Helionox: Tales from the Systems End – The Tears of Icarus Part 2: Perdition’s Wake By T M Romanelli Lysirah dreamed. They had been told about the strange imagery encountered in cryosleep, an effect of altered cortical processes during suspended animation. She found herself moving effortlessly through a deep blue ocean, awash with specks of bioluminescence that were the stars carried on a cosmic current. The horizon was endless, and…
Read MoreThe Tears of Icarus – Part One
Helionox: Tales from the Systems End – The Tears of Icarus Part 1: The Child of Alhambra By T M Romanelli They called it Cypress Station, and like many other outposts sprinkled throughout the Inner Belt, no one could claim with certainty how this moniker had been acquired. The facility was a modified Bernal habitat anchored to the carbonaceous mantle of 884 Priamus, a small planetoid among the Trojan cluster…
Read MorePlans Within Plans
Helionox: Tales from the Systems End Plans Within Plans By Taran Lewis Kratz Day 1 Chain, the First Born listened to his Mother. Thirty seven seconds old and he knew more than most humans could know in a lifetime. He knew that he was not one of them. He knew he was born to be among them and some day to lead them but he had never been, or ever…
Read MoreThe Secret Pilgrim Part Two
Helionox: Tales from the Systems End – The Secret Pilgrim Part Two: The Endless Iteration By T M Romanelli Tethered to the base of one of Hyperion’s large craters, the vessel sat motionless after the extension of a small drilling rig to mine ice for hydroconversion, like some enormous Drosophila. The crater bottom teemed with plentiful hydrocarbon chains that could be used to replenish some of the vessel’s basic consumables.…
Read MoreThe Secret Pilgrim Part One
Helionox: Tales from the Systems End – The Secret Pilgrim Part One: Sub Rosa By T M Romanelli Pleida had dedicated her considerable wealth and influence to finally gather all of the necessary resources in one place for the completion of her latest endeavor. Accustomed to planning decades in advance, she had on more than one occasion accelerated the adoption of a new technology rather than wait for its plodding…
Read More