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

Still, I have been working. I've read every study I could lay my hands on concerning the history, people, and cultures of this planet.The trouble is, although there are log books and some interesting explorers' notes, the people who came didn't tell about their day to day lives, didn't bother to tell their stories. They were working to stay alive at first, then to build, then to sell stuff and make money, and now to buy and invest! In all the five or so generations they had been here, there was not one book, not even diaries that were open to my research. So, I could and did study what is -the present. Exploration, biology, geology, population, economics-as much as I could anyway. 


Chapter 51: Tumblehome: Part 2