“Can you zoom in right here?” Nathan points to a shadow on the computer screen. Sophie clicks to make it larger, the image morphing into thick towers of coral reaching towards the sky. “Damn! Just another coral shelf.” Nathan rubs a palm down his face. He leans back in his chair and rolls his shoulders. ...

Peris couldn’t remember feeling more relieved than she did when Nor disengaged from the rusty hatch and they put the whole dirty-minded, overheated space station behind them. Let’s get away from here! She transmitted, but she barely bothered to stay engaged after they cleared the arms of the flimsy metal snowflake.   Nor glided blithely ...

“It’s been two days!” I tuck my feet under me and hand Sophie the TV remote. “How long does it take to make a simple decision?” “Now you know why I don’t get along with my dad,” Xander huffs. He lay sprawled on the adjacent couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. His ...

“What the fuck is going on? Where’s Xander?” Sophie and I follow Nathan into a sea of crewmembers, who are moving debris and medical equipment through the halls of Deck Two. The air is thick with the remnants of smoke, making it difficult to breathe. “Over here, Emily!” Xander waves to them from the medical ...

They could always feel the difference at the heliopause where they stopped riding the system’s solar winds and Nor could stretch herself out and approach lightspeed. It was a limitless expanse of possibility. Neighboring stars elongated into streaks of plasma and Doppler shifted blue as they drew closer and red as they passed. But the ...

“You wanna talk about what had you screaming in the middle of the night?” Sophie shoves a forkful of French toast into her mouth and stares at me expectantly. I sigh and stare at my waffle. Syrup oozing around a mountain of chocolate chips. “Not really.” Sophie purses her lips. “It wouldn’t have anything to ...

Peris stood on the brink of the cliff and reached out with her mind while she held her lightstick over the chasm. Stray orange pebbles skittered into the murky schism below while she pitched her body in defiance of gravity. Night had already fallen, but she pictured the twin suns, fierce and blazing in the bright green of midday. Then she imagined the sky ...

“What’s the name of the ship, Em?” Sophie asks me for the billionth time, her dark eyes darting from one end of the marina to the other as we make our way among the deckhands. “The Griffin. Honestly Soph, you need to relax a little. I’ve got all the information right here. We shouldn’t be ...

With a sputter, the converted bus springs to life. Grinning, Kalie guides it to the glittering starway leading up along the horizon’s green twilight and into the thickening darkness above. She points it straight at the glowing, round moon still sitting low and red in the sky. Kalie can only see the outline of the ...