Time to Orbit: Unknown

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

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Four days before we left for Starlight, it was my birthday. I forgot all about it, until the historians woke me up with a birthday egg. “It’s not perfect,” Tima said apologetically while I tried not to cry. “I don’t think we got the shell right?” “They don’t … Continue reading 53: Starlight

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Tikka and I kept messaging each other. I told her more about Hexacorallia, she told me more about her life on the Stalwart. Her life didn’t sound very interesting, but maybe it was just hard to say the interesting parts across languages. I don’t know. I told her … Continue reading 52: Markball

Previous The extra shots gave me an opportunity. The parts of me that weren’t connected to the eye, I’d spread out to sample signals from any other interesting-seeming nerves I could reach, and comparing the shots to incoming signals allowed me to logically deduce another sensory system: hearing. The incoming signals there seemed to undergo … Continue reading Inner Life 2: Sight

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I woke up all tensed up and frozen, heart racing. A nightmare about being in open space. Already fading. I didn’t move. Something was wrong. Was it time to get up? No; the bedroom lights came on by themselves when Hexacorallia’s violet shift started. They weren’t on. But … Continue reading 51: The Device