The two explorers gazed entranced at the mountain above, enveloped by the silence. This world's sun shone in the deep turquoise sky giving an overwhelming richness to the golden grasses, tiny flowers, tussocks of a silvery plant like powdered lace dotted everywhere. They stretched endlessly, rise after rise, culminating at last in the great gray shoulders of a central peak crowned by glittering ice. Following the splashy path of the ravine's brook, they bent and scrambled through the living tunnel, then broke into the open air.Ī morning breeze was ribboning away the last of the fog on the golden uplands. The gravity of this planet was slightly lower than their home world of Beta Colony, but it did not quite make up for the physiological strain imposed by the thin mountain air.ĭenser vegetation marked the upper boundary of the forest patch. Their next survey area would definitely be at a lower altitude. She pushed a long tendril of fog-dampened copper hair out of her eyes, clawing it impatiently toward the clasp at the nape of her neck.

On the high ridges the fog showed brighter as the morning sun began to warm and lift the moisture, although in the ravine a cool, soundless dimness still counterfeited a predawn twilight.Ĭommander Cordelia Naismith glanced at her team botanist and adjusted the straps of her biological collecting equipment a bit more comfortably before continuing her breathless climb.

Cover design by Passageway Pictures, Inc.Ī sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest-soft, gray, luminescent.

Shards of honour