Catalina thought she opened her eyes but it was hard to know for sure. She was suddenly blind. She held up her hands but couldn't see so much as a shadow of a shadow. Vertigo swirled in her head like a vortex. The ground was solid beneath her feet but she could've sworn she'd been… Continue reading Too Short a Visit
Tag: Money
Turmoil in Ceres Inner
Ceres had two domains: the outer and the inner. Almost no one lived on the outside. It was just a scattering of spaceports and solar farms and the excavated rubble of the asteroid's now hollowed interior. The people lived inside. Ceres inner also had two domains: the ceiling and the floor. The tubular cavern wrapped… Continue reading Turmoil in Ceres Inner
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
The Seventh Moon
The six inner moons of Avalon—a typical ice giant out on the fringe—were fine places. Rocky bodies, essentially spheroids, rich in ices and metals. Good for industry, and more than capable of supporting associated settlements. But the seventh moon—that was the prize. If you could get to it. Preliminary data indicated a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, temperate… Continue reading The Seventh Moon
Red Planet Rustler
Now was his chance. Jeb was all alone on the far side of the ranch. He gently ran his good hand over the back of one of the large heifers and made cooing sounds as it benignly chewed its cud. Then he threw his bionic arm under its ribs and lifted. The heifer was startled… Continue reading Red Planet Rustler
RAM
I had to get some more RAM for my dad. He'd been getting slower for a while, but yesterday he totally locked up midway through a game of gin rummy and I had to restart him. He hates being restarted. Sulked around the rest of the night just pacing and mumbling, his slippers shuffling and… Continue reading RAM
Body Builder
Arsen was building a new body. The process was tedious and incremental, but an improvement over the natural way, he supposed. And this was no new life he was bringing into the world; just a vessel. A vessel through which he might live on. It helped that he'd finally settled on a new name: Luciana.… Continue reading Body Builder
A Simple Scam
The metal container was the size of an old refrigerator and weighed a lot more. If it weren't for her exo she would have had no chance of moving it, not all at once. And Alexa only wanted to do this once. One big payday. It was a simple scam. It really started 150 years… Continue reading A Simple Scam
Not Today
This was all because of a notebook. A small one; fit in the palm of your hand. Black. Hardbacked. Quantum biolock; secure. Rin took great pains to not get involved in her passengers' business. She'd built a reputation around it, but now, because of that awful notebook she was extremely, hopelessly, inextricably involved. The notebook… Continue reading Not Today
Won’t Hurt a Bit
Colin grabbed the kid. Kid—that's how Colin thought of him, but of course he was a grown man. A grown man was any man old enough to bear the full weight of the consequences of his actions, even if that weight crushed him. And a kid, well, a kid was anyone who chose the wrong… Continue reading Won’t Hurt a Bit
Warmup Pages 