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

It was a brilliant morning deep in the Fallows. I felt like the first explorer in this pristine wilderness, at least of the human variety. I inhaled absolutely enchanted air and felt myself more vigorous from it. I felt like running, like splitting out of my protective thickskin, like diving into one of the sparkling fast flowing rivers. The colors were glistening wetly: greens, brown, whites, flowering red, shiny yellow, lavender, orange and black. A slight scent of fungus joined the freshness, boldness, vitality.


I had set the skimcraft down in a quarter of the grid I had not been in. I had imposed a grid on this area seventy-five miles east of Garner to explore at the direction of my curious employers. The grid was 100 square miles and included the spot Mica and I had visited and two other locations I had mapped out on my own; each one fascinating and different. 


Chapter 34: Olivine in the Meadow