Chapters
-
It was a rough night. Not just for Amie—compared to most of the other campers, she was coping fantastically well. With almost everyone sleeping together in the same room, she heard everything. She couldn’t sleep. From the number of other voices, from the people shifting around in the dark, she wasn’t the only one. How could anyone possibly get comfortable in a body that just didn’t make sense? No matter how she tossed and turned, the body never felt like hers. She was imprisoned in a cell that…-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie headed straight for the building, cutting across camp with a growing sense of purpose. Her brother was safe, and for a little while she could count on him staying that way. Wes wasn’t good with people, but he was good at staying unnoticed. Besides, a set of eyes on the outside of camp would probably be useful. What will we see up there once the sun comes up? Maybe Lakeville was still at the base of the mountain, just concealed by their shock and disorientation. Maybe they were floating on a…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie couldn’t really run anymore.Her strange new body didn’t seem injured, despite the openings in her legs. She saw no blood emerging from those holes, or anything worse. But just because she wasn’t dying didn’t mean she was okay.She hobbled through the underbrush, which looked distinctly larger than she remembered. Grasses and wildflowers made it past her knees. Where there were no trails of trees, the foliage grew thick enough to make her vanish completely. Part of Amie wanted to walk that way,…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie loved Adventure Camp. She loved camp so much that she pressured her little brother into going, even after she turned nineteen and could only stay as a counselor. Her brother Wes didn’t enjoy being up in the mountains quite so much, didn’t enjoy the hiking and pioneering and paintball games in the woods. But he also didn’t have the guts to just outright tell her no. The season was mostly over now—another two days, and he would be headed home. “Lame way to spend your last night.” She nudged…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Felicity was no diplomat, no scientist, and no soldier. She had been a little of all three to accomplish this task.It was about a month before the moment finally came. It happened aboard an orbital station, one sent all the way from Equus. It would be the first of many as the network grew—a temporary home for the plants who died after becoming part of the network, once Harmony was established.Felicity didn't understand how that process worked, but she didn't really have to. She knew the important part:…-
84.8 K •
-
-
Felicity needed no magic to sense the fury around her. She would've known it even if her scent-organs were destroyed, and she were trapped in a clear jar. The native life might not have any knowledge of positioning, but she saw their body-language. The way they withdrew, tightening around the scaffold.She saw pulses of motion pass along their body, like waves. Were those thoughts, as it considered what to do with her?Delta withdrew again, far tighter than Felicity herself. This was the effect of absolute…
-
84.8 K •
-
-
Felicity followed the honored expedition of strange plants through the remains of the Custodian ship. The vessel seemed so small from the outside, with each deck barely as wide as service passages on a human or pony ship. That size was deceptive, though—from the inside, the space seemed vast.As they got closer to their destination, they saw other plants swimming up and down from different directions, like the circulatory system of a living creature. The boundary was fuzzy here, with some sections of…
-
84.8 K •
-
-
"We're going!" Felicity shouted, directly at the screen. Of course she wasn't sure if Escape Gear would even be able to hear her. Was Manny transmitting her words, the way he had before? Now that she thought about it, there was probably something to that idea. Harmony could interpret what she said, and transmit her words in another form. "Manny, can you send a message with pheromones? We should tell the custodian ship we're friendly in a language they understand!"There was a long pause, long enough that…
-
84.8 K •
-
-
Felicity had never made a high-gravity launch before. Equestrian ships just didn’t work that way—with control of gravity and mastery of acceleration, it was easy to keep the passengers of a ship comfortable all the way outwell.The Varch’nai had no such technology—or maybe they did, and they just didn’t care to use it. Why bother, when the real bodies of every crewman were secured in stasis, and their puppeted remotes could just be insulated from the sensory impact of acceleration until it was…
-
84.8 K •
-
-
"Admiral, meet Delta," Felicity said, the first to break the silence. She walked along beside the plant, close enough that she could be near her the whole way. Someone had to be close enough to protect her. For whatever good it would do them."I am... friendly to meet you," Delta said. Her whiplike tail flicked through the air behind her. But Felicity wasn't sure the admiral would even understand equine body language. Maybe some of these scientists would.One of them was the first to break the silence.…
-
84.8 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 57 58 59 … 222 Next
