The Pebble Ring Observatory
Cori
“A tiny moon-born figure, as tall as a teacup, with silver dust on her sleeves, a round apron full of pockets, and a stack of labeled pebbles balanced beside her.”
Cori is a moon-born sorter who stands as tall as a teacup and lives among the observatory’s jars, drawers, and labeled trays. She is brisk, neat, and delightfully particular, with a serious face that softens whenever something lopsided is set right.
5 stories feature Cori
Where you've met them
The Leaking Outer Hatch
A new hatch on the outer walkway will not seal, and the observatory’s air is beginning to drift out in tiny, unseen breaths. With the station losing warmth and pressure little by little, someone has to decide how to protect the most important rooms first while the repair pieces are still outside.
Seeds Waiting for Warmth
A visiting class of small space gardeners arrives with a tray of sleeping seed pods for the observatory’s quiet greenhouse, but the pod-warming panel has shut down in the cold. The seeds will not wake in time for planting unless the crew finds another safe way to give them gentle warmth without using up the station’s power reserve.
Shaking Sky Station
A new ring of icy debris drifts close enough to scrape the Observatory’s outer rails, making the whole station shiver and creak. The vibrations are harmless at first, but each bump knocks a different instrument out of alignment, so the sky readings start changing at the same time the building begins to wobble.
A Very Small Water Supply
The Observatory’s afternoon supply pod arrives with too little water, and the next delivery will not come until tomorrow. The drying air starts making the plant room, snack chamber, and cleaning tanks compete for the same dwindling supply, so the station must find a fair way to share before the reserve runs out.
Pebbles on the Wrong Pull
A scheduled shower of tiny comet pebbles is about to pass safely over the Pebble Ring Observatory, but one beam-sail tilts out of place and starts pulling the pebbles toward the telescope dome. If the pebbles keep piling up, the dome could jam shut before the night’s sky watching begins.