Chapter #3
Backwards
"Prepare
to be dazzled!"
Larry
Knight tapped the computer lab's smart board and couldn't help but smile at the
collective "Oohs" and "Aahs" that rippled through the class
as a large, shimmering cube materialized above their heads. He tapped the board
again, and the same shimmering light erupted from its stylus, encircling his
hand. Now for the true pyrotechnics.
He stepped onto the sensor array directly beneath the ceiling projector.
Immediately, the glow from the stylus spread up his arm, to his head, then all
around his body until he was engulfed in bright yell...
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Sweet Roll
II – Jump Tech Preview
Chapter #2
Bennu Rising
Christian
squeezed his eyes shut, fully expecting the Toyota Tundra to smash him to the
pavement, smearing his body into paste, and crushing his beaker of plasma balls
into a coruscant fireball. But none of that happened. He wasn't exactly sure
what had happened. Only that the mid-morning chill and smell of wet snow
had been replaced by a warm numbness and the faint scent of curried lime. And
though he had leaped, he still hadn't landed. His body had stopped falling but
hadn't touched the ground. Maybe it would help if I opened my eyes.
He
did, but whether it ...
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I – Jump Tech Preview
Chapter #1
Fresh Start
“Mr.
Meadows? Christian? Young man…”
Tap,
tap!
Christian looked up from the visitor’s couch, startled. The university president’s executive assistant, Doreen, glared at him, all impatient eyes and thin lips, her arm stretched across her desk, and her testily tapped ink pen aimed at his chest.
He’d been lost in thought, admiring the dappled pattern of light reflected in the textured glass of the president’s outer office door. It had been that or die of boredom while he waited to be called into the inner office.
He’d gotten there on time, but had been ...
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III – Jump Point Preview
CHAPTER 3
Discovery
Thirty immobile minutes passed, with Mitch just staring out the window and sighing. The maintenance crew showed up in the corridor, noisily emptying trash barrels and flushing the toilets in the lobby bathroom. The whine of the floor buffer knocked Mitch out of his inaction. Hard as it was to not be depressed, he knew he had to snap out of it and do something. He turned back to his bench and thought, What if I just surround these pieces with whatever junk I can find? If I throw enough stuff onto the bench, something might come to me.
He rustled through Bische's re...
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II – Jump Point Preview
CHAPTER 2
Disaster
Three weeks and six days later, Mitch found himself wishing he had more time. Bische's lab hummed with activity. It was First Check-In, the day that students with completed projects could present them and call it a semester. It was also the day for struggling students to solicit help. As Mitch's maker reputation spread over the course of the semester, more often than not his classmates called on him. Today was no different. He floated from one bench to another, soldering a piece here, rebuilding a breadboard there, thoroughly enjoying solving real problems, but comple...
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I – Jump Point Preview
CHAPTER #1
Busted
It started with a beam of light. The shaft pierced the gray, midday sky over Golden, Colorado, shot straight across Highway 6, onto the School of Mines campus, through the open window in room 103, and right into Mitch Campbell's drooping eyes.
He could have blinked and played it off but like a dork, he jerked awake and yelped. His hand spasmed as he pulled himself back from the chasm of sleep-deprived dreams into the harsh, bright reality of class. He fumbled his tablet, and it clanged to the floor right as Dr. Bische walked past his bench. Bische, mid-lecture, didn...
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