You've probably heard the name Linda Beckman. Early twenty-second century visionary industrialist, world's first trillionaire. She made some unfortunate political alliances late in life that stained her reputation, but overall she did more good than bad. During the decades between her meteoric rise and her shameful final years, she spent her fortune and her energy… Continue reading Human-Overkill Theory
Tempers and Timers
Roscoe Bard jogged to the landing pad, his utility vest bouncing heavily against his scrawny chest. In his haste to greet the pilot he'd grabbed his jacket but hadn't put it on. The small scout ship—only 30 meters from tip to tail—was only a dragonfly-shaped silhouette against the gargantuan disk of the late evening sun.… Continue reading Tempers and Timers
The Day That Lasted Forever
You're tired. Sure, you haven't slept in 22 days, but that's not the source of your exhaustion—you might not ever sleep again and you wouldn't miss it a bit. No, the problem is the repetition. The unending déjà vu on top of déjà vu, like standing between two mirrors, surrounded by infinite reflections of yourself.… Continue reading The Day That Lasted Forever
Keeping Score
Once we cracked it we became unstoppable. Most people thought we were unstoppable before, but that's only because it had been so long since we'd been stopped. We were only overwhelming back then—still impressive, but not quite the same as unstoppable. Our chances of ever losing another battle went from non-zero to zero. It was a… Continue reading Keeping Score
Night Ride
Nira tore through the desert night on her '72 Appaloosa single-cycle, the silent lightning in the distance painting shadow-Nira's at varying angles across the cinnamon-colored sand. She didn't need the predictive analytics or the visual enhancements from her visor's HUD—she knew this desert road well. It was straight and flat and rarely used, and the… Continue reading Night Ride
Patient 83
"So it's, like, expensive. That's what you're saying?" I genuinely couldn't tell if he was in denial or if he was actually that dense. What he needed was the truth. Unfortunately, there were a hundred other people in the waiting room who I might still be able to help, so he was on borrowed time… Continue reading Patient 83
Long Enough
He had a long dagger for a forearm. You don't need to reread that. I'll repeat it so you know there was no mistake. He had a long dagger for a forearm. These were the kind of folks I was dealing with. I couldn't tell at first, because he wore a leather coat with long… Continue reading Long Enough
House Cleaning
The house was unoccupied. Private Fritz and Private Altamin had cleared it in the usual way, breaking through the sliding door at the rear, securing the mostly open downstairs including the tricky closet in the half-bath, and then getting through the choke point made by the staircase to check the loft and two bedrooms upstairs.… Continue reading House Cleaning
Multigenesis
The dust got into everything; wrinkles in the rubber gaskets, the edges between a helmet and a visor, under the plastic joints around an elbow or between the proximal and distal phalanges of a thumb. Everything. It doesn't matter how much compressed air you got blasted with in the airlock or if you were diligent… Continue reading Multigenesis
Pipes
The copter drew slow, low-altitude arcs through the thick air around Akkarfor Arco on Rypfe. Heavy storms pummeled the hills to the north but hadn't yet reached here. The copter piloted itself autonomously with only occasional interruptions by Governor Dalen, who would nudge the stick this way or that to point out some mundane feature,… Continue reading Pipes
Warmup Pages 