Night on this planet wrapped like cool fingers, dropped everything to a chill and calmed the stars, drew them throught the harsh sky. Nero hadn't seen night, not so familiar, in longer than he could remember. The stars were wrong, distant and close in uneven measure ( Read more... )

The bite of the field, the curling snap of it, faded away with the red hot twist of nails on glass. It clawed through air and slid across his skull as it parted, flashed off and fell into distal silence ( Read more... )

Time, always and never, time.

It crawled and jumped in dashes and stutters. Twisted and cracked, sliding, scraping light and silence off the surface of metal. Peeling long white rows that dissolved into the air, into his head, into his lungs. It was niggling cold, and every so often he could hear the dibah. They were crawling down stone paths that ( Read more... )

The day was almost Rihann. If it weren't for the wet breeze that kicked off the soil, the smell of trees and grass, he might have been fooled. No one clipped a hand, a finger with the drills. The bits were hot and the shaft was tight, two men in, two men out ( Read more... )

Five hours, eight hands, and a thousand nha'h of the soft muck this planet called soil. Despite the lloanna, it wasn't bad work.

The sun was down. Not enough power in the lamps for now and later. They'd worked hard enough, the recyclers had enough material to make a mountain of whatever they wanted. This time, not from their shikaen.

"Ayel, ( Read more... )

Nero turned from the two. Their soft conversation, half buried in the floor, glanced across his skin. Narada did not swallow the sounds, they meandered listlessly through Medical and his stomach rolled. He braced against the bed as he came to it; his lungs were heavy, wet, and the floor was creeping up through his feet. The sensation was unwelcome ( Read more... )