May 27, 2022
“The fool! He’s trying to escape through the dragon enclosures! After him!” Zimmerman shouted. He raised his rifle and prepared to fire.
May 20, 2022
Pembroke stood speechless for a moment, and then muttered, “Amazing. . . turning animals into dragons. But why?”
May 13, 2022
The raucous singing that filled the Badger Arms pub rang in Colin Pembroke’s ears, as if an orchestra was playing in his head...
January 7, 2022
“So this is the bunker?” Clarence said. “What about the bike?”
“If the main hatch opens I’ll pull it in. If not, it’s safe. No one steals a bike on Io. The dragons are all a little too big.”
“First time for everything,” Julia muttered and actually earned a few shared chuckles. She felt safer already with a roof overhead.
December 31, 2021
Freefall. Icy, enervating, lacerating winds flipped her far away from Clarence. She fell forever, screaming, dying, and then straps dug into her diaphragm, squeezing what breath remained from her lungs. She drew a breath in barely and then another. Jupiter and Io had stopped swapping places. She looked up and saw her parachute had opened.
December 24, 2021
Her brother was grinning. Despite her intention to remain jaded, Julia’s rebel breath caught. Here she’d thought their views would be restricted to the portholes pocking the side of the shuttle, but there was far more now to see; not only the vast expanse of stars glinting like diamonds by the thousands but the rim of massive Jupiter. And Io: terraformed.