Things were busy and confusing around here yesterday -- apologies for missing my schedule! Sakura's out exploring...   ------     Chapter 18            Sakura cut, perhaps with unnecessary viciousness, at a bamboolike stalk that blocked her passage. The machete—cut and ground down under Whips' direction from one of the pieces of steel that had formed a major wing support—sliced cleanly through the stalk, which fell, spattering her with drops of blood and an explosion of crimson tendrils from the [ Continue reading... ]

  Sakura did some exploring before; now there's time to do some work...     -------     Chapter 15            "Can't I please come with –" "No." Her mother's answer was firm. "You seem recovered, mostly, but you were in very bad shape for a while yesterday. I don't expect to see any more trouble, but for today you're staying near camp. You'll have plenty more chances to explore, I promise." "Sorry, Saki," her father said, and gave her a consoling hug. That didn't exactly make up [ Continue reading... ]

  Hey, they're into Chapter 11! (yeah, okay, cheap joke). Time for the castaways to take stock of their situation...     ------       Chapter 11            "The seven wilderness survival principles," Melody said, obviously looking at her omni's display, "are positive mental attitude, first aid, shelter, fire, signaling, water, and food." "Not a bad list," Sakura said, dusting off a nearby chunk of coral-rock to sit on, "but some of that won't work. Signaling isn't going to [ Continue reading... ]

  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... ]

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... ]

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... ]