Dorado is a wormhole, one of three in the nexus, and the POV character, Cheena, lives on the port station that orbits Dorado. She is married to Daryn Bey, a navigator.
When news comes in of a wreck, Cheena realises the possibility that her husband could be gone. and regrets the argument they had before he last left – caused by a passing remark that Bey has a wife/woman in every port, something Cheena is unwilling to accept. And then the news is that the wreck is that of the ship he is out on.
However, when you’re dealing with wormholes, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and this tale is no less convoluted for it. Between upspin and downspin and past and future, it’s no wonder the port is a neutral zone where no-one talks, and dead ships’ names are never mentioned. One cannot change the past or the future…
Given that this was quite a short story for its complexity, the temporal entanglements to be expected…. I felt as though something was missing… but perhaps that’s more a symptom of the silence the port station holds on certain topics. So for that reason, I think this was really well-written, as the sense it conveys to the reader is really that experienced by the main character.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Laurel's Writing Desk 