Art comes in many forms. Painting, drawing, sculpting, and building. One of those many ways is writing. History is marked with the first written words of mankind. Fictional writing took the world by storm. Sumer from Ancient Egypt was one of the first to influence the modern world with his historical works of fiction literature. Now, the creative process is taught to our youth, and Park City High has some very good writers in the midst.

Claire McKay is a senior writer at Park City High School. Her piece is unique and capturing the more you read it, and this is short a synopsis of the whole  novel.

The book is centered around Agent Seven (Trigger) and Lord Inquisitor Azil’ab who live in this powerful and dictatorial Djelbic Empire which is in the middle of a civil war against the Rebellion.After Trigger’s loyalty to the Empire is questioned following a series of events, she flees the Empire and her Handler (boss) with Azil’ab and must avoid bounty hunters and allies turned enemies whilst navigating an Empire neck deep in war and hatred.

Between her wounded leg, avoiding Enforcers, paranoia, and being just a little on edge, the walk back to the

docking stations had taken much longer than she had meant it to. Still several stories above and adjacent to the

actual docking hangar, Trigger had an excellent view inside the giant building.

Crouched at the edge of a secluded, railed-in walkway and hidden in the dark shadows among the towering

buildings and neon signs, she was able to spot several Enforcers stationed at the entrance who hadn’t been there

before. She had no doubt they were waiting for her. She could see several more inside through the huge entrance

that spanned across the entire docking station, allowing cruisers and freighters of all sizes to fly in.

“I believe this belongs to you.”

Azil’ab’s voice startled her out of her silent observation, and she jumped slightly as he sat a little distance

away from her. She was even more surprised to see her sniper rifle in his hand, held towards her. She had

completely forgotten about her gun; hadn’t noticed it was missing.

“You didn’t shoot me with it,” she said, sounding a lot more surprised instead of snarky like she had originally

meant it to sound.

The smile he gave her in reply was unsettling at best, “It would have been too easy.”

Trigger decided to take the gun, looking it over for any new dents or scratches. Satisfied that it had been

undamaged, she sat back and let the gun rest on her lap. It was a well-known and consoling weight as she ran her

fingers over the cool, polished metal and intricacies of the gun, eyes fixed on the hangar below.

The city never seemed to sleep, but there had been a lull in the activity the last two hours. Now the early

crowds of the morning began to filter into the streets, setting up their fresh food markets and heading off to work.

There were too many people in the streets now to take out the Enforcers guarding the docking station without starting

a panic. She would have to wait. For how long, she wasn’t sure. Until evening, at least.

“Weren’t we supposed to call each other when something went wrong?” Azil’ab asked, sitting so his legs

dangled off the edge of the catwalk.

“I forgot.” Trigger answered honestly. She had forgotten Azil’ab’s existence in the warehouse, focused on

her own survival. She’d never let herself rely too heavily on backup because sometimes backup never came. But this

time backup did arrive and Azil’ab had shown up and he had helped her.

She glanced over at him, looking him over for a moment, “What happened to the food?”

“Dropped it,” he answered flippantly, “It seems that somebody’s after us both.”

“Sniper?”

“Mhmm.”

“And you lost them?”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Azil’ab retorted scathingly. “But you don’t look too good. How’s your leg?”

Trigger glanced down at her wounded leg, tucked up protectively against her body. “Hurts,” she answered,

“But I’ll be alright, the gun the Enforcers were using were energy based. The shot cauterized the wound. It’s my rib

that really hurts.”

“I can run down and get some medicine and bandages. Food too, if you need it,” Azil’ab offered, though

Trigger could sense the unease in his voice.

“No. I have some medical supplies in my ship and some rations. Nothing gourmet, but it’ll last us for another

week until we can find somewhere else to stop,” the Agent replied.

“And when are we going to get back to your cruiser?”

“As soon as I can get a clear shot.”

Claire certainly has a deep reservoir of creativity and knowledge in the sci-fi world.

Some writers base their fictional characters off real-life people, but Claire has said that she avoids doing so on purpose.

“That was intentional,” she said.  “I wanted to write characters that were vastly different than I am in their actions, thoughts, and morals. It provides a good challenge and a good exploration in writing and character development.” She’s someone who knows what she likes to create and does it very well.

As as sci-fi lover myself, it it’s no secret that she pulls inspiration from other sci-fi worlds, including the biggest world,. Star Wars being the biggest. She likes to write unconventional plots that twist and turn as the story continues. Her character will sometimes start off as the bad guy, but unknowingly, they defy the system and slowly turn into the hero that saves the story and vise versa. Maybe the hero thought that were on the right side, but were doing wrong the whole time.

This is something Claire could see herself doing in the future. “I don’t know if I can make a living off of selling my books, but I’ll certainly try. I think it would be so awesome if people enjoyed my writing enough to buy my book. Or books.” This is only a short excerpt and it’s sure to be a hit in the sci-fi universe.