Through a Sky Gray

“I want you to teach me how to paint,” Leodoras muttered, rehearsing the words as he strolled down the street that was assigned to his evening patrol.

He gazed up at the monochromatic gray veil of the sky, trying to imagine painting directly onto it, shaking his head at the thought. There were rumors that said it was possible. He’d never seen it nor known anyone who’d seen it. But their realm was vast. Who was to say there wasn’t a patch of gray that had been painted with swirls of indigo and black, and sprayed with blue-white stars, or brushed with a wide swathe of blue patched with soft diaphanous clouds?

Better to paint than to pierce, he thought. Better to live than to die.

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Mission Beyond The Veil

Far into the embrace of Night go I, to plunder Dark’s riches from a starless sky.

Ursa Knight leaned back in her chair, sipping only water and glancing over at the man who sat beside her. The base’s commissary was only half full at that time of day, so it was possible for Ursa and the minor diplomat she was babysitting to hear the news report playing on one of the screens hanging from the raftered ceiling.

As if there was anyone left in the solar system who didn’t already know it, the reporter announced that the Nye Anomaly Mission would be launching in a few days from Titan’s Prima Doma Space Base, right where Ursa now sat. The reporter failed to mention the mission’s unofficial nickname, the Mission Beyond The Veil, so called for the more than significant odds of the mission crew not surviving the first part of the journey.

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