Derin Edala

Patreon bonus vote -- March

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Patreon bonus chapter -- A Lake of Stars

Snowpea couldn’t keep her eyes off the shimmer.

It was well and truly dark. High above, the real stars shone in the cloudless sky, light from places too distant to be meaningful concentrating on this tiny, precious planet. Somewhat less high above, her cluster slept in their temporary sleeper nest; her mother and two of her parents snoring gently, her fairly new baby sister sleeping qui...

148: WAR

The next day, I wake up feeling… off. There’s some sort of strange pressure in my head. Not a headache, exactly, but something unusual. A weird… taste? No, rinsing my mouth out does nothing.  Shielding my eyes or turning the lights out does help. Some kind of strange migraine, maybe? I’ve never had migraines before. If this is a synnerve thing then –

Ah. Synnerves. I experi...

147: COLONISATION

We gather back in our living dome with Max. This isn’t a conversation to be had lurking in a security room underground.

“The plan,” Max says over a hot cup of coffee, “was to establish as many Vaults as possible in as many locations as possible. Both ends of the Vault have to be made in the same location. It’s some sort of atomic thing. And then you send one end sixty to ninety ...

146: VAULT

Going through the cargo door leadsto a small room ending in another cargo door. This room has two more guards in it, meaning that 1.5% of the entire population of Hylara are occupied just guarding the few halls and rooms we’d walked through. There’s no way that this is normal. Perhaps the increased guard is a response to us landing, or maybe Hive’s stunt.

The room is largely empty, ...

145: UNDERGROUND

The metal doors leading into the side of the dune are thick. Heavy. Free of sand, although the angle suggests that sand would fall past the guards and onto them easily with the slightest wind; probably swept clean regularly. Tinera narrows her eyes as we get close, thinking, probably, of the ridiculous weight of metal that must have been trucked across lightyears from Earth to make them.

...

144: COORDINATION

Celti seems to be doing calculations too, glancing between Max and Captain Klees and looking somewhat baffled. “If we asked for medical supplies?”

“Absolutely. Tell us what you need and we’ll get it sent down.”

“Weapons?”

“I don’t think the ship carries weapons, but there are plenty of instruments that can be easily weaponised. If you want those, sure. Do you...

Ask Me Anything -- Hive Cattail

Does the colony have any naming conventions? (like generation names for example)

We just have the one name, which we choose when we reach adulthood. Some people change theirs later. You’re not allowed to name yourself the same name as anyone that’s still alive though. Some of us use our house name as a kind of “last name” for when we’re talking to the Earth peop...

143: CULTURE

Max gets us robes. They show us how to tie the belts. They explain that different belts don’t have any official meaning, but fashions go in and out among different groups of friends, so your belt can incidentally declare who you hang out with or what you aspire to which, fine, that’s how fashion usually works. We ask about the children, and Max tells us that all the children live in the nur...

Behind the Keyboard -- Note Waveskimmer

142: SEEDS

“What? You can’t go out there!” Max goes to rise from the table, and Tinera and the Friend let them, but don’t let go, don’t let them try to block our path as we head for the door. “You can’t!”

“We won’t put the colony in danger,” Captain Klees assures them. “That’s what the space suits are for.”

“Thing is,” Tinera says, “when you’re not willing t...

141: ANSWERS

We all leap back, as if a bit more distance will protect Max from the viruses in the mostly enclosed tent.

“You said the viral treatment would take another week after our landing!” Captain Klees says, accusing. “You can’t be here like this!”

“It is a few days early,” Max allows, “but I’m sure I’ll be fine. It’s a long treatment, and it’s possible there was ne...

140: CURATION

The next day is an awkward day of inactivity. It’s frustrating, but there’s not all that much we can really do. We consider going for another look around the settlement, but it’s much more productive to wait until we can go out without the suits and properly see things and talk to people (and maybe, if necessary, have a chance to ‘accidentally’ split up and slip out of Max’s observa...

Bonus story -- Smooth As Glass

Heron Sandcomber was eleven when her pod first travelled to the Shore of Glass. Like any khemin child, she’d heard stories of it since she was a baby in her mother’s boatsling, but there was nothing like setting eyes on it herself. The sun rose behind the pod’s floating village as they all adjusted sails to pull ashore and the light glittered off thousands, millions of brilliant little no...

139: SURGERY

We discuss various possibilities of what, if anything at all, is strange about the colony, but it only goes in circles. The only thing we can all (except Tal) agree on pretty quickly is that we probably didn’t stumble onto a planet with abandoned alien tech. Other than that, we just don’t have enough information to draw any real conclusions.

“The very day they drop the quarantine, I...

138: QUESTIONS

We get back to our dome and desuit, and Captain Klees starts pacing back and forth, agitated. I also want to pace, but two people pacing seems weird, so I sit at the table all tense instead.

“We’ve been through a lot of weird bullshit,” Captain Klees says, “so I’m probably overreacting. I’m probably just being [unknown word]. So tell me, everyone. Something weird is going on h...

137: RADIO

Max shows us the central meeting area, which is exactly what it sounds like – a huge dome that’s apparently for meeting up and conducting business. A town hall, I suppose. Some benches are lined up along one edge with plastic crates piled on them; a middle-aged person with no feet perches on the edge of a table and consults a computer screen over one eye while a few other Hylarans talk to t...

136: DOME

One thing to be said about the Hylarans is that they work quickly. Even as we eat, we can hear people moving around outside the dome, doing something around the door. By the time we’re finished, there’s a hastily assembled decontamination chamber there.

Well, it’s a little canvas room with some big spray canisters of some kind of orange disinfectant. Not exactly high tech. But it’...

Ask Me Anything -- Sienna Kae Jin

Why did you want to come to Hylara?

Why did I want to contribute to humanity colonising planets outside our solar system? To making a life for our species, for life itself so far as we’re aware, that isn’t dependent on the health of a single fragile sun? Is that even a question?

When did you learn about the convict slavery/kill switch thing, and...