Two days later, and after enough failed revivals to convince me that going under chronostasis at such an advanced age did indeed have effects on the crew’s revival chances that the system didn’t pick up, Captain Kae Jin and Asteria are joined by Earl Harriet, a doctor with severe eyes and a g...
2023-12-09 23:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Kae Jin asks that the conversation be recorded. “I’m still sedated,” she points out, “and if the story is half as complicated as you’ve all made it sound, either give me a copy I can refer back to or endure being asked to re-explain things you’ve already explained when I forge...
2023-12-05 23:18:37 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Kae Jin reaches full alertness surprisingly quickly. Her eyes open, drift slowly across the faces of the strangers surrounding her, and immediately focus. She glances between us, then at the IV and oxygen system next to her, then about the room, gaze lingering on the various items that ar...
2023-12-02 06:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe atmosphere around Sienna Kae Jin’s chronostasis pod is… tense. She has a sixty two per cent chance of waking up.
A thirty eight per cent chance that she won’t. A thirty eight per cent chance that we’ll be completing this mission without any trained captains.
“Do it,” C...
2023-11-28 23:40:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Why Dor Delphin?” Lina asks, frowning.
“Because,” the captain explains, “he’s probably got information, and he doesn’t have any authority. When we wake the astronauts, captain Kae Jin is probably going to want to take command of the ship, being easily the most qualified perso...
2023-11-25 06:30:06 +0000 UTC View PostI don’t take a nap right away. I take a shower, being careful of my face, then pause to take a good look at myself in the mirror.
The face looks…
Well. A lot better than when it didn’t have skin, that’s for sure.
Strangely, my right eye is the most normal-looking part of...
2023-11-21 23:20:31 +0000 UTC View Post
ID chips were implanted into colonists shortly before stasis for recognition aboard the ship and new colony, but during the training, accommodation and boarding process, it was more convenient to use these paper ID cards.
2023-11-18 23:40:42 +0000 UTC
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Tinera snickers. “Sixty five lightyears and you can’t outrun those books, huh, Aspen?” Her snickers turn to giggles and then hysterical, cackling sobs as she gasps for breath, grabbing the back of Tal’s chair for support. “Fucking hell!”
“Tiny?” Denish asks.
She takes ...
2023-11-18 23:26:18 +0000 UTC View PostPale orange steam blasts the right side of my face, burning the skin immediately. I press my mask down over my nose and mouth with one hand, trying to avoid breathing whatever it is, and stumble back, but I can’t see. I back into the opposite wall of the tunnel and pause, disoriented. A hand gr...
2023-11-14 23:20:39 +0000 UTC View Post“Klees to Denish,” the captain says into his radio, “we’re at the site and starting work. It’s just matching the colours, right? Over.”
“Yes, Captain. Each plug in the same colour socket. They only fit the right way up, cannot go wrong. Over.”
“Roger that. ‘Nish. O...
2023-11-11 23:29:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhy were you named Sam- was it a religious thing or a family thing or what?
Sort of both! Well, really, it was a family thing – I was named for my grandmother, who was named for her uncle. But she always used to joke that she was named after a god from the Nameless countr...
2023-11-10 10:58:00 +0000 UTC View PostWe all, of course, gather in Engine Ring 1 for the reading. It’s a tense moment. I find myself shifting from foot to foot, holding my breath, exchanging looks with –
“Yep, there’s an ozone layer,” Sam says almost immediately.
I blink.
“That was fast,” Lina says. 2023-11-07 23:15:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Shortly after Hylara passes the sun, Captain Klees calls a meeting. “Let’s go over what we know about… everything. Everything started with the Antarcticans developing the Kleiner array. This allowed us to view and study exoplanets in much greater detail than previously, and actually make es...
2023-11-04 23:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s about 2am on our personal ship schedule, but both the captain and I are awake. I can feel his breathing through his back, measured but not the slow, soft breath of sleep. I reach my arms around him and lay a hand on his hip.
