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

We waited, Rogere with his head hanging and coughing horribly. Two minutes, four. I then rubbed the foam frosted wall-certain I'd find a clean area among the pustules.


I almost wept. The dots had grown to half a centimeter. A distinct stalk could be seen stretching up out of the flat cone of black fibers that could not be destroyed. There was something, a grain or something at the tip of the pale stalk.


Chapter 37: Almost Home, Part 2