Derin Edala

Patreon bonus vote -- March

What do you guys want as a March bonus?

Patreon bonus chapter -- A Lake of Stars

Snowpea couldn’t keep her eyes off the shimmer.

It was well and truly dark. High above, the real stars shone in the cloudless sky, light from places too distant to be meaningful concentrating on this tiny, precious planet. Somewhat less high above, her cluster slept in their temporary sle...

148: WAR

The next day, I wake up feeling… off. There’s some sort of strange pressure in my head. Not a headache, exactly, but something unusual. A weird… taste? No, rinsing my mouth out does nothing.  Shielding my eyes or turning the lights out does help. Some kind of strange migraine, maybe? I...

147: COLONISATION

We gather back in our living dome with Max. This isn’t a conversation to be had lurking in a security room underground.

“The plan,” Max says over a hot cup of coffee, “was to establish as many Vaults as possible in as many locations as possible. Both ends of the Vault have to be mad...

146: VAULT

Going through the cargo door leadsto a small room ending in another cargo door. This room has two more guards in it, meaning that 1.5% of the entire population of Hylara are occupied just guarding the few halls and rooms we’d walked through. There’s no way that this is normal. Perhaps the inc...

145: UNDERGROUND

The metal doors leading into the side of the dune are thick. Heavy. Free of sand, although the angle suggests that sand would fall past the guards and onto them easily with the slightest wind; probably swept clean regularly. Tinera narrows her eyes as we get close, thinking, probably, of the ridi...

144: COORDINATION

Celti seems to be doing calculations too, glancing between Max and Captain Klees and looking somewhat baffled. “If we asked for medical supplies?”

“Absolutely. Tell us what you need and we’ll get it sent down.”

“Weapons?”

“I don’t think the ship carries weapons...

Ask Me Anything -- Hive Cattail

Does the colony have any naming conventions? (like generation names for example)

We just have the one name, which we choose when we reach adulthood. Some people change theirs later. You’re not allowed to name yourself the same name as anyone that’s still alive though. S...

143: CULTURE

Max gets us robes. They show us how to tie the belts. They explain that different belts don’t have any official meaning, but fashions go in and out among different groups of friends, so your belt can incidentally declare who you hang out with or what you aspire to which, fine, that’s how fash...

Behind the Keyboard -- Note Waveskimmer

142: SEEDS

“What? You can’t go out there!” Max goes to rise from the table, and Tinera and the Friend let them, but don’t let go, don’t let them try to block our path as we head for the door. “You can’t!”

“We won’t put the colony in danger,” Captain Klees assures them. “That’...

141: ANSWERS

We all leap back, as if a bit more distance will protect Max from the viruses in the mostly enclosed tent.

“You said the viral treatment would take another week after our landing!” Captain Klees says, accusing. “You can’t be here like this!”

“It is a few days early,” Max...

140: CURATION

The next day is an awkward day of inactivity. It’s frustrating, but there’s not all that much we can really do. We consider going for another look around the settlement, but it’s much more productive to wait until we can go out without the suits and properly see things and talk to people (a...

Bonus story -- Smooth As Glass

Heron Sandcomber was eleven when her pod first travelled to the Shore of Glass. Like any khemin child, she’d heard stories of it since she was a baby in her mother’s boatsling, but there was nothing like setting eyes on it herself. The sun rose behind the pod’s floating village as they all ...

139: SURGERY

We discuss various possibilities of what, if anything at all, is strange about the colony, but it only goes in circles. The only thing we can all (except Tal) agree on pretty quickly is that we probably didn’t stumble onto a planet with abandoned alien tech. Other than that, we just don’t hav...

138: QUESTIONS

We get back to our dome and desuit, and Captain Klees starts pacing back and forth, agitated. I also want to pace, but two people pacing seems weird, so I sit at the table all tense instead.

“We’ve been through a lot of weird bullshit,” Captain Klees says, “so I’m probably overrea...

137: RADIO

Max shows us the central meeting area, which is exactly what it sounds like – a huge dome that’s apparently for meeting up and conducting business. A town hall, I suppose. Some benches are lined up along one edge with plastic crates piled on them; a middle-aged person with no feet perches on ...

136: DOME

One thing to be said about the Hylarans is that they work quickly. Even as we eat, we can hear people moving around outside the dome, doing something around the door. By the time we’re finished, there’s a hastily assembled decontamination chamber there.

Well, it’s a little canvas room...

Ask Me Anything -- Sienna Kae Jin

Why did you want to come to Hylara?

Why did I want to contribute to humanity colonising planets outside our solar system? To making a life for our species, for life itself so far as we’re aware, that isn’t dependent on the health of a single fragile sun? Is tha...

135: LUNCH

Captain Klees is the last of us to get checked over; whether by accident or design, I’m not sure. He stomps into the living dome we’ve been assigned, pulls his helmet off, and drops into a chair at the cast plastic table we’re all seated around.

“She give you the deep burn too?” I...

134: DOCTOR

I go first. I want to see more of the colony.

“So,” I ask over radio as Max leads me from the vehicle bay towards a nearby dome while the Friend tries to impress upon Hive the importance of disinfecting the vehicle bed we’d been in, “what’s this Dr Kim like?”

“Oh, she’...

133: COLONY

Before we can respond, Max dashes forward and shakes our hands one by one, their thin digits dwarfed by our bulky space suit gloves. They speak into their own right hand to talk to us – those rings must have microphones and radio transceivers in them.

“I’m so pleased to meet you all! ...

132: DROP

There is the slightest shake as the arms release us, and then the complete cessation of gravity. Nothing moves us. No sounds come from outside our pod. We can’t see anything out there. It’s just this small drop pod, and us, and nothing else.

The illusion is broken by Sam’s voice on th...

131: BOARD

It’s been a long time since I’ve worn a space suit, and nothing good ever happens when I put one on. So it’s with some trepidation that I fire up the electronics and start the suit systems check.

Around me, the rest of the suited but not yet helmeted ground team are running their own ...

130: EVE

It’s not movie night.

It’s off-schedule, as Tal would be quick to point out if anyone were to call it movie night. Movie night was four days ago. But it’s our last night together, the last night before the drop, and everyone is hanging out together as much as possible. We kill the two...

129: PREPARE

“This had better be the colony or I’m eating my own liver,” Tinera says as everyone tries to crowd around the terminal in the Habitation Ring.

“Don’t do that,” the Friend says. “Transplants are risky.”

“You did Celi’s with no problems. One hundred per cent success ...

128: CODE

Captain Kae Jin’s wheelchair is properly outfitted, and the astronauts hold the funeral for their dead the next day. I don’t want to go, and nobody asks me to. Nobody asks any of us replacement crew to. They gather in Pod Launch Ring 2 to send their dead among the stars, the same pod launch r...

December Patreon bonus -- a story about Denish

Deepest apologies but this story is turning out far longer than expected. It's multiple chapters, apparently. This month: chapter 1.

-----------------------------------------------

Denish #1

When you’re born into a vulture family, it helps to be good with en...

Ask Me Anything -- Heli Graf

As Heli is currently unable to respond to questions, these answers have been pushed back int he timeline and are taking place during the murder investigation.

--------------------------------------

Why did you join the Javelin program?

Why did ...

127: HERITAGE

Xanthe’s issue turns out to be some kind of hormone regulation thing. “A synnerve,” the Friend explains, “has grown into the amygdala and, while it’s inactive, has interrupted Xanthe’s adrenalin regulation.”

“Is it dangerous?” Captain Klees asks.

“It’s… difficu...