Spoor Snippets

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 26 Chapter 26. The problem, Whips thought, wasn't that he had to send out one of the kids; it was that he had to do that and accept that if something went wrong he could not do anything about it. Sky and Earth knew that there were dangers to going out on a rocking ocean vessel -- especially in this ocean. After the tsunami there would almost have to be a huge number of dead bodies, animals that hadn't been able to escape in time, and that meant that the water for many kilometers around, maybe hundreds of...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 25 Chapter 25. Sergeant Campbell surveyed the forest from ground level and found himself shaking his head. Doesn't stink too bad yet, but it will, and that'll be just the beginning. If their columns had been located on the northern edge of the continent, it might have been better in some ways; the wave wouldn't have had a chance to pick up much debris, it would have been more water than anything else. But they'd been kilometers inland and south, and what had reached them had been a set of massive waves of mud and...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 24 Chapter 24. Harratrer was rising through a nightmare. The Europan sea surrounded him, filled with darkness and menace. There were no Vents in range, and with horror Harratrer realized he was alone. He was in the high waters, nearer the Sky than the Earth, away from all safety. And there was something coming, behind him even as he fled. Something huge and swift and hungry. An orekath. He jetted as hard as he could, but the water seemed to have turned to gel thicker than a stickyseal. He moved forward...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 23 Chapter 23. Hitomi gripped the arms of her seat tight, focusing on the panels in front of her. She had to concentrate, because if she didn't she'd skip from thought to thought to thought in a blur, and it would be scary. Way too scary. Whips was still out there, and the wave, the wave was coming, a big wave they said. No, wait -- she heard the dragging sound of the big Bemmie moving fast behind her. "Are you both strapped in?" he said, his voice having that hooting undertone it got when he was breathing hard....

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 22 Chapter 22. Even without Whips' terrifying message, Laura would have known that something was horribly wrong. With no visible warning, the quadbirds and other flying creatures suddenly burst from their perches and flew, whistling and hooting and screeching, away, all in a mingled, multicolored mass that arrowed off to the south. Almost in the same moment, she could see movement on the ground and the trees -- animals large and small running, scuttling, swinging through the branches, and all going in the same...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 21 Chapter 21. "No offense," a sleepy-eyed Portmaster Ventrella said, cradling his coffee in his hands like a precious jewel, "but this had better be very good, Sue." "You know I wouldn't kick you out of bed for anything that wasn't," Sue said. Then her conscience poked her, and she said reluctantly, "Well, it's not life-or-death. . . not directly now, I think, but. . ." The Portmaster sighed and gave a weary grin. "Ehh. You've got me up, let's talk about it. I'll decide whether I'm docking your pay or something...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 20 Chapter 20. "Jennifer?" Sue said softly. The young woman's eyes opened and looked around; for at least the third time, Sue watched the tension in Jen Buckley's face ease into relief as she took in the clean brightness of Orado Port's main medical facility. "I still keep thinking I'm going to wake up on LS-42." "I can't blame you. You spent a bit over a year on that ship. But you're safe now." "How are the others?" "All five of you are making a good recovery, Doctor Ghasia assures me. The four who. . . didn't...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 19 Chapter 19. The stench was the first thing that struck Sue as the airlock door finally opened, a smell that combined the worst features of sweat, bad breath, mildew, and rot. She coughed, almost gagged before her nanos cut in and damped the reaction, and hesitated for a moment at the threshold. Modern ships and space stations had highly advanced filtration and atmosphere reclamation systems which were designed to remove even the worst odors from the air and leave it with only the faint background scents that...