'Setrec'
Inspired by actor Leonard Nimoy

Three novels inspired by actor Leonard Nimoy.

Sometimes in a moment, an expression of an actor I see a character whose story I want to tell.

Setrec is dead.

'Salely'

Far above the surface of Laes, Marl's ship slid through space. She leaned back in her chair, her stockinged feet on her prized, polished red wood console, warming her hands on a mug of steaming brew.

The room was quiet; the wall-sized displays a neutral beige. The data chip that she had been given was online; it would run on her command. She was alone on her ship, alone with the chip that had been slipped into her hands without explanation. The system had given her the data title and told her that it was audio/text. And now, she knew, she had to listen, and to decide what to do with the contents.

She sighed, took another mouthful of brew, and ordered, "Computer, play". The monitor beside her came to life, the text scrolling on the screen as a familiar voice spoke:

"The crisis the Laesan people faced in that summer grew out of years of conflict, neglect, and ill-conceived improvements. But laws and policies and prejudices are things, and the real stories of societies are the stories of individuals. The tale of what has passed is the story of the writer Setrec. Although probably Laes' most innocent citizen, Setrec became the unwitting tool of the revolution and an unwilling martyr to its cause; and yet for a time he was the most powerful weapon of the aristocracy. Setrec was just a man, but a man who, torn by forces beyond control, held his faith intact.

It is important that despite the many public failures that were to be seen that summer there were private triumphs in lives that this gentle person touched. Lives such as Salely's."

Marl remembered.

* * *

Read the first chapter