Summer landed the shuttle on the empty planet’s icy equator. “Good luck with that worthless ice-ball,” the Explorers’ Union had said.
Summer smiled. Then she drank a cup of tea. Then she woke the Terraform Drake.
He growled, uncoiling a titanium tail. His blood ran liquid nitrogen and his fusion heart throbbed with the power of a star. She’d raised him from an egg she designed herself.
She sang him a code-sonnet, last minute instructions. Terra-Drake launched himself.
Five years later he returned, Summer’s dragon, spent and victorious. He napped while she sat in sunshine and sang another code-sonnet, sleepy-shutdown.
Author bio: Julia Reynolds is a writer in Austin, Texas. She is an alumna of the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop and a member of the Cryptopolis writing group.
Terra-Drake is part of 101 Fiction issue 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment