Time to Orbit: Unknown

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> It’s a special day on the spaceship. We all gather around the little table in the medbay while Lina sets down a small incubator and places three perfect little chicken eggs inside. “That one’s named Omelette,” Tinera says, pointing. “And that one’s Quiche, and … Continue reading 104: SHELL

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> We all gather at one of the picnic tables, cups of coffee in hand. Denish begins his explanation without preamble. “The engine was damaged on Day 789. 32 days later, Senior Engineer Ovlo Astur declared it irreparable. This is the first thing that did … Continue reading 103: IRREPARABLE

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> We settle into a new routine surprisingly quickly. Lina’s still processing samples from her previous braindead patients (now in the freezer) and the Friend is slowly picking through Captain Kinoshita’s notes to see if we’ve missed anything of note in there, but on the … Continue reading 102: BED

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> The structure of a Texan funeral is jarringly unfamiliar to me in practice, but I’m well versed in the theory. Death rites tell you a lot about a culture, and there’s probably no sociologist alive in any society who doesn’t understand how to bury … Continue reading 101: GRIEF

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> While I wait for my next client, I grab a notepad and run some numbers. There are two thousand, nine hundred and eighty six colonists still in chronostasis, out of an original five thousand. That includes the survivors of the original crew. They have … Continue reading 100: CAPTAIN

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> The medbay is empty except for me, Tal, and the two of Lina’s comatose science projects who survived the problems of the computer shutdown and subsequent transfer to this ring. Tal sits on the end of the unoccupied bed, looking at kes hands. Not … Continue reading 099: TAL

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> “What do you mean, you told her to?” I ask. “And why now?” Lina asks. “She did it now because she couldn’t before. I restored her proper environmental controls and she went straight to it.” “You restor – you cracked Reimann’s password?” “Oh, yeah. … Continue reading 098: LOBOTOMY

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> I’m still at the keyboard, so Captain Klees turns to me. “Where is everyone? Is anyone in CR5?” I check. “Nobody’s in CR5. Well, except all the chronostatic colonists, I guess. Denish and Tinera are in HR2 on the other side of CR5, and … Continue reading 097: STABILISE

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> I wake up in a bright room, littered with IVs and monitoring equipment and with an oxygen mask on my face. I carefully reach back to disconnect the cerebral stimulator from the port in my skull. But there’s no stimulator there, just a slight … Continue reading 096: REVIVE

<<First .......... <Prev .......... [Archive] .......... [Map] .......... Next> .......... Last>> I stare at Tal for a bit, but no further explanation is forthcoming. “I don’t…?” “You too, Aspen! All of us are so fucking stupid! I have to try something! If this actually works I’m going to be so pissed off at myself!” Ke … Continue reading 095: DEFUSE