The colony planet Fremont is joyous, riotous, and very wild. Its grasses can cut your arms and legs to ribbons, the rinds of its precious fruit can skewer your thumbs, and some of the predators are bigger than humans. Meteors fall from the sky and volcanoes erupt. Fremont is verdant, rich, bea...
Kayleen was on her back, in the middle between us, closer to me than Marcus. Even in the half-light, I could see the mess of her dark hair, now so tangled it might be hopeless. “We have to keep going,” Marcus said, his voice dragging tired but determined. “The sooner we finish our work, the soone...
The salt scents of the sea and her sweat sat thick in my head, laid over with unfamiliar flowers, and a trace of animal—pig? She barely reacted to heat that made it hard for me to breathe. Her right knee sent shooting pains up her back whenever she stepped on an uneven patch that turned her foot ...
Her mom had rushed off in a worried flurry, brushing her wet hair and throwing a quick, “I’ll call you,” over her shoulder as she flew out the door.Bright sun shone on the paths outside their window, and even though it was still breakfast time, the cheerful sounds of children in the pool already ...
She had been certain she was drinking death. And now, at this moment, she felt nothing. No regret, no pain, no hope, nothing. A dull sort of curiosity, at most. Perhaps she was dead. She tried to move her arms, to stretch. “You can’t move yet,” a vo...
To Ruby, it was as if something had been revealed in the previous few moments that changed the texture of the air itself. The message Joel had given Onor had been for all of them. It was time. She glanced at Joel, pleased to meet his eyes before he looked up at nothing, as if thinking. &nbs...
My stomach dizzied and my hands shook as I watched his skimmer land neatly next to ours. Fancier than what Ming had called for Jenna. A big, silver bug with five legs and a bubble-head. Alicia clutched my hand. Bryan stood on my other side, our silent, stoic observer. Jenna and Tiala were just in...
They stank. The best one she’d been able to find had slightly short legs so she always felt like she should bend her knees, and the right elbow joint was harder to move than the left, so she expected to overcompensate in low-g and jerk herself to the left of where she wanted to go. Everything mus...
The ship had been cloaked the same way they had approached Star Island Stop, except this time Nayli and Stupid had bedecked them in the fake personality of a cruise ship curious about Lym. At the moment, they sat queued in a long line waiting to dock. In honor of their chosen disguise, Nayli had ...