It’s Sunday, and time for weekend Writing Warrior (click the logo above for links to other snippets) and Snippet Sunday (click on the logo below.)
I’m still posting from the beginning of Rescue Operation, my almost-ready-to-send-out science fiction novel, and still in Zhaim’s point of view. He has just maneuvered Roi into checking on a situation off-planet that Roi’s medical training should help with. Now he needs to get rid of Roi’s closest allies before the Council finds out that Horizon has voted to leave the Confederation.
No indication Roi felt any preconditional warning, though Zhaim was quite sure he had used CP.
He’d need to get Derik and Kaia on off-planet assignments, too, since they almost always voted with Roi. So long as twenty were present, problems could be resolved by a simple majority vote. Zhaim had ten votes he could count on, though two often sided with Roi at his suggestion—it wouldn’t do for Roi to know how many Zhaim could control. Four more of the councilors were genuine swing voters, but he thought he’d prepared the ground with them.
Two days later, a communications problem threatening to cause a war took Kaia off planet, and three days after that word came of a possible contact with an unknown sentient species. Derik, by far the best xenotelepath among the R’il’noids, was the obvious choice to handle that problem.
Scene break here. Next week we’ll see a later Council meeting, and Zhaim’s “solution.”
Definitely an interesting excerpt, Sue Ann. Readers should be on the edge of their seats wondering what’s coming. Zhaim seems to be a master manipulator. People like that sometimes make one mistake that brings their plans down and I’m super curious if that’s going to happen here.
I didn’t sign up this week but wanted to be sure I hit your post!
Thanks for dropping by. Zhaim is indeed a master manipulator.
Liking the plot, and I’ll follow with interest to see what’s happening next.
I did wonder if maybe the monologue could be broken up just a little, maybe with some dialogue or action? This is a little tiny bit on the info-dump side of things (though I know it’s hard to get this kind of inner thought process stuff out in dialogue without having another character that they can confide in).
Good luck with releasing this one soon, keep up the good writing!
Hoped I could get away with it for 8 sentences.
The subtlety of Zhaim’s plotting shows here – making sure his followers don’t make themselves obvious by predictable block voting is smart.
A little too smart sometimes, but that won’t come up until the third book of the trilogy.
Oh boy–that Zhaim did it–got the people off planet he needed to get his agenda pushed through. Trouble ahead. Good job of writing political intrigue, Sue Ann.
And at this point, Roi’s the only one even mildly suspicious of him.
Good politicker! And it looks like he got his wish to get those two out of the way…
Too bad good politicker and good leader are not synonymous.
Political, Sci-fi, intrigue. Wow. You have a package going on. There must be a good home for your books out there, my friend.
And horses and dogs, but they haven’t arrived yet.
Makes me nervous that Zhaim is having so much success! Well done excerpt as always…
Wait till you find out what his solution is.
Oh that Zhaim…I really don’t like him. Nope, not at all!
Good. I was a little worried about starting with the antagonist’s POV
So that’s his plan . . . Wonder how Roi and his allies will thwart this one?
Oh, you haven’t heard the whole plan yet.
I figured as much . . . 🙂
This Zhaim is pretty confident. I hope Roi catches on to his plot.
Catching on is one thing. Doing something about it…
Nice piece of work. You really take us inside his thought process.
I try.
Whoa, he’s a diabolical piece of work. Well done!
That he is.
Zhaim does have everything under control. I wonder if he will get his way or if something will happen at the last minute that changes things;). Great 8.
Try 8 years.
Looks like he’s got it all figured out. Thanks for stopping by.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Well he thinks so.
Zhaim is certainly underhanded and “loading the bases” for an unfair advantage.
Remind you of anything in our world?
Sounds like Zhaim has everything figured out, but Roi is smart too, so I wonder if he’ll catch on.
The question is whether he can do anything.
Sounds like Zhaim has everything well in hand. I’m looking forward to his “solution” next week.
Unfortunately, yes.
That worked out rather well for Zhaim, didn’t it? I certainly hope it doesn’t all go his way so easily. Good job of building the tension!
This is the setup for the whole trilogy.
Zhaim sure is a master planner, but I’m sure Roi will figure it out. 🙂 Great snippet.
Eventually.
Having just begun reading the snippets I love how much is packed into these eight sentences. The lead in was quite helpful to grasp the level of manipulation that is going on here. It took me a couple reads to follow the characters/names, but I’m sure it’s just because it was the first time I was seeing them. Nice work!
Most of the names are Council members, and you’re not expected to really know them–though some will show up later.
Interesting scheming and manipulating going on. Zhaim has the makings of a great villain.
I’m glad everyone seems to see him as a villain.