IDEA GhettoEverything started to change when they dragged him in from the sandstorm. He wore a hot-colored jumpsuit, a color I didn't know the word for, that was bright and blinding to us. Everyone in the IDEA Ghetto was compelled to stare, but we could only look so long before the color strained our eyes and we had to look away, as if we were looking at the desert Sun.The guards, who all wore blue jumpsuits and goggles just like ours, took him from our sight as quickly as possible. This was highly unorthodox, disruptive to our schedules, and heretical to all our teachings, and some of my Brothers and Sisters seemed clearly unsettled by this intrusion
Liberty 314B Part II: BraidsThe carnival was set up on an old-fashioned launch pad, the kind they used back on the Homeworld to launch the original NASA shuttles in the twentieth century. Back then, there needed to be miles and miles of secured acreage around the pad itself so that no one got burned up by the initial blast that was needed to launch a shuttle into outer space. After the United States dismantled the space program, space travel was slowly privatized and related technologies progressed much more rapidly than before. Lamp was a little confused about why any of the colonies would even have a launch area like this one, since the first colonies were built twent
Liberty 314B Pt. I: TanglesSpirits were high in response to news that an Intercolonial Carnival had arrived at Liberty 314B that week. The orphans didn't have enough credits between them for the entrance fee, let alone for rides and food, but with Hans arriving that afternoon, they knew he would be coming with a plan. Lamp was waiting patiently with them, but he was not quite as enthused, his mind on other matters.He sighed, gazing up at the Homeworld.As the sun set on the horizon out beyond the shuttle docks, the sky turned a pale red and the Earth glowed above his head, a waning blue-green half-crescent just beyond the synthetic atmosphere. The sight of Earth fro
The Honesty of a CorpseMy mom had tried to dissuade me from coming. "Oh honey, it smells and it's all just so grody... she's all maggots and the buzzards have gotten to her...""I'm sure I can handle it," I told her. "I just want to see her one last time. I'll be fine."It took me about a week after I had heard the news to find a ride home. It was the summer before my final semester of college, and I could barely afford groceries, let alone a bus ticket across the state. I didn't go home very often, so until my mom sent out the e-mail letting everyone know the beloved family pony had passed, I had only been returning for holidays. But when I did visit, I would al