Author: Derin

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “And then you catch the arm on the twirl – yep, you got it!” Other Haken said as I took her arm and halted my spin. “That’s pretty good for someone who doesn’t live in zero pull.” “I played a lot of markball on Hexacorallia,” I said. “The … Continue reading 62: Hamelin

Previous --- Next After the presentation, we were each taken into a small room by the dissector one by one and given a thorough inspection. From the way it rubbed at my flesh, checking for hard shapes beneath, and inspected me for tiny unexpected holes, it was obvious that it was looking for ovipositors. That… … Continue reading Inner Life 3: Crew

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next One day, I found myself in a view port, looking at the stars. The Dish, being a zero pull ship, didn’t have seating in their tiny viewports, but they did have safety handles to hold onto so you could stay in place without thinking about it; I had … Continue reading 61: Cousins

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I couldn’t stop thinking of the map for the rest of the day, or all night. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much. There were a lot of colonies; I already knew that. They were very far away and we didn’t have a whole lot of … Continue reading 60: Population Instability

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next We had some dense nutrient loaf (which tasted delicious and not at all like feet), then Gara took the historians off to show them some files or computer systems or something, and Old Teeth gave me another big, toothless smile. “Do you want to see something interesting, child?” … Continue reading 59: The Tyranny of Distance

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Starlight did eventually get boring. Nothing really happened on Starlight; or at least, nothing that we guests got to see. The staff could be doing all sorts of interesting things where we couldn’t see them, but that didn’t matter to us – we were just waiting around, making … Continue reading 58: The Dish

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next While putting together a message for Tikka, I figured it out. I figured out why capuchins couldn’t leave the Stalwart. It was pretty obvious, if you stopped thinking about the ship and started thinking about the fleet. I was telling Tikka about the staff on Starlight, and thinking … Continue reading 57: Human people

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “The Hearth is what?” Hali gaped. “Isn’t virus super dangerous?” “Actually, that’s a point of real contention, so far as I can make out,” Tima said. The four of us were in the front room of our rooms, going over what the treegrave had told me, foyer door … Continue reading 56: Virus

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I couldn’t get any of the historians to actually tell me what their theory was, which was kind of insulting. Didn’t they trust me? But I decided it was probably because Hali had seen me get so upset about Antarctica. Well, at least when we all learned about … Continue reading 55: Run Zero

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I had to plan my questions carefully. Not because I thought it would be hard to get the information I wanted, since we didn’t have to worry about the treegrave or anybody else listening in. But because I thought it would be hard not to get a bunch … Continue reading 54: Antarctica