Icarus Beach: a teaser
Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:19 pm
As Kazo plummeted towards the heart of the doomed star, she thought of what Apilak had told her:
Love, Apilak had said, is no more eternal than the stars. It may burn slow and steady for a long time and then gradually shrink away, or it may burn bright and hot for a brief period, only to end spectacularly.
Like a supernova? Kazo had said, her voice sharp with sarcasm.
Apilak laughed. Of course! And then Apilak added softly, But those are cynical words. We live in the light of ephemeral suns, Kazo. We all need that light.
Now, falling, Kazo felt only darkness.
#
In the dark of her cabin, when Majnu had touched her, Kazo had felt the searing heat of desire; the dark swirled around their bodies, but inside, beneath her skin, in her lungs and her thighs and her head, heat and light roared and filled her.
They met shortly before the supernova, in preparation for the rare tarindhu celebration of rebirth. Once or twice a century, when a massive star ripens to death, a few hundred thousand of the galaxy’s most devoted, superrich tarindhus gather to witness the explosion that destroys the star while simultaneously reseeding the starlanes with heavy elements. Of those devotees, maybe a thousand will descend into the heart of the star and ride the shock wave. A third perish, the most honored of deaths. And to survive—survival heralds the rise of a family’s fortunes, both material and spiritual.
Although she had never been through a supernova, Nagaan Kazo had had many adventures in her young life. The Nagaan family—Kazo, her older sister Kumko, and their mother Haisho—worked as guides aboard the starcraft Umialik, hired by the superrich to tour extreme environments of the galaxy.
Apilak, the owner and captain of the Umialik, was a genius at spinning knotted anomalies into brane-shifted blisters, best in all the galaxy. She never lacked customers.
When word spread that the star Maishaitan was nearly ripe, Apilak put the services of her ship out to bid. She won a contract with old Samraatju Rajraan, to carry him and his third brood of children to the supernova. The Samraatju owned a flock of moons that manufactured knotted anomalies. Apilak’s price: sufficient knotted anomalies to fling the Umialik across the galaxy and back a hundred times.
Nagaan Haisho, Kazo’s mother, did not reveal her price.
Love, Apilak had said, is no more eternal than the stars. It may burn slow and steady for a long time and then gradually shrink away, or it may burn bright and hot for a brief period, only to end spectacularly.
Like a supernova? Kazo had said, her voice sharp with sarcasm.
Apilak laughed. Of course! And then Apilak added softly, But those are cynical words. We live in the light of ephemeral suns, Kazo. We all need that light.
Now, falling, Kazo felt only darkness.
#
In the dark of her cabin, when Majnu had touched her, Kazo had felt the searing heat of desire; the dark swirled around their bodies, but inside, beneath her skin, in her lungs and her thighs and her head, heat and light roared and filled her.
They met shortly before the supernova, in preparation for the rare tarindhu celebration of rebirth. Once or twice a century, when a massive star ripens to death, a few hundred thousand of the galaxy’s most devoted, superrich tarindhus gather to witness the explosion that destroys the star while simultaneously reseeding the starlanes with heavy elements. Of those devotees, maybe a thousand will descend into the heart of the star and ride the shock wave. A third perish, the most honored of deaths. And to survive—survival heralds the rise of a family’s fortunes, both material and spiritual.
Although she had never been through a supernova, Nagaan Kazo had had many adventures in her young life. The Nagaan family—Kazo, her older sister Kumko, and their mother Haisho—worked as guides aboard the starcraft Umialik, hired by the superrich to tour extreme environments of the galaxy.
Apilak, the owner and captain of the Umialik, was a genius at spinning knotted anomalies into brane-shifted blisters, best in all the galaxy. She never lacked customers.
When word spread that the star Maishaitan was nearly ripe, Apilak put the services of her ship out to bid. She won a contract with old Samraatju Rajraan, to carry him and his third brood of children to the supernova. The Samraatju owned a flock of moons that manufactured knotted anomalies. Apilak’s price: sufficient knotted anomalies to fling the Umialik across the galaxy and back a hundred times.
Nagaan Haisho, Kazo’s mother, did not reveal her price.
In only the space of a few papagraphs, you've crafted the background of several three-dimensional characters and offered highly convincing glimpses of their lives, who they are and the ways in which they interact. More than that, you present a look at a multi-faceted, completely original universe that engages the imagination on more than one level. The brevity of the introduction shared here somehow makes it all the more effective, even as it draws the reader in and sparks a desire to know more.