Free DIRE : BORN (The Dire Saga Book 1) by Andrew Seiple

television you can spare?”
    “Does it have to be a working one?”
    “Maybe, maybe not.”
    “Martin, go get the one that blew a screen last month, alright?”
    The younger man headed into the sickbay shack, returned with a bulky television. I nodded as he put it down, and my tools soon had the casing off. I clicked my tongue against my teeth as I took stock of the components. Older than I would have wanted, the design wouldn't work as elegantly as I'd hoped. Well... I'd have to settle for “good”, rather than “perfect”.
    Ten minutes later I was done, and I held the torc aloft with joy. When I returned my gaze to the crowd, though, the general mood seemed uneasy, for no reason I could say.
    “Is, uh, is that supposed to go on Sparky?” Joan asked.
    “Well, yes.”
    “It's just uh, just that it looks kind of... well, painful.”
    “Painful?” I took a glance at it again. “Dire doesn't see it.”
    “It's the spikes,” Roy clarified. “They look kinda like something you'd see in an old-style scifi movie, something the bad guy would put on the hero to torture him. That and the evil-looking skull face in the central part of it.”
    “That's just an aesthetic touch. The plates practically begged to be assembled into a cute little glaring face.”
    “It looks like somethin' a villain would wear,” Roy frowned.
    “Look, do you want power for your heaters or not?” I snapped. I really hadn't meant to make the thing look so intimidating. Eh, perhaps they were imagining it.
    Sparky laughed. “Oh give it here. I'll give it a whirl. What's the worst could happen?”
    Martin muttered something I didn't catch, and I smiled. “Sure, Sparky. Is your ground down?”
    “Yep.”
    I eased it around his neck, and closed the latch. LED's started lighting up, and Roy laughed.
    “Hells, woman! It's even got evil glowing little red eyes!”
    “That doesn't mean a thing! It's helpful technology!”
    “Guys,” Sparky said. “This feels funky.”
    “Put your ground up,” I advised. He did, and more lights lit up, switching from yellow to green. “Yessss...” I whispered. “Yes!” I felt a grin stretch my face, and I rubbed my hands together. For some reason I had a strong urge to laugh, but I resisted it.
    Sparky straightened up in his chair, and blinked. “Wow. Alright lady, you know your stuff. I think I'm—”
    I put my hand on his shoulder, as Roy yelled “Hey!” He froze in the act of standing, when he saw that I was unharmed. A bit of static shock at the initial contact, but nothing beyond a brief snap. I grinned. “The siphon's active. Try one of the heaters now.”
    Roy settled himself back down and glanced to Martin, who rose and headed into the sickbay shack. He returned seconds later with one of the heaters, put it on the ground and turned it on. The dozen or so people around the barrel leaned forward... and the space heater hummed to life, as its receiver recognized the transmitted current.
    Then came the cheers! The group surged to life, moving to the tents, waking people up and pulling out other heaters, lights, radios...
    “Hold it!”
    Martin's voice rose above the happy chatter, and the people stilled, looking to him. “Do not turn on lights. Keep the heaters inside. Turn that one heater off, now. ”
    Joan put her hands to her mouth. “Martin. You don't need to—”
    “Yes I do momma Joan, this ain't no joke. Right now we just got our power back, how many other people in this city don't have that? How many gonna think we have a generator, or something worth taking?”
    “I—I—Surely no one would...”
    Her voice drifted off. She sounded lost. Roy stood, coughed a few times, and put his hand on her shoulder. “The kid's right.”
    I caught a flash of annoyance on Martin's face, but he hid it quickly. “Thanks man.”
    Roy nodded. “No lights. If you wanna run televisions or radios or heaters they go inside, and you make sure any glow is blocked as best you can.”
    One of the