UPDATE: The author for the middle part of SteemShort #6 has been chosen (2018-Apr-23)
There were 3 valid summaries submitted to the jury.
And the jury chose the summary submitted by @jacksondavies.
Congratulations, @jacksondavies.
Here is the summary:
William Chang refuses to fire the weapon and this decision generates mixed feelings within the crew. One of the crew members receives a call from the military high command with instructions to carry out a contingency plan. In the event that William Chang failed to trigger the device, he was ordered to take over. Some elements had been planted in the crew to provide him assistance in case this situation arose. This man was none other than William Chang's second in command, General Erik Van Hal. He stages a mutiny and seizes control of the ship. All codes for the ship have been given to him. All except one, the code for the secret weapon. That was known only to William Chang. Determined to trigger the device no matter the cost, he requests the code from William Chang. When Chang refuses to part with it, Erik vows to extract the information by any means necessary.
SteemShort #6 - Post 2: Request for the Middle Part of the Story
SteemShort are short stories written collaboratively by three differents authors and illustrated by an artist/photographer.
The process to create a SteemShort is described in this post, slightly modified bin this post. The rules to select the authors and illustrators have been modified in this post.
The first part has been written by @gbengaremi (Gbenga Remi) and can be found below.
This is the request for the middle part of the sixth SteemShort.
Authors that want to write this middle part should send 0.001 STEEM or SBD to the @steemshorts account, with their proposed summary in a memo starting with the character '#'.
This summary must be between 100 to 200 words. Any proposed summary that is shorter than 100 words or longer than 200 words will not be considered.
It is important that the memo starts with the character '#': that makes this memo readable only by the author and the @steemshorts account.
Example of the beginning of a valid memo:
# It was a dark and stormy night ...
Note that it is recommended to send the 0.001 SBD/STEEM with the memo from steemit.com using a web browser, as we have seen several cases of "Invalid memo" when it was sent using an app such as eSteem.
There can be only one proposed summary per author. The proposed summaries must be received in less than 3 days after thist post.
After sending their summary, authors should tell in a comment that they have sent their summary, so that they can received confirmation that their summary is valid and they can be easily contacted if they are the chosen author.
After 3 days, all the valid summaries will be communicated anonymously to the 3 members of the SteemShorts jury, and they will decide which author will be chosen.
The chosen author will then be instructed how to submit their full constribution. The full contribution need to be between 500 and 1,500 words.
Once the full contribution of the chosen author will be received, another post with this full contribution will request proposals for the last part of the story.
All authors need to agree for a "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike" (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode).
No title for the short story should be suggested. When the full text of the full story will be known, the three different authors will propose a title.
Rewards for each part of the story are half of total SBD payout, minus the jury fee of 15 SBD.
So, writers, send your summary proposals with 0.001 STEEM or SBD to the @steemshorts account.
Here is the first part of the story, written by @gbengaremi:
PARIS, EARTH, YEAR 3000
“I don’t want to do it.”
The little boy said, his concentration solely on the armoured shoes which he was in the process of lacing carefully. He had learned to be careful all the time. Be as meticulous as possible. As he stood there in the dimly-lit armoury with his little brother, his mind was not on the thing he was about to do. His mind had strayed, as it had the tendency to do, far away into the stars—where he felt he belonged. It was his destiny, but his brother had distracted him.
“Don’t hold back this time,” His brother had said, putting on his armour too. “If you have me, which I know you will just hit me, okay? Don’t hold back this time.”
“I won’t do it.”
William Chang said.
“I won’t.”
He finished lacing his shoes, adjusted his metal armour and stood up. Heading towards the door, he saw a figure standing menacingly by it. It was an imposing figure—which he was more than familiar with; it was literally a shadow that he knew he was doomed to spend his entire life living up to. It was the figure of his own father, Li Chang, or as he preferred to be called, Chang the Conqueror. Everyone on the planet knew his story. How he had gone from being a filthy peasant surviving in the slums of Paris, to single-handedly putting the entire planet on the map. How he had earned for Earth, the respect of the Intergalactic Federation of Worlds. He did all this with his intrepid adventures and brave conquests.
“So, you’ve decided to walk the path of a weakling.”
