by Mark Sumner
The room they were in was a room for healing. A “medical bay” according to the sign outside the door. It was still full of bandages and tools for healing. Medicines, too, though most of those they didn't yet understand. There were a number of beds in the room. On one of them was Yulia. She was still unconscious, and had been that way since they climbed into the ship. Athena said that she should recover, but Kettle still sat beside her bed, waiting. On another bed was Haw. Haw had been awake–awake enough to do a lot of shouting and swearing. Now he was asleep again. Among the few medicines Athena had explained to them was one that eased pain and brought on sleep. Considering how loud Haw had been, everyone was glad that Athena had passed on that knowledge.
The air in the middle of the room shimmered for a moment, and Athena appeared. She looked much as she had the last time Denny had seen her back in the house by the gate. A little bit of Yulia, a little bit of Sirah, a little bit of them all. But she looked different, too. Her face was no longer stuck in that half-smile. Her expressions, and the look in her eyes, seemed much more human.
“Talla thought you might want to come up to the viewing area,” she said. “We're about to leave.”
Sirah helped Denny down off the bed. “We'll be right there,” she said. Athena disappeared.
Denny looked over at Kettle. “Are you coming?”
Kettle raised his head for a moment. “No. No, I think I'll stay here.” He nodded toward Yulia. “Just in case.”
Together, Sirah and Denny walked out into a long hallway, filled with clean light.
42
The ship, whose name was not actually Cataclysm, but Revelation, shook off the soil of the planet called Rask and rose up on a tower of lightning and thunder. It took only seconds before Jukal Plex was lost to sight, and seconds more before the whole planet was a green-gray dot, and seconds after that the red star and the blue star had merged together into a tiny purple-white point as the ship moved away, and away, and away.
43
Whetsday
On Whetsday, Denny danced between the stars.
About the Author
Mark is the author of a bunch of novels, lots of short stories, and essays. His novel Devil’s Tower was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and his News from the Edge series was turned into a TV show called The Chronicle, which aired on the Syfy Network. Mark has held nearly every job known to man, including coal miner, USGS cartographer, newspaper photographer, and database architect. He has dug for dinosaurs in South Dakota. And he used to know the genus and species of every freshwater fish in the United States.
When he isn’t writing or working or blogging, Mark enjoys paddling out on the lake in his kayak and watching the resident osprey hunt for his breakfast. The lake used to contain a lake monster, but Mark hasn’t spotted him in a while.
Fun Fact
I wish I had good writing habits, but I don't. I don't write at a particular time. I don't write to a particular length. I get easily distracted. I find that I eat a ton of cereal when I'm writing. Always cereal. I don't care if it's Special K, Love Crunch Granola, or giant bags of Marshmallow Mateys (yes that's a real cereal). I down it at a rate of about a bowl a page. So my writing is extremely high in carbohydrates. Sometimes I stop eating cereal long enough to eat a plate of 1) hard bread, 2) dates, 3) dried mango, and 4) hard, sharp cheese. Those are the writing food groups: cereal, and dried fruit on a plate with cheese. Note that I can't promise that this will work for you in terms of making pages. However, it will solve any problem you're having with putting on weight.