(Posted on 10-05-2000)
She always thought of it as morning, that moment when a sun
cleared the crest of a world. Lyda Cottrell sipped her spiced
neo-kava and watched through the wide curved window of the officers'
club. A pale sliver of light against the horizon became a yellow
crescent as it emerged from behind the planet Levo. Mountainous
islands cast shadows across the sea, and oceans became lit with
gold fire. The sight of a starbreak never failed to engage Cottrell,
even though experiencing morning at eighteen-hundred hours always
wreaked havoc with one's internal clock--one of the unavoidable
hazards of living the shipboard life.
