(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued)

The sun slid down the turquoise sky until it kissed the ocean and sank beneath the waves, spreading its red-orange glow in a wide line across the horizon and lighting up the last retreating clouds from the morning’s storm. Would there be a green flash, Anna wondered? And if there was, would she even notice it against an already green-hued sky?

She lay back on a pile of sacks, if not of burlap then she could not tell the difference, though she had no idea what filled them. A little scratchy, but relatively comfortable. After another examination, and tighter wrappings, Laxmi gave her strict orders to remain still, not to move at all, and Anna was quite happy to comply. The pain now reached all around her midriff, but as long as she didn’t do more than barely lift her arm it remained manageable. The avians seemed to understand that she was injured, so they became quite accommodating. From her position she had a good view over the starboard side of the boat, and with the enforced lounging she had nothing better to do than watch the sunset, and think.

After the initial unpleasantness, the avians treated them both well, even courteously. Perhaps they felt contrite after sinking the raft?

Read more at

Sea Dreams

Things just keep getting worse and worse for our hapless heroes. Just when they think they’re making progress, they finally meet the aliens of Kepler 62f, and the aliens promptly sink their boat.

That’s one way to welcome visitors to your planet, I suppose.

The avian-like aliens do, however, “rescue” Anna and Laxmi, who are now guests — or prisoners, the difference seems rather minor — on their vessel, having lost almost everything. Where will they go from here? What will they eat? Can humans even eat avian food? That remains to be seen.

Read on! And do drop me a comment if you like what you read. Or even if you don’t.

header image credit: user:Walkerssk / pixabay.com under Pixabay License