Zero-Option by Lindsay Brambles
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From CHRONICLES OF THE EARTH EMPIRE series.
ZERO-OPTION by Lindsay Brambles
Introduction:
I wrote Zero-Option back in the eighties on a Commodore 64 using a great little wordprocessor called Paperclip. For a few years it just languished while I worked on other things, including what would eventually become In Darkness Bound (ISBN 1-4241-6560-1), my novel now available from PublishAmerica (www.publishamerica.com) and as of April 2007 in wider release to bookstores and online retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.
Zero-Option is about forty thousands words, which puts it in the novella category. I had thought of expanding it into a book, but in going over it I realized that would probably just make it bloated and weaken the story. Everything that needs to be in there is, and adding more would just be deadweight.
The story is essentially told from the perspective of Commander Nathan Imbrahim, but it is really about Captain Lhara Jhordel. The same Lhara Jhordel who is an ensign in my novel In Darkness Bound. This story you're about to read, however, takes place about four decades after events in the novel.
The original version of this story was submitted in competition at the 1989 Pinecone II Science Fiction Convention and won first place. As such, I think rather fondly of it, and despite the fact that some years have passed since th