This Shoal of Space:

Preface   Chapter 1   Intralog  Part I-Chapter 2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   Part II-Chapter 66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   Outlog

Chapter 30.

During the night, Zoë put her hands over her mouth and drew in a deep breath of horror. It was dark except the street light near her bedroom window cast a broken film of beery light on the window sill. As she awakened, she felt adrenalin run like a shower of needles up and down her legs. Sweat made her hands slick as she removed them from her face and stared, puzzled, into her palms. Same reflected amber glow. And silence.

Only a memory of the nightmare remained, leaving a crawling feeling along the piano keys of her spine. It was a memory of walking down endless corridors that were dark on both sides, and being terrified because she felt eyes on her back. There was something... a ship. A sunken ocean liner? The Titanic? Her father's face... And Frank MacLemore yelling, yelling, sending his fist into her face... She sat up in bed and held her head like a vase, letting reality flow back in.

After a while, she padded across the living room and listened at Max's door. He was snoring. She stumbled into the kitchen, poured herself a half glass of water, and slipped back into her bed. After wrestling the pillow around for several minutes, she fell back to sleep.