And feel him stiffen, startled, and pull away.
Shit. ...
2023-10-31 23:28:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, we assemble around the picnic table, and Lina explains what she and the Friend have spent the past day investigating. “So. We have a hypothesis that may actually answer quite a lot of questions.”
“Great,” Tinera says. “I love things that answer questions.”
<... 2023-10-28 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostBy popular agreement and lighting coordination, the whole crew is on the same basic 24 hour schedule, so we tend to have breakfast together unless somebody’s busy or feels like sleeping in. We also tend to have our crew meetings over breakfast, so nobody’s particularly surprised when Captain ...
2023-10-24 23:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post“What does that mean, a coherent radio message?” Captain Klees asks. “Somebody talking to us? From Earth?”
“Unlikely, with our dish,” Sam says, “although we’re close enough to Hylara that if they were trying to contact us on Hylara, we’d pick it up if the signal were reall...
2023-10-21 23:22:45 +0000 UTC View PostI’m chopping vegetables and handing them to Captain Klees for a morning omelette when Lina strolls in. “Captain, do you mind retaking some scans? I’ve just about wrapped up your health assessment but we’re getting some strange results. A scanner error, I think.”
Captain Klees’ e...
2023-10-17 23:35:39 +0000 UTC View Post“So how’s our new home planet?” I ask Sam as we check the atmosphere in the Habitation Ring.
They shrug. “Still orbiting. Presumably still mysteriously oxygenated. It’s passing in front of the sun right now so we won’t get much in the way of reliable readings for months yet.”<...
2023-10-14 23:28:16 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Lina takes my arm to insert the needle, I stiffen automatically. She hesitates. “If you’re uncomfortable with me, the Friend can do this,” she tells me.
I shake my head. “I’m sure you won’t kill me for my organs on a spaceship.” I try to make it sound like a joke, but I d...
2023-10-14 23:27:36 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s mostly dark. Dark enough that, as I lay on my back in my sleeper nest and stare up at the branch above, I can’t quite out make the ceiling behind it. The light’s not quite right, but I can almost, almost pretend it’s the open sky (I’m never going to sleep under an open sky again, t...
2023-10-10 23:27:38 +0000 UTC View PostHow did you learn to cook?
Just through experience, I guess? People have got to eat. It’s something you start doing as you grow up and you get better at it over time.
Did you ever want to join Arborea or were you unable to?
Uh… no? I mean, I...
2023-10-09 14:55:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe process of explaining the issue takes long enough that the designated time for Movie Night ends partway through. Captain Klees sheds random costume paraphernalia as he paces back and forth in the Engine Ring.
“Everyone stay calm,” he says in a tone that is decidedly not calm. “The...
2023-10-07 23:26:05 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s movie night.
It’s Tal’s turn, and ke has insisted on doing some preneek tradition called ‘talk like a pirate day’. This involves adopting some specific vocal affectations that ke has provided instructions for. This also involves, for some reason, dressing like a pirate.
“Antarctica?” I ask. “Our resident fatcat’s family fortune is tied up in research labs in Antarctica?”
“Does this mean that Captain Sand’s nonsense conspiracy theory that you told us about was actually right?” Tinera asks.
“It couldn’t be. It doesn’t mak...
2023-09-30 23:24:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s a special day on the spaceship. We all gather around the little table in the medbay while Lina sets down a small incubator and places three perfect little chicken eggs inside.
“That one’s named Omelette,” Tinera says, pointing. “And that one’s Quiche, and the third one is M...
2023-09-26 23:21:35 +0000 UTC View PostWe all gather at one of the picnic tables, cups of coffee in hand. Denish begins his explanation without preamble.
“The engine was damaged on Day 789. 32 days later, Senior Engineer Ovlo Astur declared it irreparable. This is the first thing that did not make sense.”
“He lied?...
2023-09-23 23:36:29 +0000 UTC View Post