Time to Orbit: Unknown

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next The Education jaunt was a relief on one way – it made writing to Aunt Shorin easier. I didn’t have to try to come up with stuff that I could say that wouldn’t raise questions or confusion, or tell her something I wanted to keep to myself, like … Continue reading 88: Apprentices

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “I have something I want your opinion on,” Yamin told me as soon as I walked into the office. It was my last day before my next Education jaunt shift; the last day of my trial run. Well, technically the Education portion was part of the trial run … Continue reading 87: The Untethered Heart

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Yamin started laughing. “You promised you wouldn’t make fun of me!” “Incorrect! I promised I wouldn’t make fun of you if you were wrong. Besides, I’m not making fun of you; I’m surprised. I didn’t think you’d figure it out this quickly.” He sipped his shake. “Everyone’s going … Continue reading 86: Disclosure

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “Was the list of ships useful?” Yamin asked me the next morning when we met in a small cafeteria. “I don’t know yet,” I said. I frowned at my notes, scrawled on a piece of Aunt Shorin’s scrap paper. Over ninety per cent of inter-ship jaunts were to … Continue reading 85: Handwriting

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “So, what do you think so far?” Yamin asked me as we descended in the elevator together. “Those guards are pretty mad,” I said. “Ha, yes. They’ve had perfectly acceptable performance records for years now, so it’s reasonable that they weren’t all that impressed with my little joke. … Continue reading 84: Education

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next On my first day of the apprenticeship, I was so nervous that I almost forgot to read Aunt Shorin’s morning note. (She’d kept it simple and short that morning, probably because I had other things to worry about.) I put on my almost-new jumpsuit and clipped my brand … Continue reading 83: Chronostasis

Previous --- Next There was no point in trying to find my cousins by analysing behaviour. After all, the first thing I’d done upon waking up was kill one of them. The best first step would be to see which bodies had had a chance to actually become implanted. After Trigger’s disastrous attempt to implant … Continue reading Inner Life 5: Port

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next He understood! The relief that swept through me made me feel dizzy for a second. Somebody else understood. Somebody clever, and somebody powerful and important, understood the danger that humanity was in, and was working to solve it. And needed the help of an eleven year old girl … Continue reading 82: Courageously Moving forward

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next The day after my eleventh birthday (hand charm, an industrious year), I got a message from Yamin, and so did all the adults in my family. He wanted to meet with me in three days’ time. My parents arranged a meeting in our home, and we got to … Continue reading 81: Mission

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “Do you know what the biggest threat to a locust in a swarm was, back on Earth?” I asked Arai. It was just the two of us, meeting up in a cafeteria. She blinked at me. “What’s a locust?” “It’s a bug. Eats plants. They normally just hang … Continue reading 80: Short Sighted