David Selby was born and grew up in Berkeley, California. He taught elementary school in California, Mexico, and New Mexico for thirty-six years. He and his wife live in Northwest New Mexico.  He has written many short stories including the Joe the Man with Gills series. Mica is his first novel.

Mica, an expert navigator, uses the currents of the Darkstream to pilot his ship across the galaxy to join his love, Olivine. On the way, he befriends Ronnie, a stowaway who can look like a coat or a first aid kit, the mysterious Vuud, and the translucent “Slight People”. They experience the savage planet of Carnage and the whirling destruction of the Moon of 10,000 Drones before they even reach Olivine in the brand-new city of Garner in the midst of an unknown world.


Mica

"Well isn't this a strange, um, coincidence?" He gestured toward the huge long low building we were leaning against. "That's what we do here. This here is Biostick. We use living, one celled beings to make superior adhesives. We form them the way a customer needs, onto the product, and when two parts with this bio-glue are joined, it's stuck, I mean it's there; you just about can't separate them. You just give the critters a bath of water plus nutrients about once a year and that's it."


"I assume a lot of the bio-mass that makes the adhesive is destroyed in the process?"


"Well, not a bit, we have a working relationship. They certainly wouldn't put up with being slaughtered in the deal."


"I asked Klift-that was his name- if he enjoyed his work. He said that he did. He pointed out that it allowed him to buy, and of course that was what a man was born to do.


"It is?" I asked. "It's what makes me happy", Klift replied with a contented grin.


Chapter 22: Catching Up With Friends, Part 2