Freeport Nights: The Racer

By Legendgerry

Michael Calnan escaped the total carnage of a stalemated war to become a celebrity spear racer on a neutral Freeport. He had almost earned his way to being a citizen of the port when he receives a sudden recall to the front. Time is short and he has no choice but to risk his life one more time in a mad dash to stay out of the war.
Meanwhile Michaels accelerated plans have forced other forces on the Freeport to accelerate their plans too, business schemes, political plots and assassins combine to create one hell of a night, all centred around this one racer!

This story was a series of flash fictions created in collaboration with my online community, in this instance Facebook, I wrote part of the story and then presented the readers with questions that affected the outcome of the work and using their feedback created the next part in a single flash writing session.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legendgerry
• Release date: Apr 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005720964

Legendgerry

I'm a 44 year old Irishman who has been involved with creative projects for most of my life. It just took a global pandemic to push me into putting my own work out there.I also recently discovered I have a thing called Aphantasia and that's been an interesting development to say the least.I have won national awards for my game writing and world titles for my other passion Internal Martial Arts.I create interactive fiction, fantasy & science fiction and tabletop role-playing games, I occasionally contribute articles to newspapers and magazines too.I tend to favour flash fiction over traditional writing styles because it suits my temperament more than any sort of aesthetic belief.In non plague times I'm often to be found in a coffee house listen to metal and rattling out stories and games on laptops that have seen better days.

Book preview

FREEPORT NIGHTS:

THE RACER

A FLASH NOVELLA

BY

LEGENDGERRY

Smashwords Edition:

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published by Gerald Mc Evoy at Smashwords

Copyright 2021 Gerald Mc Evoy

To:

My Patrons:

Alisa Chen

Anna Ahern

Anita Murray

Aoife Kelly

Arden Reilly

Beth Marshall

Ciaran O’Brien

Dave Mc Evoy

Erica Stevenson

James Hackett

John Vogel

Kelvin Ward

Michael Feeny

Simon Hall

And the original participants:

Alex Altman

Ciaran O’Brien

James Lyod Jones

Micheal Calnan

Sandra Brindley

Sarah Brennan

William Mc Keever

And Aoife Kelly again.

Apologies if I missed anyone so the original posts have been washed away by the digital tides.

And from the original Dragon States Project

Hugh.J.McGuinness, Victoria Mc Arthur and Nicholas Grey

Foreword

I think you’re traditionally supposed to release your first book as some sort of magnum opus to stun the world with your word smithing skills, but I don’t have that sort of mentality,

This was first and thus it goes out first.

Hopefully you’ll be able to see my development as I release more volumes or you can always visit my Patreon and see for yourself..

So how did this happen?

Once upon a time, ever so many moons ago (2010), I started creating the fictional universe for an MMO that never came about, there simply wasn’t any funding to be had and it died a slow death.

At the time I was considering developing it into a tabletop rpg instead, so I thought I’d flesh out the world and write some flash fiction based in the universe based on prompts from my friends online back in 2012.

Some characters got their names as suggestions from them and so forth

This it turned out was my first foray into the world of interactive fiction.

I decided to revisit this in during Dublin Worldcon 2019 and edited and fixed the many errors that creep in when you’re writing interactive flash fiction.

I really hadn’t realised how much I’d written until I compiled it all for my Patreons and so I decided to send it out into the world, eventually.

I’ve included a piece I had written some fiction about how Freeport’s worked for the game characters as a prologue.

(In the game they were shops and save points with mini games.)

Enjoy.

Gerry

Prologue

Information for personnel with an interest in travelling to Freeports during their service.

Compiled by Sargent Johns. Press Corp.

Freeports are neutral self governing planets.

They are the trade centres of the universe. Protected by the Rules of Engagement created by the Black Dragon, they allow hostile governments to engage in anonymous trade and act as a recreation resorts for both the merchant navies and the militaries of the various states,

Allowing them respite from the restrictions of their own cultures and the chance to pit their abilities against the peoples of other states in fair competition in the Arena.

