A few weeks back, I was trying to figure out the plot to a book. It wasn’t gelling. Then a new idea hit me: a stowaway and a ship’s AI working together against mercenaries who’ve hijacked the ship.
As one of my writer friends put it: Die Hard in space.
Okay, that can work. But it wasn’t quite right.
Then the stowaway became a passenger going someplace he shouldn’t just as the hijacking begins, and he hides, then joins up with the AI. Better, but not quite right. I needed to figure out why the passenger is wandering areas of the ship he shouldn’t go, and how he gets through security–because I’m not pulling a “Cold Equations” style cheat of having what should be highly secure protected only by a sign labeled “Do not Enter.”
This morning, a stray thought crossed my mind, and I had it. He’s a thief.
So now we have a thief–a cat burglar–caught unawares by the criminal actions of the hijackers in the middle of his heist, whose best chance to live through this is to join forces with the ship’s AI (it’s not that simple, but I don’t want to say much here on that) to retake the ship.
Yeah, I think I can work with this.
LOVE IT!