Mother of Storms (82 page)

Authors: John Barnes

BOOK: Mother of Storms

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There is a loud stir in the crowd, as if many thousands of people had turned, seen, and shouted, and then a roar as everyone turns to see. There is a great light in the clouds, and her first thought is that it’s the moon—but it’s much too big for the moon—and then the clouds roll away, and it’s there.

2026RU, from which Louie is throwing Frisbees, in its libration-point orbit out in front of the moon, looms seven times as big as the full moon, for though the core of rock and ice is only a few hundred miles across, the thin cloud of gas and dust it gives off—too thin to breathe, and up close you wouldn’t see it at all—reflects the sunlight brilliantly.

The great, dead city of Monte Alban, where once the heavens were worshipped, and where tens of thousands have just seen a vision of matters as they are, resounds with cheering as the new moon climbs into the sky.

Other Tor books by John Barnes

Orbital Resonance
A Million Open Doors

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

MOTHER OF STORMS

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10010

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Design by Lynn Newmark

eISBN 9781429970662

First eBook Edition : June 2011

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bames, John.

Mother of storms / John Bames. p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

1. Hurricanes—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3552.A677M67 1994