Strange Invasion by Chris Nuttall

Author:Chris Nuttall [Nuttall, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-07-17T09:02:19+00:00

***

Days stretched into weeks and weeks stretched into months. For Robert Zeke, the journey was hardly monotonous at all; he had thousands of electronic books to read and countless articles to read that he had never quite had the time to read, before boarding the flight. He spent time reading and some time writing, including the beginnings of a book on the alien contact that he hoped to publish after the flight. More time was spent studying the constantly revised instructions from Earth as the President finally convinced the other space-capable nations to work together to provide a defence against the aliens – should they turn out to be hostile after all.

He had been surprised – and delighted – to discover that it was possible to play chess onboard the shuttle, playing with the other crewmembers, including Dave Howery. The psychologist – or head-shrinker to everyone else – was a surprisingly good player; he and Jane made an almost unbeatable team when they played together. Zeke had never liked Team Chess, but with two strong opponents it almost worked perfectly.

“I can learn a lot about someone from playing chess,” Howery said, one day as they played in the lounge. The chessboard was a computer display; they had to use a small touchpad to enter their moves into the computer, which displayed them on the screen. “You, sir, have a scheming mind.”

“Not half so much as you have,” Zeke said, examining the position. If he moved a pawn forward, it would threaten Howery’s attempt to build up a defensive position protecting his king. “You’re trying to distract me again, just like that argument about ‘it.’”

Howery laughed. The argument about whither or not ‘it’ was a real word, and therefore legal for playing scrabble, had taken several hours for them to decide – reluctantly – that it was. They hadn’t played scrabble since then; Zeke didn’t miss it. He preferred games that depended less upon luck.

“You saw right though my cunning plan,” Howery said, his face stretching into an odd grin. “It was Sherlock Holmes who claimed that you could tell a lot about a person – and that playing Chess was one sign of a scheming mind. You, sir, like to react bluntly to problems.”

He tapped the position of Zeke’s queen to illustrate the point. “Like that position there, for example,” he said.

“I was hoping that you’d forgotten about that,” Zeke said, rather ruefully. He had planned to use his queen to rip open Howery’s position. “How exactly does that tell you about me?”

Howery made his countermove and smirked as Zeke scowled. “You like the simplest way to respond to problems,” he said. “Like taking a hammer to hammer down a nail.”

Zeke lifted an eyebrow, comically exaggerating the expression. “Are you saying that I’m simple-minded?”

“No,” Howery said, quickly. He tapped his next move into the computer and waited for Zeke to respond. “Just like you like simple solutions to problems.”

Zeke frowned. “I’m not sure that I would agree,” he said, rather slowly.

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