “I am a traditionalist,” Dong Shen Yin responded without missing a beat.

"Weirdo!"

Zheng Xie Lin smiled at her best friend. "The Scholar" was her team handle, "Defiant One" was the other. Dong Shen Yin turned and smiled. The two comrades hugged in the customary manner, the deadly duo.

Dong Shen Yin was shorter than the average female Han of her age and had pure Southern/Cantonese features. She was twenty solar years, the designation still being useful. Her hair was cut in a shorter manner than the others who wore their hair in very proletarian braids or in the now fashionable Tang style with several loops. Her comrades joked that she should just shave her head in Buddhist fashion.

DSY would retort ‘to be careful for what they wish for’ and she would be sure to rub her newly fuzzy dome on their faces to scratch them if that was the case! Newcomers to the unit would be put off by her but many who had grown not to like her somehow did not survive long during contact missions. It was almost a superstition.

DSY disagreed.

Lieutenant Zheng was taller and of Hakka stock and wore a conservative version of the Tang style. She was the current commander of the squad but the organization was quite fluid and was developed for that purpose. The uniforms of the two women were identical, gray jumpsuits fitted to their athletic physiques. All women in the squad were trained pilots and soldiers but their main focus was recon and collection. This made DSY an important member as she had to be familiar with many things that the Han had no use for normally. This also made her superfluous back on Luna. This was probably why she volunteered for such long tours on Terra.

"Okay, some Coffee and then we start the run, you ready?" Zheng asked her comrade.

"I'm already there, Swan. You know that." DSY replied with Zheng's nickname. She looked at Terra one last time.

"Oh yes, we all know that. Your mind is so fixated on the Rock. At least somebody likes the damned place." Zheng turned to the corridor leading to the main bridge. DSY followed, tossing her hair to the side.

DSY laughed to herself.

Even her closest sister did not know how much DSY loved going to Terra.

They were living all the legends of their ancestors down there: the battles and the demons; the treachery of the barbarians; the agonies of loss and the terror of death.

Even if all that had been shit, she wanted to see for herself.

Anything to escape the steel 'Celestial Tomb' called Luna.