Stretch your brain
"I don't know how to fucking fly this thing!" My would-be kidnapper pressed the muzzle harder against the back of my neck. "Then I hope you're a quick learner." The radio squawked again. "Shuttle 2-2-Libra-5-Neptune, this is is Harbor Tower 8. You're out of pattern and off grid. Escorts dispatched. Copy?" "Why can't you fly… Continue reading Gimme a Hand
"Martin...what is this place?" The intricate web of the jump-gate network was the backbone society. Without it, every star system would be as isolated as if it were its own self-contained universe, at least as far as humans were concerned. But the jump-gates weren't built by humans. They were built by someone else; someone long… Continue reading The Crypt at the End of Time
The rushing sound of 15 million cubic meters of water diverted off course drowned out the sounds of the pumps. It drowned out the sounds of the endless procession of heavy equipment and raw materials for the constructors. It drowned out thought, and the city did not sleep. The last cranes were erected by first… Continue reading Beneath the Mondlebrid
They are not to be disturbed. This was a key tenet of the Sh'sesha order of which Harn was a disciple. A tenet he was disobeying. Not for the first time, either. Kalburin was a barren world beneath a hostile binary star. Harn wasn't born here. No one is born here. And no one ever… Continue reading The Behemoths of Kalburin
Aero was in some kind of forest. The ground was solid stone with only loose bits of gravel surrounding the rents where the trees had broken through. They were thick, impossibly so, some so much that they first appeared to be sheer walls of wood extending beyond the clouds. A great canopy of leaves of… Continue reading Ghost Walk
Between the dark rocky plain and the low gray cloud cover there was a narrow strip of light the color of tarnished silver. Ari adjusted his face mask as he walked between the modules of the remote base. Everyone wore the masks, even though the weren't strictly necessary. Imai II was classified as a shirtsleeves… Continue reading Blood in the Algae Garden
Lieutenant Brielle Barron stood on the concrete landing pad between the beach and Delta Tropic. Nightfall would come before she returned, but for now the red-tinged sun made the ocean look aflame. She removed a small lump of gray clay from a container labeled Prototype TKD15-3 and worked it between her gloved palms. This was… Continue reading Unscheduled Arrival at Delta Tropic
Gravity bombs sent ripples ripping through the battlefield, decimating friend and foe alike. Zoe pressed forward, unwavering and ever ready. Her battle armor's powered joints did most of the running for her, but it would stop if she faltered in her courage. The shallow hydrocarbon stream defaced beneath her boot tread boiled from the ambient… Continue reading A Shot in the Dark
Josie's arm was jammed into one of the Thresher's exterior maintenance ducts past her elbow, but she still hadn't found the ruptured cell. The attack had left the ship vulnerable—it was a miracle they'd managed to limp it away at all—but nothing made you feel quite as exposed as being out in the vacuum with… Continue reading Slip
Ewelina was being punished for something. She just wasn't sure what. She patrolled the bottom side of the disc wrapping around the refinery's central pillar, sweeping her eyes over the electric aquamarine skies. Thunderheads the size of the Matterhorn angrily slid past, kept at a manageable distance by the positive pressure bubble the generators ceaselessly… Continue reading Höllengarten
Warmup Pages 