A leave to a Freeport world is often given to people who performed exceptionally in battle or other activities but were not yet eligible for a promotion.

Arriving at a Freeport

On arrival in Freeport space visitors are often stunned at the sheer amount of defences they have to pass through.

This is due to the apparently widespread incidents of piracy around Freeports and every nation contributes to the upkeep and maintenance of those defences through Freeport taxes. It is not unfair to assume that the impressive defensive arrays have helped to maintain their neutrality since the fall of the Black Dragon.

Once you dock at the customs stations any weapons you are carrying will be secured. The only weapon a non freeman is allowed to carry on a Freeport are metal blades, only to be used for self defence and to identify you as a visitor.

Worry not you will be able to buy some easily once you land. Your own weapons returned to you on your departure.

You will go through an identity check so make sure your papers are all up to date. The Chaplains of each Freeport are always determined to prevent criminals from any state entering the port, mainly as another precaution against piracy and will simply execute anyone they discover to be a recorded criminal on the spot.

This is a rare event as few criminals will take the risk.

Freeports Layout

All Freeports are laid out in a hub fashion.

At the heart of the Freeport is an Arena,

There races and in some Freeports, gladiatorial competitions are held daily.

Around the Arena is the commercial district, where all business is done, as well as offices it contains many shops, stalls, some excellent if expensive restaurants, hotels, bars, disco techs and of course the Universal Museums, an amusing attempt to chronicle the history of the universe in a neutral and factual manner.

You can be sure government will have a more accurate account of the events detailed but they do present their fictions in a very entertaining manner.

Around the commercial district are the embassy districts for each power, isolated from each other by walls and fauna, entry is restricted by the Chaplains of each Freeport to ensure no foreigner can enter another territory.

Laws

Before going to any Freeport you should always check the local customs. Certain Freeports have slightly different laws and level of tolerance for impropriety.

All Freeports have Chaplains of their own, these Chaplains are ferocious in maintaining law and order. viewing all breaches an attack on the neutrality of the Freeport and an insult to the Black Dragon who is in all practical terms their god, though they will deny that vigorously.

They, have eschew long term relationships, intoxicants, train constantly in the close combat arts both with and without weapons and are not to be crossed even by the most experienced soldiers.

Common problems for new comers are the provocative clothing law and Branchism.*

*There are those that view others who's physiology is different to theirs due to gravitational differences in their home worlds or being born in zero gravity as being lesser than them. There are words for these people but I am not allowed use them in this publication

The provocative clothing law forbids the wearing of foreign military uniforms outside of that powers embassy district,

It is viewed as critical that this law be adhered to as it prevents mass riots and brawls as do the Branchism laws though punishments for that vary from port to port, from a fine on Freeport Mapp to death on Freeport Scran.

However the common way around these laws is to buy the merchandise of an arena competitor that are similar to your national colours, it contributes to the economy and helps put people at their ease seeing others of their ilk wandering about.

Competing in The Arenas

If you would like to try your hand at competing in the arenas be aware you will have to buy all your gear, hire staff and pay arena fees up front and for a first timer they are exorbitant as they have no way to assess how good you will be in the competitions beforehand.

If you are having good run competing in the games, most embassies have an athletic exemption policy where they will permit you to stay for a while and some will even subsidize that stay if your performing well enough.

Be aware that you can earn citizenship points in these contests along side cash and other prizes. This is a mechanism that allows people to escape service to their own states and claim citizenship of the Freeport.

The state will usually recall you before you gain enough citizenship points to become a freeman of the port you are in, particularly if you're a member of the military but your good performance may see you pulled from the front lines and placed in more public facing positions such as recruitment.

Time

A note on time here, you may have heard of a great singer or other type of entertainer from other troops who have visited an arena, given the vagaries of space and time the singer you see my look and sound like the same person but is likely to be a descendant of the original that has learned to imitate them.

So if they asked you to pass a message or remind them of something don't be surprised if they have never heard of them, it's not celebrity going