The Frozen Sky by Jeff Carlson

The Frozen Sky is a fantastic sci-fi short story by Jeff Carlson, freely available as an audiobook through StarShip Sofa at this address.

Even now she didn’t want to fight. They were beautiful in their way, the amphibians — quick little starfish rippling with muscle. Rippling with ideas. They’d outmaneuvered her twice and more than anything what she felt was regret. She could have done better. She should have waited, instead of letting her ego make the decision [...]

Both eyes were damaged but she’d elected to deal with one at a time in case something went wrong, in case the nanotech needed to scavenge one to fix the other. Lam’s idea. He’d also agreed that her helmet would retain integrity if she broke off the gear block completely and stripped it for parts. What else would he have tried?

The plastisteel of her suit should contain all sound but there was another risk in talking, a risk she ignored just to be with someone even for a moment. Even a ghost.

“You still there?” she whispered.
–Von, listen, don’t close me down again, please.

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Author: Regular Expression, for AZ10.com ~ 18 Aug 2009

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