Spinaker

This technically isn't a complete story, just a fragment I wrote while waiting for the bus into town.


Racquel thought about yesterday's lunch as she clung to the underside of the hull which was now basking in the tropical sunlight like a dead Moby Dick. She had eaten a chicken salad sandwich with capers - the really large ones. She craved the salty taste, and now she was marinating in her favorite brine.

She was alive at least, and there was still the possibility that she could salvage the boat if the ocean ever stopped bucking. It was a strange sight in the calm skies, but the orange horizon at the noon of day told a different story.

The asteroid had been unexpected. Racquel heard no warnings on the radio. It had zoomed overhead with a sonic boom so loud that she lost her hearing for a time. Sound was slowly coming back. She could faintly hear the slapping of the waves against the hull and the fevered cries of birds above as they flew panicked every which way in total geomagnetic confusion.