"Loose Threads" tracks two women who join Dog Breakfast (DB) co-op, an informal security outfit. DB safeguards an egalitarian society that encourages individual excellence. The co-op trains acolytes to reach Olympic gold.
___Nyssa struggles with PTSD from a 3-year stint in the sex trade. She joins DB for a fresh start. But the training is tough, and she must deal with issues of trust before she reclaims her libido.
___Jen suffers from vertigo, yet she climbs a skyscraper to attack a summit of the world's most powerful CEOs.
___"Loose Threads" takes place in the Pacific Rim, circa 2070s. Earth struggles from the impacts of Climate Change, and the narrative records the 1st-round of the Sustainability War.
Excerpt
Blue sky extends to the far horizons where wispy clouds cower like diffident pillows.
___Nyssa crosses arms and hugs her ribs. Glad she is to have worn a long-sleeved overall, for outside gusts pack more punch than soft breezes in the megadome. The crisp autumn air tastes wonderful, and she feels like a butterfly fresh from the cocoon, about to spread her wings.
___The glare off the westward ocean is too bright for naked eyes. She faces north and scans the floodplain beyond the escarpment. Copses of trees and rolling meadows give way to an estuary that welcomes runoff from the forested uplands beyond. Ashen-olive hues overwhelm the isolated patches of autumn colors.
___Tourist brochures have extolled majestic mountain skylines, but snakes of fog obscure the rock-gnarled summits. Wooded slopes are all there is to see.
___Above the tarmac of Montgolfier Aerodrome, dozens of gasbags float from droplines like gargantuan circus balloons. Nyssa stands with two-dozen septuagenarians who are mulling around in colorful overalls. The elders have furrowed wrinkles on melanin-darkened faces. They're tourists down from the soups, she guesses. In any case, the entire group is waiting for a flight attendant or tour rep.