Skye Object 3270a Read Online Free Page A

vessel that was not of their own kind.
    No one knew for sure why Skye was in the lifeboat, but everyone could guess. She had probably been born on a great ship, like a self-contained city tower faring across the sky, carrying human passengers on a hundred year voyage from one star to another. A great ship was an irresistible target for a prowling Chenzeme warship. When it seemed certain they would come under the warship’s guns, Skye’s parents must have put her aboard a lifeboat.
    As the lifeboats were ejected, most of them would have been spotted and destroyed by the Chenzeme pursuer—but at least one had escaped, to drift ( for how many centuries? ) until it encountered the nebula that sheltered Deception Well, and its star, called Kheth.
    I can’t be the only survivor.
    City Authority didn’t agree. “It’s a miracle even you made it here,” they told her, over and over again.
    She stared into the darkness beyond the city. The glare of sunlight on the elevator column was so bright she could not see any stars, only the silvery tower of the column rising, rising as if to infinity, dwindling finally to a thread as it disappeared from sight.
    The Silkens had never looked very hard for other lifeboats. Maybe they just didn’t want to find them.

Chapter 3
    â€œS top sulking,” Zia said, as they sipped an icy slush at a balcony table. It was near-noon, and the grand walk was crowded with lunch time throngs.
    Skye leaned back in her chair, turning her face to a cool breeze that swept up the city’s slope. Like Zia, she had changed from her skin suit into shorts and a light shirt. “I’m not sulking.”
    Zia scowled. “So what do you call this? Celebrating? You haven’t stopped brooding since the crawl cart picked us up.”
    Skye had stood at the crawl cart’s railing, her gaze fixed on the brilliant white clouds so far below, and the crystal blue of the ocean. She had hardly heard the congratulations of the other jumpers who climbed aboard the cart as it worked its way back up to the city. She’d been happy to see Ord, though. The little robot had met them at the gate, looking no worse for its encounter with Buyu. Its tentacles had wrapped happily around Skye’s wrist. Now it lurked under the table. Skye felt Ord’s gentle, reassuring taps against her ankle, but she was not comforted.
    â€œI’m not brooding,” she said after a minute. “I’m just . . . thinking.”
    â€œSo stop it. It’s not good for you.”
    Skye smiled. “Careful,” she said, “or I’m going to start confusing you with Buyu.”
    Zia took a mock swipe at her head. Skye ducked, and one of the drinks almost went over. A woman at the next table gave them a sour look. Zia shrugged and picked up her slush. Then she leaned back, resting her knees against the railing. “Let’s go over this one more time. That which went flash was a fragment of the swan burster, just like I said. City Authority had been tracking it for years. There was an announcement in the media this morning, predicting today’s lightshow, and if we hadn’t been so caught up in our jump, we might have heard about it. So that which went flash was not a lifeboat, so cheer up.”
    â€œThere could be lifeboats out there,” Skye said.
    Zia started breathing heavily, her teeth gritted in cartoon rage, but she stopped fast when a couple of ado boys came by their table to offer congratulations. Zia chatted them up, while Skye leaned on the balcony rail, gazing down at the long slope of the cone-shaped city.
    Silk hung on the elevator cable like a bead on a string—or maybe like a cone-shaped mountain with the thread of the elevator cable running through its core. At 300 kilometers above Deception Well, it was far beyond the atmosphere, yet all the houses, apartment buildings, parks, and walkways were on the outside slopes. People could live in the