Open Chapter One

Chapter One

The Korsian ambassador, Levas, looks down his glasses at me. He’s not actually Korsian, I’ve never seen a real Korsian before. He’s from Rith or some other old world. But he seems a terribly loyal man. The Korsians are lucky to have him. I don’t tell him that. This is one of the rare occasions where I am the face of the battalion. Brance sits beside me. He usually lets me do the talking when we meet with Levas. Says Levas is nicer to me.

“We have our wars,” Levas says, gently, “but, as always, Korsian forces do not intend to leave Kors. None of the potentates even possess spaceworthy weapons.”

The higher-ups are always asking me about Korsian military intentions. If I can give them an answer straight from Levas, they’ll be happier.

There are legends about the people of Kors, before they disappeared behind the wall of the Treaty. Legends and rumors that tell of strange weapons, ghostly swords of vapor, terrifying soldiers fighting with no compassion. I’ve grown up hearing stories like

Open Chapter Two

Chapter Two

My mother wakes me in the morning, gently brushing my hair with her fingers. I’ve been sleeping at the kitchen table, head slumped forward on the cold granite.

“What time is it?” I ask her.

“Only yet five,” she says back to me, whispering, calm. Hail hammers the rounded window. It still looks like midnight out there. It looks like space.

My mother puts a mug of black coffee on the table and sits down across from me with her own. The coffee is gloriously hot. The room feels cozy, illuminated and gentle while the cold rages outside. Home is better than anything.

“You must be tired,” she says. I smile.

“How’d you guess?”

She sips her coffee and hums softy to herself. It’s the song she used to sing to me every night. It is stupid of me, but the words bring tears to my eyes. 

...Even though you

Are all alone

You'll stay strong

My light, my own...

Because I’m not strong, I don’t stay strong. I have fought wars, destroyed cities with my own hands. I’ve flown

Open Chapter Three

Chapter Three

There is something visceral about controlling a ship as vast as a stonefrigate. It takes skill and precision and years of training, but once you have those, you feel almost as if you are God himself, moving a mountain to your whim. Something about the sheer mass of a stonefrigate. I can only imagine the dark horror the Korsians will feel when we blot the stars from their skies.

Of course, they will be told we are coming as friends.

We enter orbit around Kors on the third day. The moon tumbles below me in pure darkness. It is not a true moon because it does not orbit Koriograf, it orbits our weak sun. Koriograf’s gravity has it locked permanently in Koriograf’s shadow. No light ever hits the surface of Kors. I patch through to Brance. 

“Ready to go down?”

“You got the map?”

Outboard drones mapped Kors for us before we got here. I flick to the map on one of my displays, colored in pinks and greens for elevation. The world of Kors is mountainous, with small icy seas. There are v

Open Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The stonefrigate heaves into motion under my command. We slide forward, through the dark smoke left by Brance’s stonefrigate. I try not to think about that. It is easy. I am used to pushing dark things from my mind, and piloting calms me. I maneuver the ship easily and skillfully. The dark night side of Koriograf is visible as an empty hole in the star-bitten sky if you know where to look. I know where to look. I am very good at navigation. I will not need the computer to calculate this maneuver. It is simple enough.

Brance. I destroyed Brance. Don’t think about it. 

Call the aiforms. Call them now. They can save you.

But what good will that do now? Kill a few Korsians, just so they can kill me?

I realize, with a sudden shock, how afraid I am. I’ve always been afraid. I’ve always managed it. It drives me. But the Korsian vaporblade at my throat sends a new chill through me.

Focus on flying, I tell myself. Set course. Thrust angle. I eyeball the angle but I know it’s exactly ri

Open End Matter

Thank you for reading Stone In The Sky!

This story is fully human-written, although the cover artwork is ai.

If you liked it, submit your email address here and I'll send you an email if I ever write anything else.

You can find my work on Amazon, too.

— Samuel