SF Plotbunny Snip

The dream has become a five-book series.  Sort of a Leverage meets Firefly SF Romance.  Five books, five couples.  And one giant conspiracy.

It's set in the near future, when Man has ventured into the solar system, but no farther.

In the first book, Marlowe (Helene Marlowe) is the FMC and Daniel Lyons is the MMC.  Enjoy.

***

Marlowe took out her glasses and held out her hand.  "Let me get a closer look at that."

Lyons glanced at Chan – he had no reason to trust her, she reminded herself.  Chan nodded.

Slowly, Lyons placed the orb into her palm and her fingers caged it.  Smooth, cool to the touch.  Practically seamless.  "Do you know where it was made?"

Lyons stared at her, his mouth slightly open.  Hadn't he heard her?  "Do you know where it was made?"

He shook his head, maybe he just shook himself awake.  "Sorry.  I haven't a clue.  It's not old, though.  Not hand milled, but not mass produced, either."

Marlowe nodded and touched her hand to the left earpiece.  First step in and the surface of the orb focused.  Still smooth.

At the far edge of her vision, she saw Jerry approach Chan with a whisper.  They left, leaving her alone with their client.

"I like the sexy librarian look."

Marlowe looked up at him, over the rim of the black plastic glasses.  "My eyes were corrected to 20/20, same as everyone else.  These are glassicals, not your typical glasses."

"Now I'm curious."  He took two steps closer and looked at her face, at the glassicals.  "What do they do?"

Of course he was curious.  But she didn't like how unsettled she felt with him looking at her face like that.  "They act like a 3-D microscope.  Nano lenses focus and enlarge, then the image is sharpened via computer enhancement."  She tapped the drive at her hip.

Lyons glanced at the drive, but before she could focus on the orb, he looked up, at her, not the glassicals.  He was too close.  But her breath had seized and she couldn't move.

He grinned.  "Can I see?"

And she could breathe again.  "No."  She nearly laughed when he pouted – that was the only term that could apply.  "They're keyed to my ID.  They're designed to only work with me."

He looked so disappointed, just a slumping of his shoulders, that she relented.  "I've got a non-keyed prototype in the office.  If we've got time, later, I'll show you.  Right now, I've got to see what I can learn about this thing."

"We should probably call it something else, don't you think?" He glanced at the orb.

"If you want.  The orb?"  She pulled out a small round tube, shrank the diameter and set it on the luncheon table.  The orb settled into the circle, not moving, and she braced her elbows on either side.  The computer still didn't compensate for the jiggle quite enough yet.

"How about Lyon's Orb?"  But she was already concentrating and he sounded miles away as she focused on the sphere in front of her.

Image:  Orb: Recursive by Giovanni Rubaltelli under Creative Commons License

http://exper.3drecursions.com/2007/09/12/orb-recursive/