Spoor Snippets

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 18 Part 3: POSSIBILITIES Chapter 18. Sue Fisher leaned back in the bath, luxuriating in the hot, soapy water and the fact that after tomorrow she'd have seven glorious days off. Orado Station had gone back to the old routine in the months since Outward Initiative had staggered its way into the system, and she happily embraced routine after that disaster. Seven days would be more than enough to go planetside, visit Mom and Dad and maybe her brother if he wasn't somewhere on the other side of the world by then, and...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 17 Chapter 17. "That's good, Francisco, Hitomi, keep doing exactly that. We're making great progress," Whips said. Hitomi flashed one of her bright smiles and Francisco nodded seriously. "Si, it is going well." Now that he was finally recovered, Franky had really wanted to show he wasn't lazing around any more; that, along with the real need to move emergency provisions and stow them inside Emerald Maui, provided a perfect opportunity to let him and Hitomi work together. Whips was supervising them while he worked...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 16 Chapter 16. "I don't see anything," Xander whispered. "To the right of that big white rock," Caroline said quietly. Xander concentrated on the indicated area and his omni activated his retinal displays, causing the metamaterial lenses to realign and provide an effective ten times zoom. At the same time, it shifted the viewing spectrum slightly to take advantage of the dim light of Lincoln's night -- mostly provided by one of the huge comets that currently stretched across a quarter of the sky. Shadows...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 15 Chapter 15. Whips pulled himself up as high as he could, then dropped back to the floor in a flopping landing that stung his belly pad. The thud transmitted itself loudly, echoing up through the column. "How's that?" "Looks great!" Maddox said, squinting at the readout in his omni. "Mel?" Melody Kimei -- ten centimeters taller but just as thin as she'd been when they landed -- nodded. "Well within strain parameters, and Whips outweighs any two or three of us. That floor will hold just fine." "How far below it...

Merry Christmas! Castaway Resolution - Chapter 14 Chapter 14. "You're sure this is a good choice?" Campbell directed the question to Sakura, even as he stared up at the column. Having Campbell ask her sent a maybe-unreasonable thrill of pride through her. "We're pretty sure, Sergeant. Dad's been doing as much studying of the ecology here as he could, and it seems that some of these columns aren't used as much. We already chose one that is, but this one's actually got a floor on it. For some reason the continent's sealed it off." "Really?"...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 13 Chapter 13. Campbell stretched, testing his body's sensations. Mostly back to my old self, but still a little off. That damn disease really took it out of us. Still, he'd gotten off pretty light. He looked at Francisco, who was sitting in bed, trying to paint a picture of the view out of the window, and shook his head. The little boy still had to pause every ten minutes or so to rest; Maddox was a little better than that, but even now after three and a half weeks he was only up to a little light labor. "Is he...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 12 Chapter 12. "Huh," Tavana said, a questioning air about him, as he lowered himself heavily onto a stump at the side of the path. Sakura glanced at him; she had a momentary flash of annoyance that he'd stopped, but she suppressed it. Tav was still not fully recovered, and was just starting to get back to regular activity. "What's 'huh'?" "The sun, I could swear that just the prior dawn, it was rising between those two trees, but now it is on the far side of the one," Tavana answered. "Well, yeah," she said,...

Castaway Resolution - Chapter 11 Chapter 11. "You're sure you don't want another column?" Whips asked, studying the various designs he had been contemplating in his omni view. Campbell rubbed his chin, and leaned back in his bed. On his right, Tavana was propped up and trying to pay attention, but it was obvious to Whips that he probably wasn't going to stay the distance. Xander was more alert. Tavana yawned prodigiously but focused on the projections. "Living in one of the columns, I like the idea, Sergeant. We have seen how very strong the...