Each Sunday, Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from writers in multiple genres and forms. Check out the full roster here.

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Mavra had warned them …

Jehen’s breath caught sometimes when she realized she might not ever see Mavra again–not for years, anyway. If she and Yasmin and Ferenc fulfilled their duty, they’d be Aboard-Ships for life. At some point in the future, they might be crew on a Ship putting into Sarronny orbit for the annual supply run, but that would not be the same as coming home. They would be glamorous strangers visiting to bring necessities, dance in the community circle once more, and bear away with them the child-tribute.

The hairs went up on the back of her neck, much as they did when she thought about the mathematics of the Jump.

Were it not for the Jumps, major and minor, right now she’d be insuperably far from home. Time on the evolutionary or even the geologic scale would separate her from everything she’d known.