I kept a backup file of my schoolwork in the suit’s computer, so at least I had plenty of math problems to keep me busy. And James read history from the ship’s library—he liked social studies almost as much as I liked math. Dad had never had much use for “timewaster” classes like psychology and h...
From this point forward we had to move, move, move; we were trying to create a highly specific emotional state in our audience. If people were given a chance to reflect on what was really going on, everything could yet fall apart. So I paused only long enough for the little square of floor at the...
Practically the entire planet had a mild, pleasant climate, and there was no ice anywhere except near the poles, where the mountains were just high enough to make for perfect ski runs. Even better, there’d been a native ecology similar enough to Earth’s in chemical terms that the soil and stuff w...
"I understand you two had a rough time last night?" Mr. Li answered for us, which I was glad of. The last person in the universe I wanted to admit a weeping fit to was Uncle Rapput, though I wasn't quite sure why. "It was separation anxiety, sir," he explained. "This is commonplace among our youn...
Astrogator Wu opined once the Imperial cruiser had safely translated herself away. “If we were, we could've blown her out of the sky and then raided the entire system at our leisure.” I nodded and smiled back. If we’d been Javelin, it would’ve been as if a fox were loose in the henhouse. All the...
A thousand million things could've gone wrong in the many months that'd passed since I'd ordered them here. The Imperial Fleet might've sortied and against all odds won a resounding victory, the Yans might've been detected and our whole overlarge diplomatic contingent slaughtered in revenge, ther...
Once I accepted that this was what my bunnies really wanted even knowing they could never win, suddenly the situation was rich with new tactical possibilities. I spent my days poring over Station schematics and charts of the Zombie cluster, issuing what must often have seemed like senseless order...
"Sir," Nestor declared as I woke up exhausted and bleary-eyed form having spent all the previous day visiting volunteer training camps. "They're coming." It was almost four in the morning. "Where?" I demanded, reaching for my pants."It's hard to say for sure yet," my aide replied. "But the timing...