[Caymen Greener]

Friends,

The stories have been written once more, and the submissions handed to me, albeit so few. Now it's time to vote. Please peruse the logistical items below and vote accordingly. Voting will end on July 11th so that the winner can be revealed on Lohlunat on July 12th.

Basics
Please read the replies in this thread thoroughly. Pick your favorite and vote accordingly. You will have until Friday, July 11th (or perhaps into Saturday morning) to vote on these stories, after which a winner will be decided.

Other than spelling and punctuation errors, the writing has been left in tact by the author.

Winner
Once voting has completed, I will tally the final vote and the winner will be revealed. This will happen via a News feature on Lohlunat. Fame, glory, and complete awesomeness will accompany our fellow community member who wins!

Good luck authors!

[Caymen Greener]

Making Waves at the Lohlunat Festival

Gliding along the waves, the powerboard hummed softly beneath her feet. The wind blowing through her hair as she turns back to look at her companion. She sees that he is smiling, grinning ear to ear, as he glides his own board against the crystal blue waters. Giggling to herself, she swings her board across his path and looks back as he playfully yells, "Hey" as the turbulent waves cause him to frantically swing his board side to side to stay up.

"Are we having fun yet?!!!" she called back to him.

Regaining his balance, he laughed and said, "Almost!"

Powering his board up to full throttle, he flew faster across the water. Swinging up alongside and then past her. Hovering there for a moment, he turned back to look at the Risian beauty that he had only met this morning. Tall, with sun kissed skin and fiery red hair, she was a goddess to behold. Not to mention with a playful side that had him constantly at the end of one of her practical jokes, which he fully enjoyed. This time however, he finally had the opportunity to get one on her and he wasn't about to pass it up. Not when they were on his turf on the water.

He saw that she had settled in to him being in the lead and he saw his chance. He let off the throttle just enough to catch so that the kick of the wave he was creating would cause his board to ride up. At the crest of the wave, she came along side him. Throwing the throttle full ahead, he kicked the board up into the air, jumping it out of the water and flipped himself up and over her to land on the other side. The crash of the board hitting the water caused a wave to blast up and knock into her...causing her to lose her balance and go flying off into the icy waters.

Bringing his board around, he powered it down and glided in alongside of her. Laughingly, with his hand outstretched to help her up out of the water, he said, "Okay, NOW I'm having fun."

She looked up at him and laughed at the big grin on his face before saying, "Okay, mine was good, but yours was better. You certainly are getting the hang of the festivities around here. And here I thought you would be harder to break out of that shell."

Helping her onto his board, he chuckled saying, "Well, when you approached me this morning I wasn't exactly expecting this to be part of a festival honoring an orbiting moon."

Sharing in the humor, "Oh, this is just one part of the Lohlunat Festival. When we here at Risa say 'fun and relaxing' we really mean the part about 'fun,'" she said in reply.

As he moved them towards her board, which thankfully had powered itself down once she had fallen off, she turned to him, placed her hand upon his face and said, "And that doesn't just mean powerboarding..."

Leaning in, she placed her lips close to his. He had been waiting for this moment all day. As she drew nearer, he could almost feel her lips on his. Then she moved her mouth past his lips, up to his ear, and whispered, "but for the rest, you need to catch me first."

Pecking him on the cheek, she quickly jumping off his board and onto her own. Giving a quick kick to the throttle control, she sped her board away at top speed, giggled loud and heartily as she threw up a wave; drenching him from head to toe.

Laughing at her playfulness, he cleared his eyes to see which direction she'd gone. Spying her fiery red hair flowing in the wind a few leagues to the south, he powered up his own board, and began to give chase...

[Caymen Greener]

The Night of Revenge

I walk under the full moon gazing out to sea where I watch it ripple as the waves move. Fireworks go off behind me and celebratory music is played. I take no notice. Lohlunat is meant to be a holy festival and has been corrupted by the Federation tourists. Tonight I get my revenge! I've been following a lieutenant along the beach. I draw for my phaser. Set it to stun and fire. He's dead to the world but not for long.

The lieutenant wakes up and looks around. I watch him from the shadows bemused. Clearly he find my "shabby" home beneath him. I stead out of my hiding place.
"Lieutenant tell me your name."
"I am Lieutenant Williams."
"If you want to survive the night Mr. Williams then you'll do exactly as I tell you." He looks hopeful but I'm sure both of us will die.
"What do you want?"
"Take me to the USS Artemis' engine room."

We are outside the Artemis making sure he doesn't give me away. I have put a sonic grenade in his pocket. Only I have the detonator. We pass a check point. I can feel the sweat pour down my neck as Federation security check us before we move on. Finally on the ship we go to an empty supply closet and put on an spare uniform. As I get closer to the engine room I notice that there are more and more officers around me. The lieutenant tells them to clear the room. I set up my device with a time delay of 1 minute. Nothing can go wrong.

Suddenly the captain of the vessel enters holding a phaser to my head.
"You will disarm it."
I stare at him and for what seems forever we stand in silence. "You'll have to kill me first." I glance at the countdown 10 seconds to go.
"Come on I don't want to kill you just deactivate the bomb."
I say nothing. As the counter reaches 5 I can hear him praying. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
Then a curtain of black falls on me.

I have written this in prison. I did succeed in destroying the ship but I failed to die and missed my chance.

[Caymen Greener]

Only 24 hours left to vote, folks!

[Jake Tyler]

A lot of views, give the stories 5 mins of your time and vote

[Cehus]

Voting ends in just a few hours! If you haven't already read these awesome short stories and voted, I'd strongly suggest it!