Excerpt: The Shooting Star

8/13/2019 Excerpt: The Shooting Star

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From: The Shooting Star

The bridge was flooded with rain and spray. Paean was holding,

faithfully; drenched. This was dangerous.

Federi, I tried to think of how to fix this window, she said

plaintiely as he ca!e in through the hatch. I tried clearing all the

glass, but you know... in this dark... the poor tobusky has been toocold to glow properly.

"uskies are polar dogs, he said.

#ut tobacco is a tropical plant, she countered.

#ut this is tropical rain, he replied. $hould withstand it.

Salt water% she asked. "alf of this co!es fro! the waes,

Federi. There, see% &ater splashed iolently against the co!!and

deck and into the bridge as the $hooting $tar's nose dipped into theswell.

(h, send the little creature belowdecks, said the Pirate )aptain

i!patiently. "e was angry. *ngry at the sea, the skies + couldn't

they hae had a clear night for this first part of )aptain's loely

challenge% *ngry at the Fisher Folk for running down his ship so

badly; angry that there was not enough co!pounding in his repair

kit; and that eerything had been stripped off his ship.

"e had to get the dries working -ats that )aptain had called

&olf away.

First principles, Tigan, his !ind was telling hi!. /ind, he

thought, shut up. First principles work on land. #ut how does one

resurrect solar dries in the dark% *nd hydrogen dries% *nd the

steering + how to !anually oerride...

In his !ind he saw the $her!an Files. "e'd studied the!, long


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ago; for purposes of disabling 0nicate ships, a!ongst the! countless

Pursuers. "e knew how the dries worked; he knew where the

steering ran. *nd wait, there was... it should be here... he died in

under the console and searched.

*nd there it was1 a !anual hel!. * relic. The 0nicate hadn't

designed it. $o!e cleer engineer of the twenty2first century had put

it there, into the design, for ital failure; and the 0nicate had neer

understood its function and therefore not dared to change the design.

"e wrenched the thing anti2clocks, and it !oed. &ith a few

twists he had the whole thing spring out into the open.

"ang tight, little lu "e sauntered back down to the bilges

with that highly efficient stride that looked casual but was a!aingly

fast, and picked up his toolkit. "e returned to the bridge and

proceeded to take the whole console apart, bit by bit, in the

treacherous light of one Paeansy glow2stick that she held up for hi!,

rendering the place nearly as bright as twilight for his !utant2

enhanced night ision.

3ot losing the little screws was essential. "is fingers worked in

feerish haste; before long, the whole place was disasse!bled.

3ow it's getting wet on the inside too, co!!ented Paean.

Take it easy, little lu, he co!!ented. &ill be done inna

seccie.

True to his word, not too !uch later the console was back up;

with the one critical difference that now there was a !anual,

protruding hel! Paean could grip.

3eeds power, surely% she asked.

Federi shook his head. 3ot this one. This one was put into the

design by one /ichael #raunschweig. /ust'e been a Tigan,

because he considered what would happen if the power broke in the

!iddle of a stor!. Twenty2seenty2three. That's when these ships

were first designed.


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a wooden box with all the 9ingles and sun catchers and string puppets

and woodcarings fro! Federi's cabin.

"e had een re!e!bered their orange biolu!inescence. *

welco!e break fro! all the green.

Federi% she called back to the bridge.

8es%

It's beautiful.

"e s!iled. $o


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here, and without a weather skin, but he was used to that + the ship

was now controllable. #less that #raunschweig character, and thank

the $tars for the stupidity of the 0nicate, that in sixty years of rule

they still didn't dare to change the old, functional humandesigns.

$he'll be beautiful, sweetheart, he added with a little s!ile.

There was no reply. "e glanced down. $he was asleep.

Those cracks in the co!pounding were bad news. )o!pounding

was an extre!ely resilient !aterial, slightly elastic. If it had for!ed

cracks, that !eant that the ship had either been exposed to extre!e

te!peratures + boiling or far below freeing + or to che!icals. (r to

extre!es of torsion and physical stress, repeatedly They'd hae to

coat the whole hull, inside and out, with extra layers of

co!pounding. "e was burning to hae a look, but if he didn't keep

his hands on the hel! here, the $hooting $tar !ight capsie

(The Shooting Star series is a follow-on to the Solar Wind series.

Not yet published; The Solar Wind series is available at

http://www.paboo.net/sw!.html"
http://www.pkaboo.net/sw1.htmlhttp://www.pkaboo.net/sw1.html

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Excerpt: The Shooting Star