Stretch your brain
For all his political posturing and his penchant for charismatic public overtures, Leon Brault was having second thoughts. It wasn't an ideological shift he was experiencing, but an awareness of his survival instinct. He was close enough now to see the Artifact with his own eyes, separated only by a few kilometers and 4mm of… Continue reading Dust to Dust
Antonio's fine jacket and leather shoes were already soaked and dripping, but he shielded himself from the freezing rain beneath the bulk of the space freighter on dock seven. He set down a bulging duffle bag to shield his eyes from the spotlights on the ship's ramp, a briefcase hanging heavy in his other hand.… Continue reading Welcome to the Peregrine
Lacerta IV dropped out of negspace about an hour ago, from my perspective, anyway. Everyone on board was long dead by now, dead for millennia. Relativity was a funny thing. I like to think that there was a critical failure and the whole ship blew to bits in an instant, but the sensor data recordings… Continue reading Relative Cost
Amethyst, like most planets discovered in the 23rd century, had a name as one-dimensional as it was misleading. There's no quartz here. The first ship to attempt a landing nearly combusted when its hull started oxidizing from the iodine in the atmosphere. That's what gives it its rich violet palette: the iodine vents. Its scorching… Continue reading Amethyst
Py-S'tem Station grew closer like a giant squid at sunset, backlit by the crimson gases of the nebula, its bulbous head surrounded by long tentacles of docking runways. They were about to be swallowed up. Not Tul, but his passengers, of course. He'd been working the prison transport route from the Alcona system to Py-S'tem… Continue reading Guilt in the Age of Indifference
The crumpled remains of their dropship, Six Degrees From Earth, stuck out of the swamp water like a series of lightning-split tree trunks. Beyond were the derelict structures of the New Wellspring colony on Kappa Lyrae D. There was no doubt this is where the mayday signal came from, but Cooper and Westhalter didn't see a… Continue reading New Wellspring
Asher piloted The Truth About Lies below the bullseye of the ring structure. The giant concentric circles demanded awe from all who saw them, even in their dormancy. There was something primal about the 2:3:5:7 ratio of their radii. A dark cloud of hydrocarbons had coalesced around the structure over eons, huddled around its implied might.… Continue reading Anyone Home?
Caretaker Gravis watched from the observation deck across from docking bay five. The mining cruiser Silverback made final launch preparations in the moss-green light reflected from Atlantis III 450km below. He didn't wait for the launch, instead darkening the viewing glass and shutting off the artificial gravity on this half of the station. All crew were… Continue reading Caretaker
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