Li Chang said to his son.
“I have not.”
“That’s not what your trainer tells me.”
“I have not!” William retorted.
“I will be overseeing your training today. See you in the arena in five seconds.”
Old Chang disappeared from the shed, and William followed immediately behind, his little brother trailing behind him.
The arena was old-fashioned. It was built just at the center of the family vineyard. William had always wondered why, but he never bothered to ask. It’s not like it would matter, anyway.
The boys had their full armour on. Sammy, William’s little brother, who was three full years younger, stood a few feet away. He was facing his older brother as squarely as he could and even though beads of sweat had settled over his forehead, he still managed to hide his fears rather superbly. At their father’s order, they both put on their helmets and picked up their sword. It was a slow fight, with one-sided attacks from one brother and the other putting up an effortless but efficient defence.
“Get him, Sammy!” Old Chang shouted from his seat. “Time your attacks. Precise launches. Faster.”
It was ineffective. William was too good, too fast, too strong for his little brother.
“Is that what you’ll do all day, William?”
Old Chang shouted. “Don’t be weak, boy. Attack! Attack!”
But William did not.
“Drop your swords!”
The older Chang ordered from his seat. “I want you to fight hand to hand.”
The boys did as their father ordered. At that point, the battle became more of a pantomime than a battle. Sammy’s jabs were weak. He was tired and the armour weighed him down. Ashamed of, or for his little brother, William went in with an arm lock. In the space of a few microseconds, he had his brother pinned on the hot sands.
“Finish him!”
Li Chang shouted, excited.
“Hit him!”
But young William Chang could not.
“I said finish him!”
Old Li Chang shouted again. Still, Wiliam only hovered above his little brother, his hand fisted but suspended in the air. He couldn’t bring himself to bring it down.
“You’re weak, boy!”
Li Chang shouted from his seat.
”Weak!”
The next morning Li Chang was summoned by the Federation. Before he left, however, he entered into his older son’s room at dawn while he was still asleep. He sat beside his bed, stroking his hair like a loving father. Young William woke up to the startling sight. Before he could voice his amazement his father said:
“There are two kinds of people in the Universe, boy. The ones who do all it takes to win and the ones who lose and complain. I’m afraid you’re too weak, boy. You belong to the latter. You’ll amount to nothing! Nothing!”
When Old Chang left the room, William wished he’d never see his father again. Little did he know his wish would be granted. Old Chang died in battle the next day. The whole Universe mourned. William mourned too, but he knew his destiny had just begun and that was an endless thrill for him.
Raoulin V, Year 3045
William Chang’s ship hovered over Raoulin V with one mission—to destroy the whole planet. Only William knew the reason for that. His crew, even though kept in the dark, had enough trust in The Federation to know that for the order to have been given, it was an absolute necessity.
However, General Chang could not bring himself to push that button. He paced up and down the bridge, pensive and contemplative—even a bit sweaty. His crew thought he was weighing the decision but they were wrong. His mind had gone back 45 years ago to his encounter in the Vineyard.
45 years had passed and yet it felt like it was yesterday.
Yes, a whole lot had happened. He had dedicated his life to the Federation, even though everyone held him to the standards of his father, constantly comparing. Even though it had taken him only 25 years to become a General—unprecedented in Federation history, still he had yet to shake his father’s shadow. He had failed to achieve half the things his father had.
With the push of that button he could; finally, he could. His name--his name!--would go down in history as the man who finally put an end to the 100-years war with the Raols. But at what cost? Yes, the Federation had finally built the perfect machine to get the job done and had secretly installed it on his ship. Yes, most of the people down there on Raolin V would go on to become military thugs and probably kill people he knew, but was that enough?
“General Chang.” A female voice called on the bridge. “General, you have to decide now!”
“General, we have no choice.” Another voice, a male one, called again.
“Control gave the order, General. We can win this war. With a push of that button, we can win this war. You can win this war! For all of us.”
William Chang was not hearing the words of his crew. Fixated on a spot now, he was hovering. His mind hovering on that vineyard, hovering above his little brother and his father’s voice hovering in his ears. “You’re weak, boy! You’ll never amount to anything! Never!”
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