Kismet (Chapter 2)
_Beedle boop_ "Ms. Simmons?" Gail's ear twitches at the voice on the radio. She's prying a beer out of a rack in the cabin's compact refrigerator. The beverage station does coffee well enough, but its "porter" tastes like cold strained...
Kismet (Chapter 1)
The call that shatters Gail's life comes disguised as a gift from her past. It starts the way all of them have for the last fourteen years: a _beedle boop_ and her ship's voice, a pleasant female contralto, sounding directly in her left ear. "You have...
Kismet (Chapter 4)
When she wakes up there's a moment of disorientation until she realizes Catboy--she did learn his name, didn't she?--is taking up slightly more than half of her bunk. For a single person it's more than big enough, but not for two. Why did they come...
Kismet (Chapter 3)
If you don't count the Ceres Ring, Panorica is the largest arcology in terms of both population and sheer size. It's a cylindrical design like Kingston, but a vast, slow-spinning behemoth. You can dock either at the stationary center or at the rim,...
Going Concerns (Chapter 2)
Before last year, Annie had been in Guard stations perhaps once before in her life. After last year, she'd hoped to never be in one again. They'd been unfailingly polite throughout that investigation, which she'd started out appreciating but ended up...
Going Concerns (Chapter 1)
It was at about the halfway point between Islip's Books and her second-story flat in the East Garden district of Raneadhros--as she'd never seen a garden there, she had yet to understand the name--that Annie began to suspect she was being...
Going Concerns (Chapter 3)
Whatever else she thought of Gibson, Annie couldn't accuse him of coming unprepared. He'd brought a better lockpick set than she owned--well, than the one she _had_ owned, before she'd had to sell it--and had let both of them into Union's office so...
Christmas at Joe's
The bell on the diner's door jangled, stilled, jangled again spasmodically as a blast of cool air came in from the mostly-empty city street outside. "Hi, Frank," Jean said. She hadn't looked up from the counter, cleaning rag still in hand; she just...