Summary:
Christian Praeger orbits Earth on a space station, dropping canisters to rebuild the ozone layer. He watches natural disasters, like hurricanes, hit Pacific shores. Julian is a water sculptor, freezing water in space and removing the plastic that held it in place. Both are former astronaut heroes.Spoilers:
...his friend and companion, Julian dies. Christian performs a fitting outer space burial.
Commentary/Analysis:
This is Zebrowski's first story. It shows. Compare this to the next year's Nebula-finalist story, "Heathen God", and you'll see an immediate difference. This one throws two interesting space-career men together, espouses common SF sentiments, and then kills one of them. It's a kind of throw-all-the-noodles-against-the-wall-and-see-if-anything-sticks methodology. You can tell by looking at the summary--one event has little do with the other. The smaller, line-by-line SF details and imagery are superior in this tale, but "Heathen God" gives you something to think about. Still, that's quite a learning curve: from pseudo-SF to Nebula finalist in one year.
I recall another famous author talking about an early story of hers where she didn't know how to end it, so she killed people off. There you go: the secret to ending SF stories... Not really. But maybe that will help make you a sale.
