Spent the day almost entirely in silence; I needed that, to spend some time mostly with my own thoughts. Made good progress on revisions to what I think is going to be a novelette, a prequel story to The Stars Change, set a few years earlier, I think? 14,650 words so far — next step is drafting the rest of the story, which I think I should be able to finish by the time I get home on Thursday, if I’m diligent.
I may succumb to the temptation to do a little shopping in artsy downtown Santa Fe, and have a nice lunch, and George may want to hang out in the evening — well, we’ll see.
Still good to be back in motion on this piece, which I last worked on months ago. I battled the demons of procrastination and was victorious! All the swords George has around this place probably helped. 🙂
“You’re late.” A harsh voice from the left bunk, and Selah looked up to find two eyes peering back at her, set in a small, furry face. She ought to be able to name this species – she’d definitely seen them on her last trading visit to a planet. But this one looked so much like her battered teddy bear – which had passed down through nine generations of family, and been re-made so many times since its origin on Old Earth that it probably had nothing left of the original bear – all Selah could think was “Teddy bear!” Which was not helpful.
Selah said, “I’m sorry? I didn’t think there was a check-in time for the dorms.”
They shook their furry head. “No – late for classes. I saw your schedule; you’re supposed to be in advanced music composition right now. Professor Marwenn is going to be furious. Nice start to your college career, genius.”
For a moment, Selah felt like she couldn’t breathe. Which was ridiculous – the air under the dome was perfect for human comfort, much richer than the thin air outside the dome. It would be decades before Kriti was completely terraformed, but she should be able to breathe just fine in here. “No, that can’t be right. Classes don’t start for two more days. I checked the calendar!” Why was the teddy bear being so mean??
They snorted derisively. “You didn’t check it carefully enough.” A pause, followed by the smallest of courtesies, “Maybe your ship was set to something other than Old Earth Standard? Even small deviations can add up over time. The nav system should have compensated for that, though.” They shrugged. “It was probably just you being stupid.”
Sweat broke out on Selah’s forehead. Maybe it was too small in this room after all. “Our system’s overdue for upgrade. My mom’s been complaining about it for months, trying to get my dads to prioritize the upgrades, but there’s always something else breaking that’s more critical…”
“Idiots.” The teddy bear snorted with disdain and rolled over in the bed to face the wall. “You’d better dump your bag and run, or you’re going to miss class completely.”
“But I don’t know where to go!” Selah had to fight to keep that from coming out as a wail.
They didn’t bother to roll back, but their voice was clear enough: “Didn’t you look at a map before you got here? There’s one on your school-issued tablet, but if you haven’t oriented yourself yet, don’t take the time now. You’re lucky the Tower of Art is the next building over. Giant violet steel structure, you can’t miss it. Go!”
