text: > Page 2
  Your dream is to land a posting on one of the big Starships, like the Orion or the Southern Cross. That's the only way you really get to see all the exotic worlds and the far star clusters! But those assignments are all highly competitive, and to land one you first need lots of experience.
  
  But how can you gain that experience when they put you on a transport ship that only goes to the same few places over and over again? This ship doesn't even have a name, just a designation: EWR210819. Your biggest responsibility on this voyage is watching after Easa and her older brother Yigaro--who prefers to be called Yiggy. Their father is a commander at Ishtria, and they'll be home the day after tomorrow, when your ship pulls into the spaceport.
  
  You've spent much of the last day playing space games with them, many involving a model of the transport vessel you're on: a long needle-like hull with a ring surrounding the aft, anchored to the hull by four pylons. At the end of each pylon is one of the hyperspace field generators that permit your faster-than-light travel.
  
  But right now you don't even have Easa and Yiggy to worry about, because they've been busy coloring with another one of the passengers, Dionysya Andrade, a newly promoted lieutenant commander on her way to serve as the communications officer aboard the Orion. Commander Andrade probably suspected you needed the break, or maybe the Belson kids reminded her of her own son when he was that age. But it's not like you had any other pressing duties to perform; sometimes you think this little ship would run just fine without you.
  
  Back home on Usul your family grows gava rice on a small farm on the Elliott River Delta. Your parents and your older brother seemed content with that lifestyle and were remarkably uncurious about the world around them, let alone the galaxy. Not you, though; you craved challenges and adventure, so as soon as you were old enough you enlisted in the Astral Navy.
  
  But look where it has gotten you. Even here no one seems to find you suitable for more than the most basic tasks.
  
  > Page 6
  Then, unexpectedly, you feel the ship slowing. Outside the viewports the tunnel of clouds fades away, revealing an ordinary star field in a black sky. There is an unfamiliar brown planet very close by, and indeed you can tell that the ship is heading into orbit around it.
  
  This is odd, because there were no scheduled stops until the star base. That's when you hear your name on the ship's comm. It's Captain Siggo, the commander of this vessel.
  
  "How's the situation with the Belson kids?" he asks.
  
  "Fine," you reply. "Right now they're coloring with Commander Andrade."
  
  "Perfect. Can you come up to the bridge for a moment?"
  
  You really like Siggo, although you have a hard time figuring him out. You know he has years of experience in the service, and once even served as a bridge officer aboard the Starship Draco. But that just baffles you all the more, because why would such a person choose an assignment on a routine transport run such as this? He'll never give you a straight answer to that question, and he has a habit of changing a conversation by singing a few lyrics from one of his favorite songs.
  
  The bridge of the transport ship is nothing like on a Starship. It's small and cramped, with stations for just two people. Normally it would be just Siggo and Lieutenant Hatuso manning the controls, although when you arrive right now the captain is by himself.
  
  "Ah, Starman," he says, calling you by your rank. "So here's the situation. Our link with Ishtria went dead a moment ago, so we think there is a malfunction with the communications array on the dorsal pylon. Lieutenant Hatuso and Chief Indrian are suiting up for a spacewalk to see what's going on, because I don't like flying in the blind. I parked us here in the glow of this little dusty world called Giri Minor because we were in the neighborhood and I thought the light would help them with their work."
  
  "I see," you say.
  
  He continues. "I know you want more experience so you can get transferred off this boring transport run as quickly as possible. So do you want to suit up with Hatuso and Indrian, or man the helm here with me?"
  
  > If you go on the spacewalk to assist in the repairs, turn to page 30.
  An opportunity to go on a spacewalk outside the ship! How could that not be an exciting break in an otherwise routine day?
  
  "Well don't have too much fun that you forget to come back in," Siggo says. The last you see him as you bolt down the stairs toward the lower deck, he is turning back toward his control panel singing,
  
  Some days you get the sun, others it's just the moon
  
  If life's not spent having fun, it's over too soon.
  
  > Page 31
  Lieutenant Mori Hatuso and Petty Officer Tira Indrian are your other two crew mates. You find them in the staging area leading to the airlock, preparing their tools before stepping into their EV suits.
  
  "I see the captain is giving you a break from babysitting," Hatuso says. The lieutenant is another person you can't quite get a handle on, perhaps even less so than Captain Siggo. You get the distinct impression he intentionally keeps you at arms length, like you're just the latest in a long line of young recruits he's had to deal with.
  
  Chief Indrian, on the other hand, is far more personable. She is a young career-minded non-com, with a long and ambitious list of goals and plans; everybody she meets she treats like a potential ally.
  
  "Is this your first walk?" she asks.
  
