On the day before my 15th birthday, it occurred to my father that perhaps I was not ready. "Milo," he asked, "what will you tell the civilgorithm tomorrow? How could you best serve your life?" "I don't know," I said. He scolded me harshly, planting little seeds in my arms and back with his fists… Continue reading Milo Meets the Civilgorithm
The Past Casts Shadows As Long As the Future
Marshall sat on the ledge of the fountain in the square in front of the Naluo Center, tucked between the imposing towers of the city and the more imposing crowds that scurried frantically at street level. He was early for his interview; career change. Naluo had a good program, or so he'd been told. He… Continue reading The Past Casts Shadows As Long As the Future
No Vacation
They were less than a klick from the structure and Yebin was already holding them back. Desh made it ten paces before he realized her footfalls over the soft leaves had ceased behind him, and he turned to find her staring into the sky with her arms in the air like a child who wanted… Continue reading No Vacation
Io
The small freighter fell out of FTL after what felt like only a heartbeat to the two-man crew. "That's it?" "That's it," said Gilderson. Technically he was a pilot, but the onboard AIs did all of the real flying. This left him with a lot of down time, which suited him fine. Under the neon… Continue reading Io
Spacejacked
The Phorcys 72-72 was unremarkable for a passenger spaceliner as far as most people could tell. However, a handful of engineers at Beryl Manufacturing could point out that it was the only commercial spaceliner with a cargo hold that had a dedicated pressurization system and seals. The design was a marketing tactic that failed to… Continue reading Spacejacked
Copies of Copies
They were still called printers, but the machines were unlike anything imaginable to Gutenberg, or Galvani, or Gates. They looked like empty rooms. Drop in your raw material—didn't really matter what it was, as long as you had enough mass—and let the nanomites turn it into something else. Turn ashes into drinking water; spent power… Continue reading Copies of Copies
Knowledge Density
It's complicated. The Separatists are fragmented, largely decentralized, naturally. But they're political dissidents, nonviolent except the most extreme offshoots, like those out in Alpha Crucis, or the lessor known and more radical sect at Mintaka. It was the Mintaka group that bombed the hospital on Amaranth Station, a residential outpost well within the Federation's borders.… Continue reading Knowledge Density
Best-laid Plans
Even through the filters, the air reeked of sulfur. Yellow starlight punched swirling holes through the cloud cover and baked the gases out of the strange crystalized rocks that covered the region—a product of the crash, surely. Tavish watched the ship's entrance from his perch atop a stone column across the steam-filled gorge. Three days… Continue reading Best-laid Plans
Intro to Endings
"Over the last several months, you've trained hard, and you've learned how to kill." Commander Imogen Diver paused while the would-be operatives elbowed each other and snickered with self-satisfaction. "This week, you're going to learn how to die." That shut them up. She stood in the shifting light of the projector, watching cold fear wax… Continue reading Intro to Endings
An Abundance of Audacity
It took them a long time to figure it out—long in human terms, anyway; generations—and longer still to put that revelation to use, but even so, the humans did it first. From orbital stations around the brown dwarfs of Epsilon Indi and the white dwarfs of Sirius and Procyon, from Rigel and Regulus and sentimental… Continue reading An Abundance of Audacity
Warmup Pages 