Time to Orbit: Unknown

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Glossary] .......... Next> The ship proximity alarm went off. Something was approaching. We’d been expecting it for days. At least I figured it was days. Tension had long ago fucked up my sleep cycle. If it was the military, we’d have no hope against them. We’d have no choice … Continue reading 23: Execution

First ---- Previous ---- Glossary ---- Archive ---- Next Such a journey, with such company, is not a quick or easy thing to arrange. The hive isn’t going to simply send two children off towards the Northeast and pray for the best. There’s a whole caravan to arrange, of escorts and guards and scouts and … Continue reading 8: Men, Women, Stars

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Glossary] .......... Next> Follow my logic. We had two systems of superlightspeed travel at our disposal. Neither could be used until we’d finished dealing with the shielding issue, but that was fine. Blue dashing we used quite often, to outrun things; it gave us little bursts of distance, and … Continue reading 22: Plans

First ---- Previous ---- Glossary ---- Archive ---- Next Different hives construct their hiveheart differently, but the Redstone River Hive’s heart is fairly average, so far as Tyk is aware. It’s made up of fourteen people, which is a little on the low side for its size but not markedly so, and the membership are … Continue reading 7: The Hiveheart

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Glossary] .......... Next> The first thing I figured I should do was find out how far away from home I was. This turned out to be a lot harder than you’d think. For one thing, the map was pretty zoomed out, and I hadn’t been intending to film it … Continue reading 21: Anticipation

First ---- Previous ---- Glossary ---- Archive ---- Next For several seconds, nobody moves. “Oh, come on!” Tyk ducks around her mother and heads for the egg. “She’s not going to hurt you. She’s just a baby. See?” She marches right up to Smon before her mother can grab her and sticks her head between … Continue reading 6: A Destiny Forged

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Glossary] .......... Next> I resisted the urge to pull the laptop apart again to find out which way the current was supposed to go, because I already knew it wouldn’t tell me. Why would it? Instead I spent a couple of days, or at least I assume I did … Continue reading 20: The game of lies

First ---- Previous ---- Glossary ---- Archive ---- Next Smon steps back out of the egg. Kesan immediately hovers, clearly wanting to retreat but refusing to leave his daughter alone. Smon stops, stares at him a moment, repeats that mandibles-up gesture of hers, and retreats slowly back into the egg, watching Kesan settle back onto … Continue reading 5: The Echo Stone

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Glossary] .......... Next> Queen Tatik paced restlessly. This rogue Princess nonsense was getting out of hand. She should be well into consolidating more of the outlying regions of the Empire by now; there were several minor planets near the edge of her territory that contained valuable biological materials that … Continue reading 19: A failure of imagination

First ---- Previous ---- Glossary ---- Archive ---- Next She’s the ugliest thing that Tyk has ever seen. Tyk was right to be concerned that the early hatching might indicate problems. The larval star that stumbles out is similar to a person in some ways and different in others; she’s much darker in colour than … Continue reading 4: A Star Is Born