| Author: | Emily Dickinson | ISBN: | 9781311060617 |
| Publisher: | Emily Dickinson | Publication: | June 1, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords | Language: | English |
| Author: | Emily Dickinson |
| ISBN: | 9781311060617 |
| Publisher: | Emily Dickinson |
| Publication: | June 1, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords |
| Language: | English |
The colony's new Hawking-class pulse turrets were a sight to behold, if one was into that sort of thing. John “Echo” Edwin was, most certainly, into that sort of thing; there was even a little bit of a romantic in the Redrum Laires colony's chief maintenance engineer. He liked to wake up early on a weekend morning, find a high perch on the wooded bluff overlooking the colony's steel and discreet installations, and watch the Laires' system's small, blue-white sun rise over a vista comprised of starkly beautiful, granite-heavy cliffs and defensive towers three and five. It was pure coincidence that the towers reflected the myriad colors of sunrise back in a prism-like vista across the colony's main square—also, that it was the pollutants resulting from the terraforming process that had allowed for such colors in the sky to begin with—but John liked to think that it was all meant to be; he'd grown up on the fringes of space in an Alliance research vessel, but here he actually felt somewhat at home, as though the colony had managed to fill an emptiness inside of him which he had never known existed.
I probably wouldn't find this combination of people and amenities in any 'natural' community, any town or city that's grown into itself over the course of centuries; when the morning sun struck his face head-on, forcing him to close his eyes even behind his visor, it was hard for him to resist the temptation to pause in reflection. It really is something; like this place was built just for me. Hired me on the spot, too, despite my record—I can't thank the Lieutenant enough. And he couldn't, as he reminded her regularly; Lieutenant Ashley Williams had recommended John for the post after going over the dossiers submitted on behalf of half a dozen applicants: those were as many as reached this far in the hiring process. The Alliance, for all its subsequent disregard of their more far-flung colonies, wanted only the best and the brightest of candidates in charge of the various fields in which upkeep was a routine matter.
The colony's new Hawking-class pulse turrets were a sight to behold, if one was into that sort of thing. John “Echo” Edwin was, most certainly, into that sort of thing; there was even a little bit of a romantic in the Redrum Laires colony's chief maintenance engineer. He liked to wake up early on a weekend morning, find a high perch on the wooded bluff overlooking the colony's steel and discreet installations, and watch the Laires' system's small, blue-white sun rise over a vista comprised of starkly beautiful, granite-heavy cliffs and defensive towers three and five. It was pure coincidence that the towers reflected the myriad colors of sunrise back in a prism-like vista across the colony's main square—also, that it was the pollutants resulting from the terraforming process that had allowed for such colors in the sky to begin with—but John liked to think that it was all meant to be; he'd grown up on the fringes of space in an Alliance research vessel, but here he actually felt somewhat at home, as though the colony had managed to fill an emptiness inside of him which he had never known existed.
I probably wouldn't find this combination of people and amenities in any 'natural' community, any town or city that's grown into itself over the course of centuries; when the morning sun struck his face head-on, forcing him to close his eyes even behind his visor, it was hard for him to resist the temptation to pause in reflection. It really is something; like this place was built just for me. Hired me on the spot, too, despite my record—I can't thank the Lieutenant enough. And he couldn't, as he reminded her regularly; Lieutenant Ashley Williams had recommended John for the post after going over the dossiers submitted on behalf of half a dozen applicants: those were as many as reached this far in the hiring process. The Alliance, for all its subsequent disregard of their more far-flung colonies, wanted only the best and the brightest of candidates in charge of the various fields in which upkeep was a routine matter.
