Damien closed contact, then sat in the armchair at the center of the room to wait. The ship was nearing the end of the waking cycle. All throughout its myriad passages and doorways, Covenant prepared for the night. If he strained his senses, Damien imagined he could feel the thrum of activity passing through the metal walls around him, hear the shuffling feet, doorways closing against the light of waking.

He opened his eyes. The world was blurred, but undoubtedly real—he was aboard Covenant again. All around him were slight details that he had not noticed before, but which now glared at him from seemingly every surface—minute imperfections that somehow suggested reality.

Morning came in a haze of memories from the night before. Leon savored the feeling of relaxation that blanketed his mind, the way his bed seemed to embrace his body in a comfort he never wanted to leave, the warmth of Elle beside him. He glanced at the clock face set into the opposite wall—it... Continue Reading →

Elle could hardly breathe as her eyes drank in the blue lines like so many delicate veins branching across a bare arm. They reminded her with striking fierceness of the etchings on the surface of the sphere itself. Here, they were surrounded by black stretches indicating land, as well vast black deserts...

Leon’s quarters were dim, but enough light bled from the edges of the table at the center of the room to see Damien’s face, his eyes closed as he approached the world within the sphere. Only a few seconds passed before the sphere fell from his hands onto the table. He looked up into Leon and Lena’s waiting faces, their unspoken question the same, hovering on their lips.