Time to Orbit: Unknown

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next We docked at one of the ring docks on the Courageous, where industrial cargo could be loaded or unloaded, under normal inertial pull. The three of us stepped out, and I took a deep, deep breath of the air of home. I imagined that it smelled like home, … Continue reading 77: Meet Up

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “We should fuel up together, rookie,” Javi suggested at the end of our shift, slapping me on the shoulder. “We should what?” “Come eat with me. Keep me company. Saba! Lina! Fuel up?” Two people from further down the line, another middle-aged lenti and and older santi, cheered. … Continue reading 76: Fuel Up

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next There was something sort of dreary about the Ironstock. I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. It wasn’t the dirtiest ship we’d been on (that was the Arborea Celestia, obviously, probably followed by the Dish, since they had a lot of space for five people to keep … Continue reading 75: The Factory

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I gave my present to Tikka the next day. It seemed like a stupid idea now, just giving her a much worse version of what she’d given me, but we were off to the Ironstock in a few days and it was way too late to come up … Continue reading 74: Gifts

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Weaving is hard. Spinning is harder, but I gave up on that straight away. I found a workshop that had a little machine that could spin fibre into yarn, and the locks of hair I fed it spun up just fine. But I wanted to do the weaving … Continue reading 73: Competence

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Later on, I joined the historians in one of the relaxation rooms. Tima had chosen the illusion (we took turns), and today we were in a cave of ice with light faintly shining through the walls. We were supposed to be, well, relaxing, but Plia had a small … Continue reading 72: Gender Theory

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “And they just won’t grow solid!” Ella exclaimed over lunch. “But it’s better to find out now, I suppose. The problem with plants is that, like all other biological matter I could be working with, the stock didn’t evolve in space. Not so far, anyway.” I had no … Continue reading 71: Evolution

After mastering sight, I put all my effort into figuring out the language systems in my nervous system. This, as it turned out, was a fantastic move. The crew used sound to share information constantly. “Okay, rocks and stars,” said Ricky Danger to everyone one morning in the mess, “we’re about thirty days out from … Continue reading Inner Life 4: Language

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next This was a test. The capuchins being in charge was big news, but that wasn’t as urgent as the way that all three of them were watching me. Like a plant in the lab with a changed gene, that might grow better or worse vines because of it. … Continue reading 69: Mutually Assured Survival