"Can I just tell you something?" The detective removed his rain-soaked wide brim hat and plunked it on top of tall shipping crate. Water pooled and soaked into the splintery pine. The crate held an ancient statue that most would consider priceless. But Viktor wasn't most: he set the price at $480 million. "I would… Continue reading A Collection of Martian Antiquities
Tag: Asteroid Mining
Coming in Hot
"Let's just cool off and talk in a few days, right? I lo—...well, goodbye." That slimy son of a bitch almost said I love you. Martin had spoken that lie so many times it was habitual. If he was in front of her right now she might kill him. He wasn't, of course, but he would… Continue reading Coming in Hot
Keep No One Close, Especially Your Enemies
Navy Samarasinghe was the baddest assassin in all of human space. She'd been born on old Earth and managed to claw her way out of that burning cesspool, which is about the roughest start someone could get these days. It meant she was tough, smart, and plenty willing to get her hands dirty. Of course,… Continue reading Keep No One Close, Especially Your Enemies
Hard Landings
Captain Filippa Bartlett of the asteroid mining vessel The Devil's Sooty Brother was bringing her ship down for a surface landing. Problem was, The Devil's Sooty Brother wasn't meant for suborbital flight. Teardrop shapes had the same air resistance as a cube in the emptiness of space, and the cube was a much more convenient shape to… Continue reading Hard Landings
Deadflower Refinery
"Isn't this just something?" she asked with enthusiasm. She clasped her hands together in front of her heart. Her eyes sparkled in that excited way of hers and I nearly ceded, but caught myself. One of these days those eyes would get me to blindly agree to something foolhardy. Maybe today. But not yet. I… Continue reading Deadflower Refinery
Dust to Dust
For all his political posturing and his penchant for charismatic public overtures, Leon Brault was having second thoughts. It wasn't an ideological shift he was experiencing, but an awareness of his survival instinct. He was close enough now to see the Artifact with his own eyes, separated only by a few kilometers and 4mm of… Continue reading Dust to Dust
Warmup Pages 