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... ]
Polychrome: Chapter 20
October 31, 2014 By Leave a Comment
As the Heroes have started their move, so must the Villains... ------ Chapter 20. Ugu the Unbowed stood on the balcony overlooking the petrified Emerald City; halfway to the horizon the pure dead gray ended, in a line as sharply drawn as if by a knife, and the green of the surrounding lands began. "And so it begins." "Sire?" Cirrus Dawnglory – or, at least, the being who now wore his name and face – said, clearly unsure of what his King meant. "Ah, you are here. Excellent. Walk with me, [ 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... ]
Paradigms Lost: Chapter 46
October 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Now we come to the end of this adventure.. and the end of the snippets of Paradigms Lost! I hope you've enjoyed them. If you can't wait to read the rest, the eARC is now available at Baen Books! ----- Chapter 46: Explanations "I must confess, Jason, that there are a few things which remain unclear to me." Rebuilding Verne's mansion was taking some time. It had also taken a lot of fast talking to keep Jeri from poking her nose too far in; even though the mansion was relatively isolated, the battle between the [ Continue reading... ]
Polychrome Chapter 19
October 24, 2014 By Leave a Comment
And at last our Hero is ready to really start on his adventure! ----- Chapter 19. Polychrome danced lightly through the corridors of the Palace, out the gateway, and laughed. For there were gathered all the people of the Rainbow Kingdom, from the smallest child to the eldest of the wise old women, all gathered to see the Hero off. Far, far away, down the Way of Light that ran from the dawn to the sunset, she could see the tiny figures of Erik and Nimbus, and the much larger shape of [ Continue reading... ]
Paradigms Lost: Chapter 45
October 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Jason had one more idea to try... ----- Chapter 45: That Future is Past Morgan opened the door, startled as I pushed past him without so much as a "hello." "Master Jason… ?" I looked around, shrugged, jogged into the living room and climbed up on a chair. Verne was in that room, staring at me curiously out of hollow eyes set in a leathery, lined face and framed by pure white hair. "J… Jason," he said slowly, as I mumbled a curse to myself and dragged the chair over a bit, "what… are you [ 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... ]
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