第一章 星际包裹

sunlight was already beating down on the loading platform by the time I got there. Blinked a few times, squinted. Heatwave already kicking in today. Checked my delivery list one last time. Third stop was the old bakery on Elm Street. Lotta paperwork to deal with there, they always got some kind of special order. Dust motes dancing in the shafts of light piercing the gaps in the warehouse roof. Usually that kind of thing just got me grumbling 'bout the health and safety regulations. Today it felt different. Like the dust had eyes, or maybe just the heat was making me see things. Stuck my head out the airlock for a breath of fresh air that mostly just tasted like ozone and summer. Found it stuck to the side of the loading bay. Smelled like burnt sugar and ozone, and was positively huge. Looked like a badly damaged satellite, or maybe one of them space junk monsters from the old stories. Wouldn't be surprised, truth be told. Lotta weird stuff got launched back in the day, and half of it probably still orbitin' somewhere. Bobbing around like a lost bead on a string.