I prefer to think that what she told me, on the plain before the caverns, was the truth: “I looked into the future, and I saw us together, but what I felt when I met you… what I feel for you now… that can’t be denied, David.”
But all I do know, for certain, is that I miss Carlotta Chakravorti-Luna like hell.
Maddie emerged from the crowd and headed our way. “David,” she said, her expression compassionate as she looked down at me. She reached out, and I took her hand.
She pulled me upright. “Come,” she ordered. She linked an arm through mine and squeezed.
Kee joined us, taking Hawk’s hand as we walked toward the nearest floating sphere. I felt his arm about my shoulders.
They steered me towards the sphere, and then Matt himself, the creator, smiling as he joined us, took Maddie’s hand.
“What’s it called, Matt?” I asked, pointing towards the sphere.
He said, “I call it, The Love of Friends, David.”
All around, the assembly had paused to watch us, and I felt a sudden tightness in my chest, the result of some unnameable emotion, part grief, part loneliness, part love.
Together we approached the light.
Eric Brown:
A Selected Bibliography
Novels:
Meridian Days◦– Pan Macmillan, 1992
Engineman◦– Pan Macmillan, 1994
Penumbra◦– Orion, 1999
New York Nights◦– Gollancz, 2000
New York Blues◦– Gollancz, 2002
New York Dreams◦– Gollancz, 2004
Helix◦– Solaris, 2007
Kethani◦– Solaris, 2008
Necropath◦– Solaris, 2008
Xenopath◦– Solaris, 2009
Cosmopath◦– Solaris, 2010
Novellas:
The Web: Untouchable◦– Orion Dolphin, 1997
The Web: Walkabout◦– Orion Dolphin, 1999
A Writer’s Life◦– PS Publishing, 2001
Approaching Omega◦– Telos Publications, 2005
The Extraordinary Voyage of Jules Verne◦– PS Publishing, 2005
Revenge◦– Barrington Stoke, 2007
Starship Summer◦– PS Publishing, 2007
Starship Fall◦– NewCon Press, 2009
Gilbert and Edgar on Mars◦– PS Publishing, 2009
Collections:
The Time-Lapsed Man and other stories◦– Pan Macmillan, 1990
Blue Shifting◦– Pan Macmillan, 1995
Parallax View (with Keith Brooke)◦– Sarob Press, 2000
Deep Future◦– Cosmos Books, 2001
The Fall of Tartarus◦– Gollancz, 2005
Threshold Shift◦– Golden Gryphon, 2006
Copyright
Starship Fall copyright © 2009 by Eric Brown
Introduction copyright © 2009 by Tony Ballantyne
Cover Art copyright © 2009 by Dominic Harman
All rights reserved.
Also available as ISBN:
978-1-907069-02-4 (hardback)
978-1-900679-03-1 (softback)
Cover illustration by Dominic Harman
Cover layout and design by Andy Bigwood
Book layout by Storm Constantine
eBook design by Tim C. Taylor