Debbie is on board the Spirit of Tasmania with her family, returning to Melbourne after spending the holidays in Australia's southernmost state. Feeling seasick, she steps out onto a balcony for some fresh air when a stranger tells her to look at the sky.

Mesmerised, Debbie witnesses strange lights zipping across the night sky like shards of silver.

But Debbie soon realises that seasickness is the least of her worries when the meteor shower takes a deadly turn.

Will Debbie survive the night? What about the rest of the world?

Shards of Silver is a short story prequel to Drowned Earth, a series of novellas written by Australian authors and set in a watery apocalypse.