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Thirty seconds.

There were four fission-fusion devices stored in the hold, courtesy of the Angel Francine. God knows where she got them from, probably army surplus. Four more jumps after this one and then she'd be out looking for more fuel.

Twenty seconds.

She remembered a black rose and a cool hand. The taste of gunpowder on a boy's lips. A river under a blue African sky, water over her head and the shrill distorted screams of her playmates.

Ten seconds.

A beach on the ocean with a storm sweeping in. Picking up the stick as the smooth-skinned mother of the world. A voice echoing down the fractal corridors of time saying - 'Please.'

'Here I come, Doctor,' shouted Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, 'ready or not!'

Glossary

akti

(Greek) street

bajan pumps

(slang) rope soled running shoes

bangjack

(warspeak) explosives expert

beatbox

see noisebox

billy-lamp

(trademark) heavy torch that can double as a club

bioraid

(warspeak) attack with biological weapons

blitzed

(slang/warspeak) stoned, intoxicated

brain-naked

(slang) operating within a computer matrix without a hardware interface

broederbund

(Afrikaans) 'brotherhood' name of street gang

catfood monster

(slang) homeless person, from the practice of eating petfood as a cheap source of protein.

derez(zed)

to turn off a hologram

doberman

(slang/warspeak) standard combat drug

drone

(generic) independently mobile machine

dustkart

Martian surface vehicle

EMP

(acronym) Electro-Magnetic Pulse

ENG

(acronym) Electronic News Gathering, remote camera drone used by the media

freesurfing

(slang) riding a tunnel independent of a train

fufu

West African staple made from cassava

gangbanger

(slang) member of a gang

GIS

(acronym) Geographic Information System

granny bashers

(slang) mugger, usually retired soldier

Greenies

(slang) indigenous Martian [Ice Warrior]

heinkel

(slang/warspeak) standard combat drug for pilots

IFF

(acronym) Identification Friend or Foe

joyboy

male prostitute/young man of lax morals

kabuki

traditional Japanese drama form

KGB

Sol's largest private security firm

klicks

(slang) kilometres

krewe

(slang) New Orleans' carnival society or razvedka unit

LZ

(warspeak) Landing Zone

makeni

small town in Sierra Leone, West Africa

medevac

(warspeak) medical evacuation

mzungu

(Swahili) white person

NAFAL

(acronym) Not As Fast As Light, drive used in Sol's principal colonization effort

prior to development of the warp drive.

newsfax

printed newspaper

NGO

(acronym) Non Governmental Organization

noisebox

(slang) portable multimedia unit

oporto

(Themne) white person, European

opsit

(warspeak) operational situation report

opstat

(STS) operational status report

ouzo

Greek alcoholic beverage

personspace

area of the galaxy explored by human beings

pix

any still image transmitted digitally

razvedka

(Russian) intelligence-gathering assets

secateurs

garden shears used for pruning

shango

Yoruba god of thunder

shinjinrui

(Japanese) new young breed

shoji

(Japanese) sliding door made of paper on a wooden frame

Silurian

aboriginal terran

STS

Sol Transit System

Stunnel

Stella Tunnel

Themne

West African language

tsunami

(Japanese) tidal wave

ubersoldaten

(German) lit. over-soldier, augmented human soldiers who fought in the Thousand Day War

vrik

(slang) very rich kids

Xssixss

(Martian) path of easy virtue

Yoruba

West African language

zap

(trademark) semi-legal stimulant

Table of Contents

Transit

Prologue

PART ONE

1: Oncoming Trains

2: Crazy Paving Man

3: Bad Acid Macho

4: The Stupid Dead

5: Hereditary Diseases

PART TWO

6: Red Queen

7: Doorstep Blues

8: Improvisations

9: Chain Gang Song

10: Broken Swords

Epilogue

Glossary