  "I've logged tons of hours in the simulator," you say.
  
  "Well this will be just a training walk for you," she says. "The lieutenant and I will be doing the repairs."
  
  "I'll be happy to do whatever you need me to do," you say.
  
  "This is your first walk, so just enjoy the ride."
  
  "Just don't enjoy it too much," Hatuso says with a wink, "or you'll be cleaning up the mess inside your suit, if you know what I mean."
  
  > Page 32
  Indrian points you to the locker where the EV suits are kept and says, "Well, it's time to suit up."
  
  You select a suit in your size and step in, and it automatically closes around you. Then you grab a helmet and click it into place around your head; a green light on the forward display indicates that the life support system is ready to go.
  
  "You did that like a pro!" Indrian says.
  
  You turn to see that she and Hatuso are fully suited, too. As you enter the airlock a FabBot that had been parked in the corner follows you inside. The inner door closes behind you, and you see Indrian reaching for what looks like a hook on the wall. She pulls on it and a cable unreels from a hidden spool. Then she hooks the tether to her EV suit. "I like knowing I have that connection with the ship," she explains.
  
  You notice that Hatuso has not bothered to tether himself. "Flying free is the only way to go, Starman!" he proclaims with a whoop.
  
  Maybe, you think, but you agree with Chief Indrian and attach one of the tethers to your suit.
  
  Lieutenant Hatuso operates the controls that depressurize the airlock, and then he opens the outer hatch, revealing the infinite, starry expanse of space beyond. He boldly thrusts his way up and out of sight, like someone who has done this many times before.
  
  > Page 33
  That leaves you, Chief Indrian, and the FabBot. "Are you ready?" she asks, but without waiting for an answer she leaps upward from the edge, in the same direction as Hatuso.
  
  How hard can this be? The holographic simulation seemed so realistic when you were training, but now that you are faced with the very real need to leap into the void you find yourself uncertain about your resolve. You close your eyes, remind yourself that fear will get you nowhere, and shove off gently with your legs.
  
  Once you are drifting a few meters out from the hull and nothing bad has happened, your confidence comes back. "Just like an expert!" Indrian says over the comm. She is giving you a thumbs up sign. You can't see her face, but you can tell from her voice that she's smiling.
  
  "I love a good spacewalk in the morning!" Hatuso says. He is well ahead of you and Indrian, thrusting his way in controlled bursts toward the base of the dorsal pylon, which looks a little like the blade of a fan that has been turned off. It rises above the main hull from a point just behind the passenger cabin.
  
  As you, Indrian, and the FabBot follow in slow pursuit, you circle around the curve of the hull and past one of the viewports. Most of the passengers have stopped what they're doing to watch the proceedings outside the ship, including Yiggy and Easa. You can tell they're scrutinizing all three people drifting past the window to see which astronaut is you, so you give them a wave. They don't see it at first, but when Commander Andrade points you out to them, the two kids wave back.
  
  "I think our problem might be bigger than we thought," Hatuso says on the comm.
  
  "Oh?" Siggo says. "Please explain, Lieutenant."
  
  "Well sir, there's a hole in the comm array on the dorsal pylon," Hatuso replies. "Not a big one, but something the size of a peanut shot clean through."
  
  "Can you repair it?" the captain asks.
  
  "Should just take a few minutes, sir."
  
  > Page 129
  When you and Indrian catch up, Hatuso has the housing for the comm array mostly taken apart. You watch as your crew mates examine the damaged system, which the ship needs in order to keep in constant contact with a network of interstellar relays by means of a hyperspace signal.
  
  Indrian points to a component and says, "This relay here overloaded and caused our initial failure, I think, but that puncture is something else. That looks like it occurred since we've entered orbit."
  
  "Keep me posted on your status," Siggo says. "All I need is to reestablish a signal with Ishtria, and then we can be on our way."
  
  "Understood," Indrian says.
  
  "Captain, while the chief is working on the array, I want to take a quick visual inspection of the rest of the ship," Hatuso says. "If there are microasteroids in orbit around Giri Minor, there may be damage to other parts of the ship."
  
  "That sounds like a good idea," the captain agrees. Hatuso then thrusts away over the starboard side of the ship without another word.
  
  > Page 7
  So far you have just been an observer in all of this, and your mind has been wandering ever since Hatuso mentioned Giri Minor. The planet is directly above you, an unremarkable brown world with dusty-looking clouds and what appear to be dried-up lakes. You know you've heard the name before, but where? That's it: history class!
  
  "Correct me if I'm wrong," you say, "but isn't Giri Minor the site of that abandoned colony from 200 years ago?"
  
