Things Fall Apart: Chapter 41

Pinnace Zephyr-1, 101 kiloseconds away from Zephyr. When Singer had been to David's Star before, it had been a port call by Vespa. She had been a midshipman, and had little access to high-detail imaging of their approach. Shore leave to New Anaheim had involved the passenger section

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 40

Zephyr, in far orbit of David's Star, 1.64 megaseconds out from Gliese-581 After Traffic Control sent them a bare acknowledgment and informed them the Admiral Himself would be with them after he conferred with the Governor General and the Tau Ceti Treaty ambassador, Zephyr was left cooling

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 39

Zephyr, surfacing at David's Star Singer had, as promised, gotten the sleep she needed. If anyone thought the sudden alteration to the shift rotation odd, no one said so. That said, all the usual rotation was set aside as the countdown to emergence dwindled. Singer, Alexander, Cadotte, Cordé,

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 38

Zephyr, en route to David's Star Sixteen megaseconds of catastrophic events had hardly ever deprived Singer of sleep. Most of the time, she was simply too exhausted at the end of her cycle to do anything but sleep. She did all her thinking, and over-thinking, on duty. She

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 37

Aboard Zephyr They were in the briefing room, the whole command staff. It was the first time they'd really used it. Somehow, most of what they'd done so far had been done out on the bridge, or in the CO or XO's office. Alexander

Things Fall Apart: Skip Week (19 May 2025)

Sorry, folks! I had a busy weekend and did not get a chance to write the next chapter. I did have an inspiration for something that's gonna happen later, though...

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 36

Aboard Polaris Grim was certainly one valid word for it. Stepping aboard Polaris with zir small team, Alexander could see the immediate effects of the events the late Lieutenant Commander Wheeler had described. The airlock had already been open on both sides. Anyone who had been anywhere near it in

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 35

Zephyr, in orbit at the third waypoint. Shiptime 657ksecs. If Singer had ever doubted the wisdom of having the COs and XOs quarters so close to the command center, those doubts vanished when Alexander came onto the bridge, looking a little disheveled, less than one-hundred seconds after Singer had ordered

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 34

Zephyr, arriving at third waypoint, shiptime 656ksec The trip to the second waypoint had been uneventful, given the almost pedestrian time compressor ratios they were still using. They had notched up to 1000:1, which was fast relative to recent memory, but only because Bellerophon's damaged TC drive

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 33

Zephyr, outbound of Gliese-581 The outbound spiral out to the heliopause proceeded without any real fuss. Singer should have been pleased. Instead, she was antsy. Everything for megaseconds had felt urgent. Even when Bellerophon had fell into routine on its long trip "home" to Gliese-581, the possibility of

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 9, Part 1

Our Story So Far - Click here to access past entries! Forward Starship Bellerophon was minding its business, on a long return cruise from an exploration and mapping mission, when it suffered disaster, ripping a chunk out of the ship and leaving most of the senior officers and crew dead.

Things Fall Apart: Skip Week

I should have posted this earlier, but I'm taking this week off. I went home for Passover and the trip sort of ate my brain. That said, I've made a bit of noise a couple of times about starting to actually pull this together into novel