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... ]

  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... ]

  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... ]

  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... ]

  The most immediate danger had been dealt with -- now comes some more long-term planning!     Chapter 3.        "All right," Madeline Fathom said, her voice just slightly amplified by the walls of the common room of Munin. "Now that we're all reasonably safe for the next few days, we need to evaluate the entire situation and come up with a real schedule of action."        "Were you able to contact Dr. Glendale, Madeline?" Horst Eberhart asked.        "I was. He relayed a quick acknowledgement of our message [ Continue reading... ]