Showdown at the Cinna-bar
Yeah, the vastness of space is scary, but the vastness of death…is scarier.
I thought I’d have far more profound thoughts at the moment of my death
Read More Showdown at the Cinna-barTag: captain
The Brittle Star
“You would give him back the pearls?” Myra said.
She was standing at the prow, leaning against the outer wall of her cabin, peering at her first mate.
Rook crossed his arms. “If…if need be.”
Myra swept her gaze over the rest of her crew. They were all gathered on the deck to discuss the merman’s offer.
Read More The Brittle StarEncounter With Ship 47
“It’s my favorite chief mechanic,” the captain said. I looked to my left and saw her smiling as she glided toward me.
“I bet you say that to all the chief mechanics,” I said, feeling the tablet tucked under my hand slide a little as sweat suddenly appeared on my fingertips.
“I do, but I only mean it when I say it to you.”
I chuckled. We joined up and started down the main concourse, both on the way to our duties as the first shift of the day started.
Read More Encounter With Ship 47The Lunarian
Pike tilted his head up slightly, so he could see more clearly through his helmet. He raised his arm and glanced at the detector in his gloved hand. With his other hand, he pointed straight ahead.
“That way,” he said.
Captain Tai drifted past him, holding her own arm up, so that the light beam panel on the forearm of her suit could illuminate their way.
The dark side of the moon was not just regular dark. It was pitch dark. If not for the trackers, and the back-up trackers, and the emergency back-up trackers, in their suits and their equipment, Pike would have at least hesitated wandering any farther into the unmapped region from which the anomalous signal seemed to be originating. More likely, he would have talked his captain out of venturing ahead altogether. Even more likely, she wouldn’t have needed to be convinced.
Read More The LunarianA Moth In The Nebula
“Status!”
“Countermeasures depleted,” the ship said. “Shields holding…for now.”
The ship hurtled toward the hourglass-shaped nebula. The ship and the two crew members aboard all knew what that meant. Already, it was getting icy in the cabin.
A missile sliced past their port side. The ship veered just as the missile burst apart.
Read More A Moth In The NebulaThe Last Voyage of the Echidna
“Queens growing old without growing wiser. That’s not what we need. That’s not what I seek to be.”
Those were the last words that Captain Navaso spoke before she went into exile, breaking from the Unified Colonies, along with 899 loyal members of her colony.
Read More The Last Voyage of the EchidnaThe Nimasterion
“Okay, okay, so the story goes, this king sent his daughter over the sea to a distant land to secure an alliance with a country that was formerly their enemy. And with her, he sent gifts and such.”
“A dowry?”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know if these people did dowries. Anyway, the gifts included the usual stuff you’d expect, precious metals and precious stones, coins, and jewels. And the one big gift, the real gift, you might say. A crown made for the prince, and set with a very special one-of-a-kind jewel. A jewel that was sent by the heavens. A jewel that could shine without sunlight. But this king had angered the gods, so they ordered the sea fairies to destroy the ship and drown the king’s daughter—“
Read More The Nimasterion