The Spinning Wheel

How do you go to sleep, when you're not sure you're going to wake up?



While most of the population of the Spinning Wheel, a Chapter colonization ship, sleeps in their cryo bays, Zellendine and Troylus go through the motions of their shift awake, keeping the ship going. But the first tendrils of the Grimm star, the star that will be their sun on their new planet, are shining in the windows, and with the light comes more changes than they are prepared for.



First, a baby is born dead from one of the mechanical wombs on board with no warning that something is wrong. Second, some of the people in the next shift, waking up from their cryo bay for the hand off period on the ship, are stuck in deep, steady REM sleep. And third, while Troylus is on a starwalk to close the shields over the windows because a strange anomaly is detected in front of the ship, the anomaly… attacks.



He doesn’t have a better description for it. And he doesn’t have any way to explain what he does in response to save Zellendine on the other side of the window, watching on in horror.



Only one more period in cryo before they are scheduled to arrive on their long awaited new planet, but can they even survive until they are supposed to go to sleep again? And if they do, will they ever wake up?