Well, our friends had gotten bad news... ==== "So there's no chance of repairing the reactor?" Madeline asked, looking mostly at Jackie but keeping an eye on everyone else in the conference room of Munin. This was a crucial factor, and she had to make sure that no decisions were made without as much certainty as possible. Like most engineers, Jackie instinctively shied away from absolute certainty. Centuries of experience had taught the profession that real life machines and [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 11
February 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
We don't get many chances to see his point of view, but let's check in on Nicholas... ----- "Got a minute, Nick?" Nicholas Glendale looked up to see Walter Keldering standing in his doorway. "For you? Always. Please, come in, take a seat." He waved towards his coffeepot – the low-gravity device that Joe Buckley had designed for the station a few years before. "Coffee?" "Don't mind if I do," Keldering said. "Always time for me? A change since the old days when Maddie would be [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Brian Daley’s Hobart Floyt/Alacrity Fitzhugh trilogy
January 30, 2013 By 2 Comments
Earlier, I reviewed Brian Daley's Coramonde dualogy of fantasy novels. While I loved Coramonde, I think the Floyt/Fitzhugh trilogy is the best thing Mr. Daley wrote, and is certainly the one that made the strongest impression on me. The trilogy consists of Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds, Jinx on a Terran Inheritance, and Fall of the White Ship Avatar. Just the titles are evocative, unusual, memorable, and interesting, fully fitting to their respective books yet only able to be understood when you pick up the book and [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 10
January 30, 2013 By 2 Comments
Time to start getting ready to go home, eh? ------ "Even with the reactor scrammed, the radiation in there's gotta fry the dust, A.J.," Brett said doubtfully, looking on as Jackie prepared to pour approximately three liters of Faerie Dust into an instrumented funnel-shape that was positioned above Nebula Storm's main reactor, fitting precisely into the small but fatal hole in the casing. "Oh, no doubt about that," A.J. agreed cheerfully, and Horst continued for him, "And if we had [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 9
January 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Time to settle in; they'll be here a while... ----- "The E.U., it did not advertise that its astrophysicists were expected to do heavy physical labor," Anthony LaPointe said with dry humor. Helen laughed as she tried to position her piece of the huge gray-white mass of material. "I don't remember them specifying that for their xenopaleontologists, either," she said. "Yeah," Larry said, "but at least paleontologists spend their time breaking rocks regularly. We astronomical types look at [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 8
January 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Well, our heroes have some work to do... ------ "So why Athena?" Madeline asked, watching the melt-probe's interface and pre-start prep screen. So far, all good. In one corner of the HUD, she saw Helen, who was helping position one of the anchor sections, grin. "My goodness, Maddie, I think this is the first time you've ever managed to surprise me by not knowing something." She returned the smile at the gentle dig. "My publicity greatly exceeds my only very slightly superhuman [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 7
January 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
Our castaways had gotten some good news about an old friend... and some worrisome news... Chapter 7. "We have to rescue the General." Horst Eberhart said the words emphatically, ending with a challenging glance at A.J. "Damn right we rescue him," A.J. responded. At Horst's raised eyebrow, he continued, "Yeah, I raised the necessary question about the funeral, but that was about people we couldn't help any more. If it weren't for the General, none of you people would've gotten off Odin – or if you did, [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: H.G. Wells
January 21, 2013 By 2 Comments
While the bulk of his written work was general fiction and commentary, Herbert George Wells is remembered today along with Jules Verne as one of the fathers of modern science fiction. I first encountered his work somewhat secondhand, as part of the script for the Orson Welles version of War of the Worlds; this was published in a marvelous anthology called simply Contact!, a collection of "first contact" stories (humanity's initial encounter with alien intelligences). It was many years later that I was looking [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 6
January 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Our castaways were working on getting things working... Chapter 6. "I'm not seeing much of a lightshow," Joe observed as he watched A.J. hard at work. Of course the "hard at work" was more conceptual than actual; much of A.J.'s work looked more like a man reclining in one of Munin's pilot chairs, wearing a pair of reflective sunglasses and waving his gloved hands semi-aimlessly in the air in front of him. "Give this iceball a decent atmosphere and you'd be seeing a pretty good one," A.J. [ Continue reading... ]
PORTAL: Chapter 5
January 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Let's check back on what's going on at home. Or at least a few hundred million miles closer to home... Chapter 5. Nicholas checked himself in the camera-eye view once more. Every stitch in place, every line correct. And my hair going mostly white, I have to admit, has added an extra soupçon of dignity to my appearance. He also checked the VRD display, making sure the "augmented reality" display of his announcement would allow him to focus on the attendees while still able to see the [ Continue reading... ]
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