Spiderwort"Oh, the stars!" There was a time, when I was a little girl, that I used to say it out loud. "They're just balls of gas," my Uncle told me. "Nothing special." "You're just a ball of gas, " I thought. ...
...Are the Ones You Never See ComingI realize that Tiny is tumbling free before I even realize there's been an explosion. The rest of it settles into place through a span of seconds. They must have booby-trapped the hatch. I suppose it makes sense, pirates being pirates and all. But...
The Things that Always Get You...Odd how much easier it can be to get around a dead ship than a live one. My uncle hated the inconvenience of all the built-in safety and security systems on his ship so much that he permanently disabled most of them. And, to be fair, he was probably...
Idle Hands and High-Voltage PlaythingsThere's a certain practical elegance to the Lakon Type 9. Brute-big, built out of clean lines and uncomplicated geometries, ready-made for a singular purpose. As straightforward a barge of a ship as ever there was. And yet she's a moving study in contrasts....
Reflections on Wood and Marble in the PleiadesThere's an old saying where I come from: Most men are made out of wood. Time makes even the most stalwart beam dry and brittle. All the hammers and nails of a dutiful life leave their scars. The torment of days grind us into sawdust, and the fires...
Sometimes You've Just Gotta Wreck a RoomMaintaining eye contact, they say, is very important. Particularly when you're making a complete ass of yourself, it helps to keep a good hard stare fixed on whoever might be in a position to judge you for it. It keeps them off balance. Chips away...
No Matter How Far You Get, You're Just a Memory Away From Where You've BeenI weigh my options. It doesn't take long; I don't have many. I regard the end of my shock stick with a quiet wistfulness, struck by an odd sense of deja vu. There's something familiar about the way the light hits the silver nubs of its probes ... the...
BreakoutPsychology, they say, is the art of pulling habits out of rats. The bigger the rat, the more ingrained the habit, and Lizard strikes me as such a dedicated sadist that the route to his hind-brain should be obvious. Especially with that "gloves off"...
The PlanThis is the part where I'd like to tell you I've got some master plan; that it's all just a matter of time and patience before all the details click into place. The truth is, rather, that this is where I screw up. When the whole world is bigger than...
Perfect AngelThere are two features of Lakon Spaceways freighters that command immediate respect. First -- they are virtually indistinguishable from the inside. In accordance with the fundamental principles of their design, they're essentially just boxes within...
