"Show Me Yours" Blogfest

Here's a refresher of the rules:

The point of this blogfest is to share an excerpt of your NaNoWriMo novel. It can be any scene but try to keep it at 500 words so we can all get around to as many blogs as possible.

So if you participated in NaNoWriMo 2010, now's the time to show your skills or your bad writing! Excitement!

Title: Out of Nowhere
Genre: Sci fi romance

Nath Valentine leant against the doorframe, watching the starship burn. It had missed the casino by a few hundred yards and ploughed into the wasteland that made up so much of the outpost now. A near-miss, it had hit like an earthquake, rattling the rafters and making his female clients squeal in fear.

It’s going to take me a week to clear up the dust and glass, he thought sourly. He eyed the symbol on the blue hull and his lips twisted into a bitter line. Why did they have to crash here?

Still, the orange flames that were spreading over the ship managed to obliterate both the symbol and the name printed on the side. Soon it would resemble just another wreck and God knew there were enough of them: the outpost was a magnet for desperados, the last landing place for those down on their luck, and such rude arrivals were par of the course.

They just tended not to be Earth Government ships.

Why it was out this far, Nath had no idea and wasn’t interested. He just wished the ship had chosen somewhere else to crash or disintegrated in the atmosphere – anything that meant he wasn’t saddled with the damn thing.

He lifted the glass tumbler that dangled from the fingers of his right hand and took a deep swallow of the whiskey, savouring the smoky heat that slid down his throat. Sparks showered from the front of the ship. He doubted it’d be long before the whole thing went up. That was good, but it wouldn't eradicate all of the evidence. No, he’d have to do that himself before the reason for its rude arrival turned up.

Or worse, a representative of Earth Government. A shudder that had nothing to do with the misting rain wracked Nath and he took another draft of whiskey. The less he had to do with Earth, the better; which was why he only watched.

No one would have survived that landing anyway, he thought, only to jolt at a sudden whoosh of steam that shot out from the side of the ship. Nath scowled as the grind of a metal hatch opening proved him wrong.

A woman emerged, clothes charred and torn, hair in disarray, and bleeding profusely from a cut to her temple. Red streaked the left side of her pale face. She stumbled a few steps, then turned to back to the wreckage, her hands fluttering as she stared at the growing flames.

Nath straightened, not sure if she was considering going in for someone else. Not sure what he would do if she tried. Don’t get involved, he told himself. Whatever you do, don’t get involved.