She often did not even sleep with a blanket, and she certainly never slept longer than six hours, much less twelve. Somehow, someway, she felt amazingly refreshed. That was all she knew. Coal sighed, punctuated by a cough, and rolled onto her side, slinging one arm forward and accidentally striki...
Her dreams were fitful and convoluted, a labyrinth of clockwork trees overgrown in strangely soft green tendrils. She flew above Old Earth, its patches of mist giving way to deep purple bogs, the movement of its shadows like ripples on the surface of unknown waters. And the dome. Who lived in the...
Inside were already five crates, one stack. It was waiting, but not for them. It was locked. Coal 106 advanced on the crowd of workers who had already arrived, not so hampered by Venus fly traps as she, all pounding on the doors as if this would shatter them. They swore at...