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    Volume 13, Issue 1, February 28, 2018
    Message from the Editors
 Waiting on a Sunny Day by Michael Haynes
 Order of the Blessed Return by Sean Mabry
 An Uneasy Paradise by D.A. D'Amico
 Home is Where the Blue Plastic Porcupine is by Kiera Lesley
 Anger is a Porcupine, Sadness is a Fish by Mary E. Lowd
 Editors Corner: Sci-Fi Poetry by Candi Cooper-Towler


         

Home Is Where the Blue Plastic Porcupine Is

Kiera Lesley

         LOG DATE 4/11/2053
         Newly cleared bunks always stink no matter what the autoscrub teams say. A spray of Aero-Pine usually clears it. I'll try to get some sleep and not think about who might have been sleeping in this bunk as recently as this morning. And didn't come back to it.

         LOG DATE 5/11/2053
         Got a chance to unpack before morning call up. Storage was mostly cleared. Luckily, none of the leftovers were personal items -- a solo unisex black sock, half a tube of tooth nanos, some leftover gun grease. Found a mini bottle of 'RealLemon' hooch tucked in on a ledge in the toilet retract space. Score.

         LOG DATE 6/11/2053
         Got some better toiletries from the comish. Started a food stash for when we run power-dark. Need to find a better pillow, whoever picked this one was a moron.

         LOG DATE 7/11/2053
         Traded Rennie for a new pillow. It stinks, but nothing a night of gassing in the shower cubby with an open can of Aero-Pine won't fix.
         Also found a vintage hard plastic porcupine figurine stashed in the refab pile. The colour's still holding -- shades of bright blue.
         Stuck it on a shelf over the bed to add some character to the place.

         LOG DATE 9/11/2053
         New pillow almost doesn't stink of Aero-Pine or the previous owner.

         LOG DATE 10/11/2053
         First brace in the new bunk. Caught porcupine as it fell of the shelf. All spines still intact.
         Had a moment with the 'RealLemon'.

         LOG DATE 12/11/2053
         Pillow transition complete. Useful, because the action's getting hotter the closer to the Pleiades front we get and I'm going to need the sleep.

         LOG DATE 13/11/2053
         Shared some 'RealLemon' and bunk time with Chacon. Afterward he commented on the porcupine, said it's 'cute' -- code for 'weird'.
         Considered tossing the porcupine out an airlock immediately.
         Decided to deal with it tomorrow and stay here for now.

         LOG DATE 15/11/2053
         Four-hour long assault just outside the Pleiades. The ship was rattled upside-down for at least half of that time. We finished with 14 empty bunks autoscrubbed and ready to be re-filled at the next waystation.
         Came back and found the porcupine still has all its spines. It didn't even fall off the shelf! Calling it lucky from now on.
         Drank 14 rationed sips of 'RealLemon'. One for each empty bunk.

         LOG DATE 16/11/2053
         12 hours without power on the float. Tried to find Chacon, but he's on forward assault this shift.
         Spent the time working through the emergency food stash and making sure the porcupine doesn't float away.

         LOG DATE 17/11/2053
         Heard Chacon's bunk being autoscrubbed overnight.
         Ran out of 'RealLemon'.
         Wish my pillow smelled less familiar.

         LOG DATE 20/11/2053
         It's good to be back in the bunk, though after 45 hours of fight time the stims are working too hard to allow for sleep.
         I thought of Chacon the whole time, even though you're not supposed to.
         The porcupine is still sitting on the shelf, sticking it out with me.
         Incapable of dying.

         LOG DATE 21/11/2053
         Shipping out. Pack up takes regulation 20 minutes.
         Left a replacement bottle of 'RealPeach' in the shelf in the toilet retract for the next person.
         Tucked the porcupine into my pants pocket to take with me - for luck.
         




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