LINKDING

<blockquote>Alix Campbell is not particularly pleased to be on the list of staff for Earth's very first appearance at the Galactic Council.</blockquote> ➤ space bureaucracy! also, one of those stories where you can tell the author is familiar with the career in question, always a delight

<blockquote>1. It was my mother who first discovered the fuel leak. Or at least, that’s what we thought it was then. My grandmother, who was the last of us to have set foot on Earth, had died the month before. We had gathered in the laundry atrium, which was the largest open space without ongoing maintenance work, and made such tribute as we could: this is one of the first things I remember. My mother said it felt like a new era, like we were on our own. Although of course we had been out of radio contact with Earth for many years by then. And then, so soon after: the fuel numbers didn’t quite add up. The guardian angels of the old world gone, and we were on our own. But we had excess fuel against unplanned contingencies. It was the slowest of slow leaks. No big deal.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A detective is called to a space station to solve the mystery of whether--and how--twelve astronauts are accessing the surface of a forbidden planet.</blockquote> ➤ oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh this is INCREDIBLE

<blockquote>When Jeeves feels insecure about his cyborg status, Bertie must take drastic action to teach him his true value.</blockquote>

<blockquote>He's shivering as he emerges from the pod. No surprise, he was frozen for like a billion years. I do all the stuff on the script, all the "Fear Not! You are a welcomed citizen of our Utopia!" stuff while I'm toweling him off. Apparently he's about as good as I am with awkward silence 'cause it's not three seconds before he starts making small talk. "So, how'd you get to be a. . ." He waves his hand. "A Tour Guide To The Future?!" "Yeah." The guy smiles gratefully at me. "I imagine you had a lot of training. . . ?" "None whatsoever!" I chirp. He looks confused. "Allocator chose me because I incidentally have the exact skills and qualifications necessary for this task, and because I had one of the highest enthusiasm scores!"</blockquote> ➤ this story is weird and incredible and I was very surprised to be having feelings by the end given how much I was giggling through most of the story. I love it.

<blockquote>When she was four he found her in the back yard, holding a brick unsteadily above her head, poised to bring it down on a small heart-shaped clock he had bought her for her bedside table. It lay face up glass sparkling in the afternoon sun. “Sorry Baba, I wanted to see what’s inside,” she said.</blockquote> ➤ sweet

<blockquote>To the Jews of Ganymede on the question of the permissibility of selling chometz to Immortals.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Often, human settlements contain layers of habitation, one built on top of the other. One site can have many unseen features hidden beneath it. People are the same.</blockquote> ➤ an archeologist from space is on a team to investigate sites on Earth, along with an earth-born cultural attache. Yay for intercultural communication and space and science and stuff!

<blockquote>Letters from Mars to Earth, between early colonists and their loved ones.</blockquote>

<blockquote>This, Javier Navarro thought in disgust as he stared up at the tower he was supposed to fix, was not exactly the heroic and exciting thing he had imagined when he’d seen the NASA recruiting posters and, on a whim, submitted an application.</blockquote> ➤ a nice look at a day in the life of people on mars

<blockquote>It was a source of consternation to certain of Earth's constitutional bodies that the original Mars mission made landfall on Christmas Eve.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Kent was going to be the first person to die on Venus. He knew it with iron certainty the moment the railing gave way and he slipped into the acidic mist. The only question was whether he would be baked or crushed. Moments earlier he had been inspecting the floating habitat's walkway, looking for acid damage to repair. He'd let his mind wander for just a moment, replaying the morning's argument with the old man. He'd leaned against the railing and it had broken free, sending him tumbling backward into the void.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A little girl who missed the sun suffered a terrible act of cruelty. This is what happened to Margot, after.</blockquote> ➤ this is based on a short story I've never read, but it's perfectly possible to follow this fic without being familiar with the source material

<blockquote>Esca is a prisoner on Marcus Flavius Aquila's transport ship. What could go wrong?</blockquote> ➤ the space opera rewrite of the story! the fic tags itself as marcus/esca slash but there's a few bare hints that that might be where things are going and that's all. it's functionally totally gen.

<blockquote>In 19th century New Moscow, hearts are broken as a space colony prepares for war.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“You'd better not be getting biohazards on my table.”</blockquote> ➤ more lunar base au

<blockquote>Miriam was elbow-deep in the water purification system when Elisheva came running. "Abba says I have to but I don't want to!"</blockquote>

<blockquote>Enjolras and Feuilly, on the moon as anywhere else, have certain preoccupations.</blockquote> ➤ lunar base au continues

<blockquote>Of martial arts both recreational and not, and of many kinds of roses.</blockquote> ➤ more lunar base au, in which Cosette learns la rose couverte!

<blockquote>A chance encounter on the Mare Cogitum.</blockquote> ➤ the latest in the lunar base au

<blockquote>GENNNNNNNN you named him Kevin and you made more moonbase and he is wearing antique space suit fashion and they have never seen fire and and and :DD CAN I HAVE SOME MORE PLZ MAAM</blockquote>

<blockquote>OH NO NOT A CHANCE TO WRITE MORE MOON BASE RIDICULOUSNESS, gosh, twist my arm, etc.  :D  Same universe as Unlocking The Orbit.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I'm only sorry that I didn't have the time to expand this into something vast and plotty and ridiculous, but I hope it's sufficiently ridiculous to amuse all the same!</blockquote>

<blockquote>Lilo had been training for the life of a space adventurer since she met Stitch, though David once told her he’d thought she was destined for weirdness—“I mean greatness”—even before he came into their lives. “You would have found a way somehow, no matter what,” he said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Laurence and Temeraire, as requested, in space.</blockquote> ➤ or, in which Temeraire is a dragonship

<blockquote>A record of the sub-committee's interview of Maggie Farrell, Somnotician and candidate for the position of artist on the delegation which will shortly leave Earth to make first contact with the inhabitants of Toliman B.</blockquote> ➤ Again: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

<blockquote>Captain Baptistine and Engineer Magloire of the starship Myriel pick up an escape pod with a terrified refugee.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The hovercraft had never really been in tip-top shape; no matter how many times he’d sent it in to get fixed, it still sputtered, coughed up smoke, and trailed pollution through the Mars dome. So perhaps, Fauchelevant thought in a delirious haze, this was its revenge for all the times he’d kicked it and yelled at it and wished it was a newer model. Or perhaps, as the gallant Captain Madeleine shouldered his way through the wreckage and grasped Fauchelevent by the wrist and waist, this was its way of saying you deserve something better in your life. </blockquote> ➤ three-sentence fic so the bit I quoted is the entirety of it. DON'T I WISH THERE WERE MORE THOUGH

<blockquote>It’s traditional “Write random AUs instead of your nano story” time here at chez melannen. So, to inspire Sath, here is the first 1000 words of the Les Mis SF AU-Fusion-Crossover that has been haunting me since I first got into Les Mis fandom. ENJOY. I feel like this one truly captures the spirit of Les Mis canon.</blockquote> ➤ or: the space au where Marius has been in stasis for a few hundred thousand years and when he's revived all his friends are dead

<blockquote>“I’ll be up at the Arkangel,” Noah finishes. “When you lot have finished your grumbling, come up and get your assignments.” After he leaves, everyone looks at each other, still caught in the moment of silence. As might have been expected, Ham’s the one to break it. “What’s crawled up his exhaust pipe?” “I think the prospect of a life-ending flood might just have had a moderately deleterious effect upon him,” Rahela says sarcastically. “I can’t imagine why.”</blockquote>