They had just had an unexpected and utterly bizarre disaster... ------ Chapter 10 Laura stared in uncomprehending shock. Bobbing ever so slightly, the vast wall of dark, wet stone still loomed up less than a kilometer distant. The piece that had fallen from it—a solid mass the size of a skyscraper—should have been towering over them even nearer. There was no possible way that the lagoon before them could have been two hundred meters deep, no, not even a tenth of [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 9
November 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Now that they're down and alive, time to do some exploring! ------ Chapter 9 "Okay, Sakura, now cycle the lock again, exhausting to the outside." Whips wasn't taking any chances. Before letting anyone step out of the shuttle, he wanted Dr. Kimei and her husband to check the air readings. So they'd put Laura Kimei's omni, which had a lot of built-in sensors for medical purposes, into the starboard airlock, let it open to the outer air, and left it there for an hour to [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 8
November 5, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Well, since this book has more chapters, you can tell they made a "good landing" in the technical sense... ------ Chapter 8 Despite the sledgehammer impacts, the cabin of LS-5 remained cheerfully, invariably lit as the world spun, and now, as the ship quivered to stillness, they stayed on, as though nothing had happened. Laura could see that Sakura, at least, was unharmed; her seat had locked properly and the girl's one arm was visible, white-knuckled with tension. Hitomi's [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 7
November 3, 2014 By Leave a Comment
And now the moment of truth: they have to land. ----- Chapter 7 "Nebula Drive fully retracted. All smart dust now stowed away. Recovery of materials at 95%," Sakura reported, partially to herself. The routine, reporting each detail of her tasks, helped calm her, slow the heart that threatened to accelerate out of control. It's all on me. The thought was terrifying, more so because she knew she couldn't show it. Melody and especially Hitomi could panic if they realized just [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 6
October 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment
They were in the new solar system hoping to find a world... ------ Chapter 6 Akira's arms hugged Laura tightly for a moment. "Are you all right?" "I think so," she answered on the same channel. One good thing about having private comm channels was that you could have a private conversation even in the middle of a not-too-large cabin. "But my God, Akira." Even after four days it was still hard to grasp what had happened, and only now that they had successfully reached that [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet, Chapter 5
October 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
They had set their sights on a distant star... ----- Chapter 5 The unnamed star glowed before them, a visible disk, as LS-5 came out of the Trapdoor Drive. Now the next cycle of worry begins, Whips messaged to Sakura, who gave a tense, wry grin. Finding a good star was excellent luck… but we cannot live on a star. Yeah. But let's take one problem at a time. He saw her shove the worries out of her mind and concentrate on trying to figure out their location. We're already [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 4
October 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment
They were looking for a star... ----- Chapter 4 The stars shone out again, and she sat forward. "Coils recharging. Doing a full survey of the sky again…" She tumbled LS-5 once more around its axes. "Generating full sky view… okay, everyone, start looking. I'm blinking our virtual displays between the first panorama we got and this one. I'm sending different areas of the sky to—" "Got one!" sang out Caroline. "Brightest star in our sky just jumped a beautiful, beautiful big fraction of a [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 3
October 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Well, things had gone rather pear-shaped, as the British might say... ----- Chapter 3 Sakura clamped her jaw shut to keep from screaming as LS-5 whirled into the void. She gripped the arms of the pilot's chair convulsively. She heard herself muttering, "Oh my God, oh my God…" and her mother and father both whispering something that sounded very similar. The whirling, dizzy, uncontrolled spin lasted only a few moments; automatic stabilizer jets fired momentarily and then cut [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 2
October 15, 2014 By Leave a Comment
So, it was just one more drill in a series of drills... ------ Chapter 2 Laura smiled as she dropped through the entry hatch to see that her husband, Akira, had just finished strapping Hitomi into her crash seat. The seven-year-old was behaving very well, clutching her winged-wolf plush and pretending it was flying back and forth in front of her, but otherwise sitting still. "You made good time," she said, giving Hitomi's inexplicably blonde hair a ruffle and kissing Akira on the cheek as [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Planet: Chapter 1
October 13, 2014 By Leave a Comment
And now a new adventure begins in the universe of Boundary, some considerable time in the future... ----- CASTAWAY PLANET By Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor Chapter 1 Sakura Kimei lay as still as possible on the set of pipes, listening for the creature's approach. It could be very near. She gripped the weapon in her right hand and steadied herself with her left, trying to breathe as quietly as possible. Not for the first time, she was grateful that she was still "skinny as a rail," as her [ Continue reading... ]
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