Fragment

SEPTEMBER 18

Nell and Geoffrey gazed from the prow of the Trident at the crimson dawn.

Geoffrey cocked his head and studied her wryly for a moment.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s sexier than a man who knows the right thing to say?”

“A man who knows when not to say anything.” Geoffrey lifted her chin to meet her smiling lips with his.

Hiding inside a hatchway Zero videoed them kissing, and Cynthea whispered restlessly in his ear: “Are you getting that?”

Zero popped his left eye open at Cynthea. Yup, his eye said.

Hender’s grin and eyes appeared first as he seemed to materialize behind the two young scientists on the prow. They laughed to see him.

“Oh wow…” Cynthea whispered. “Get that, get that, get that, baby!”

Hender moved between them and hugged Geoffrey and Nell with four arms, and together they faced the uncertain dawn.

Page 27 of A Field Guide to Henders Island by Geoffrey Binswanger-Duckworth, Nell Duckworth-Binswanger, and Andrew Beasley, 1^st edition.

Page 39 of A Field Guide to Henders Island by Geoffrey Binswanger-Duckworth, Nell Duckworth-Binswanger, and Andrew Beasley, 1^st edition.

Map of Henders Island

Preliminary sketches of a spiger by Nell Duckworth on board Trident, August 26-“motion studies.”

Preliminary sketches of a spiger by Nell Duckworth on board Trident, August 27-“speculations on internal structures.”