  "Maybe," Indrian says. "History never was my strong suit."
  
  "Yeah, I'm sure of it," you say. "A group of outcasts from Old Earth tried to settle here, but not long after they arrived a large interstellar object collided with one of the moons, and the shift in gravity tilted the planet and caused an environmental disaster. When rescue crews came to evacuate the survivors, the people had gone mad and tried to take over the starship."
  
  "Well aren't you just the professor!" Siggo says, and then he sings,
  
  The mountains of Tyuu
  
  And the ocean of Kaitoo
  
  Will never keep me from loving you-uu!
  
  Something must be making him uneasy, because that's another reason why he often sings.
  
  "Professor," he says, meaning you. "Can you do me a favor?"
  
  "Sure," you say.
  
  > Page 64
  "I'm not getting any signal from the lieutenant," Siggo says. "Can you take a quick recon and tell me if you can make visual contact?"
  
  "Will do," you say.
  
  Indrian is busy making spare parts for the comm array with the help of the FabBot, so you thrust away first to the starboard side, and then to port. You see no sign of Hatuso, but what you do see is shocking: the port hyperspace field generator has been sliced open! You report your findings over the comm.
  
  "Chief! Professor! Both of you get back in here now!" Siggo says with an uncharacteristic amount of urgency.
  
  "Sir? I'm confused," Indrian says. "Shouldn't we assess the field generator first? We have no comm relay yet, and with no generator we won't be leaving the system. If it's just another puncture from a small hunk of moon debris or whatever, I can repair that in a few minutes."
  
  "I really think you guys ought to come in," Siggo says.
  
  > If you hurry to assess and repair the port field generator so the transport ship can zip out of orbit, turn to page 8
  "I don't want to disobey an order from the captain," you say to Indrian, "but no one is going to repair that field generator from inside the ship."
  
  "I agree," she says. "I'm going to need Hatuso's help when he gets back to finish repairing this comm array, so in the meantime let's go take a look at the generator."
  
  Siggo, of course, has overheard this exchange. "This is your call," he says, "but you should know that I'm picking up some strange readings on the scanner. I'm preparing to fire up the thrusters in the event we need to break orbit in a hurry. It's up to you whether or not the two of you are on board the ship when that happens."
  
  "Understood sir," Indrian responds.
  
  > Page 9
  With the FabBot following obediently behind, the two of you strike off around the hull toward the port pylon, which is nearly identical to the dorsal pylon except that this one has no comm array. The gash along the field generator at its tip is evident from far away. As you approach it, you keep looking in all directions for Hatuso, but there is no sign of him, nor has he responded to any of the comm chatter.
  
  But wait--was that a tiny asteroid that just zipped by you? It streaked by so fast that you aren't sure you didn't imagine it.
  
  "Well the good news is I think the damage here is superficial," Indrian says as you approach the generator. "I'm going to need your help getting this panel off so I can inspect the inside and see if there's any more damage there."
  
  As she loosens the bolts holding the panel in place, you notice another streaking object--and then another. Indrian is too absorbed in her work to notice. "Oh, this will be easy. These nodes got clipped by something, but the FabBot can spit those out like there's no tomorrow."
  
  Just then you sense a vibration in the pylon, and you turn to see that the thrusters are starting to fire. You look toward the planet, and you see what appears to be a swarm of objects sharing your orbit--and headed your way!
  
  "This will just take a minute," Indrian says, but she hasn't seen what you've just seen. Maybe you have time to complete the repair, but it's hard to judge how fast that cloud of asteroids is approaching you.
  
  > If you risk your safety to complete the generator repair, turn to page 41.
  "Look," Siggo says over the comm, "I appreciate the determination you two are showing, I really do, but I can't risk the lives of everyone else."
  
  "Captain, this will only take a minute!" Indrian protests, but now objects are starting to whiz past you at a much faster rate. It looks like hail, but these are actually rocks traveling at a deadly speed--and they are getting bigger by the second. They are starting to pelt the ship now, and while the hull was designed to withstand debris impacts, even the byrillium shielding will be shredded by a full-on shower of speeding asteroids.
  
  The pylon lurches away from you and Indrian as the thrusters do their work, and for the first time you realize just how terribly dire your situation really is. You are still tethered to the ship, but the airlock is some 80 meters away, and the two of you are both fully exposed to the full brunt of the approaching asteroid cloud. Are these rocks the remains of Giri Minor's exploded moon? Does it even matter at this point?
  
  The FabBot gets nailed by one of the speeding rocks and is flung off into space, so you an Indrian grab your tethers and start to pull your way back toward the airlock. But in purely mathematical terms, you know the odds of you successfully making it that far are pretty close to zero.