Rules:
• Start any place in the story you like.
• Any details not specified in the plan can be made up as long as they do not SERIOUSLY alter the story.
• Include all italic and bold formatting code in the text so the moderator can just cut and paste the text when he/she posts them.
• Ensure it is only 13 lines.
• Ensure is has a hook—goes without saying.
• When you have finished email it the moderator by WEDNESDAY. The moderator will then assign it number and record the authors name next to it. The moderator will then post it with the number only, not the name, in a separate thread from the story outline thread as he/she receives them. PLEASE don’t look at what other people have done until after you have sent yours to the moderator.
• Edit your work before sending it—no corrections will be made after it has been emailed and email it only once. Put your HATRACK name at the top of the 13 lines, the moderator will remove it before he posts it, replacing it with a number.
• From Thursday onward voting/analysis can begin. **No voting for yourself**.The moderator will post the list of who did which intro on Saturday.
Then a new moderator volunteers (it’s not much work)and we start again.

Future moderators:
1) Kathyton
2) Snapper
3) Annepin
4) InarticulateBabbler
5) Shimiqua

Week 3 Challenge

Story outline: CREATE YOUR OWN TITLE (Can be a hook in itself!)

Earth, 2182. Nick Antoniadis, a former amateur boxing champ and retired robot mechanic, along with his daughter Diane, embark on the Princess Cruise Lines ship Comet Express for a comet tour of the Oort Cloud. The cruise is a retirement gift from Diane to her father, as a thank-you for raising her by himself all these years. Diane recently lost in the state procreation lottery, and with no particular reason to stay on Earth decides to accompany her father on the cruise.

Civilian cruise ships are not permitted to use the brand-new relativistic drive technology, therefore, with current interstellar ramjet propulsion, the cruise is a 22-year round trip. To endure the long journey, passengers are injected with nanomachines that place their bodies into a ‘maintenance mode’. In this state, the nanomachines maintain cell functions, repair genes/DNA and remove waste products, so the passengers do not physically age. Nick settles in for his long “nap”.

As the Comet Express nears its destination, it is knocked off course by a comet! Drifting in interstellar space, the ship is discovered by an alien research vessel and taken back to the alien’s planet. The Cheenta are an avian-type species, unknown to humans (and vice-versa).

Nick wakes up ( ) in a cage in a Cheenta laboratory, where he is subjected to a number of experiments. He doesn’t know the fate of the rest of the ship’s passengers and is desperate to locate his daughter. She’s the most valuable thing in his life and he can’t face the thought of losing her. He doesn’t understand the alien’s language or their technology.

The Cheenta scientists are intrigued by the nanomachines in Nick. Cheentian society is in jeopardy. Years of pollution buildup on their planet is causing their species to develop fatal environmental illnesses in epidemic proportions. The scientists believe the nanomachines can be used to repair sick Cheenta bodies. But they lack the knowledge/technology to manufacture the nanomachines themselves. From the Comet Express data, they determine Earth’s location. Thinking the nanomachines are part of human physiology, they hatch a plan to send a fleet to Earth and harvest humans to obtain their nanomachines. The Cheenta government lies to the population, covering up Nick’s existence, and saying only they’ve discovered a new ‘substance’ in space that will cure the epidemic.

A radical Cheenta group suspects otherwise. They’ve heard ancient legends of a lost tribe of prehistoric Cheentians who exist elsewhere in the galaxy with human-like beings, communicate telepathically with them, and act as their guardians. Of course, most Cheentians think this story is crazy sci-fi nonsense.

One night, this radical group, the Alien Liberation Front (ALF), breaks into the lab and rescues Nick.

Can Nick and the ALF evade the evil Cheenta scientists?
Can Nick learn to communicate with the friendly Cheentians and find his daughter, if she is indeed still alive?
Can Nick and the ALF stop the invasion of Earth and the harvest of humans?

Alas, we’ll never know, because YOUR mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get this story off to an enthralling hook-laden start.

Have fun!!!

Future moderators:

1) Kathyton
2) Snapper
3) Annepin
4) InarticulateBabbler
5) Shimiqua
6) Just in Prose

If, like me, you spent the weekend outside enjoying the beautiful spring weather (at least, it was beautiful spring weather here!), we still have a couple of days to put something together.

I seem to remember an idea of leaving it a day later, but I doubt that is required. People have had plenty of time to write 13 lines. Besides if it happens each week you will end up with seriously overlapping weekly contests. I suggest we stick to the normal schedule of the entries closing on Wednesday (close of business) and voting beginning as soon as the the mod closes the contest. Friday the new contest is posted and Saturday (close of business) results are posted.

I can't pick up my gmail from work (the corporate powers that be think that blocking access to webmail will make us more productive... pfft), and I'll be out Wednesday evening. Therefore, I won't see any entries coming in on Wednesday until late Wednesday night.

So let's say the contest closes at Midnight Eastern Daylight Time (in North America) on Wednesday April 9. I'll confirm once I've posted the last entry, but at this point let's assume you can start voting reeeeally early Thursday morning.

We're now closed to further entries, so let's hear your votes and comments.

1) Please vote in the other thread. Give your choices for best title and top three picks.
2) You can vote even if you didn't submit an intro
3) If you did submit an intro, please don't vote for yourself
4) Since this is a learning exercise carefully disguised as a blood-thirsty, bowel-tightening, toe-to-toe competetion, any and all comments on the entries are welcome.
5) You don't have to provide comments. If you just want to list your top three picks, that's fine.