Here’s the third of the seven skeleton bones for my new novel MILK RUN—a science fiction space battle tale about a young captain fresh out of space command school on his first assignment as captain of the USS Princeton, an old destroyer class spacecraft.
Earth is losing the war against the Telrachnids and our young captain is chosen to deliver a new weapon to a secret starbase far from the front line fighting. But what our hero thought would be an easy first mission turns out to be a test of his ability to lead a crew much older than he against a superior enemy.
Click here to see the story action behind the first bone–the Inciting Incident.
Click here to see the story action behind the second bone–the First Act Turn.
This third bone is called the Midpoint. It occurs about the middle of the story, and can be one of two things (or both): a no-turning-back point for our hero, Captain Toby, or the revelation of an as-yet-unsuspected element at work within the story.
Story Action:
The USS Princeton continues to pursue the Telrachnid gunship. But it has taken on substantial battle damage, plagued by sporadic and unexplained weapon system failures. Now, a rift grows between Captain Toby and his well seasoned and much older second in command, Commander Emerson who believes the young captain is too inexperienced and undisciplined for the job.
Despite Commander Emerson’s stern warnings, Captain Toby continues to pursue the Telrachnid gunship, driven to find a way to rescue Smriti, his fiancée, from that spider infested spacecraft. She now has certain knowledge about the Telrachnids that might turn the course of the war to Earth’s favor. But the USS Princeton takes on even more damage as the bow of the ship is blow off by the Telrachnid gunship that plays a deadly game of interdimensional hide and seek.
Now, a saboteur is discovered on board the USS Princeton. The crewman, under the Telrachnids’ drug induced telepathic control is found responsible for the mysterious ship computer failures. But Commander Emerson suspects that Captain Toby may also be under Telrachnid control or at least, is suffering from a youthful love crazed neglect of his mission to bring the USS Princeton safely to Starbase 24 with its secret cargo, ‘the Crowbar.’ It’s a new weapon designed to pry open a gateway to the same parallel dimension the Telrachnids have been using to out maneuver and destroy Earth ships.
—
I’ll cover the story’s Lowpoint bone in my next blog entry.
