Lethal Cargo
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Lethal Cargo
WEBSITE EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW 1 Moments after we touched down on Gvm Uye Sachttra, an antique floater bumped over the dirt field we’d been assigned as a landing pad. Several natives jumped out. They were about five foot high, furry, dressed in colorful diapers, with long muzzles crammed with teeth. “The St. Clare?” they said,…
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A Cauldron of Stars, Chapter 4
I’m a Shifter. Hundreds of years ago, extreme genetic modification was all the rage. The fad passed, but it left behind pockets of alt-humans with signficant differences from mainstream humanity. The Shifters are the largest alt-human community, and if you listen to some people, we’re the most dangerous. In my opinion, the reason people say…
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A Cauldron of Stars, Chapter 3
“Where’s Dolph?” Irene said in a low voice as I reached her perch. “Over there,” I said, pointing. From up here, we could see over the hedges, all the way to the island next door. Irene’s tension told me she had spotted the Sunderer ships, too. I kept climbing up the ladder until I reached…
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A Cauldron of Stars, Chapter 3
“Where’s Dolph?” Irene said in a low voice as I reached her perch. “Over there,” I said, pointing. From up here, we could see over the hedges, all the way to the island next door. Irene’s tension told me she had spotted the Sunderer ships, too. I kept climbing up the ladder until I reached…
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A Cauldron Of Stars, Chapter 2
Zane might’ve walked away. Or I might’ve. Nothing of what followed need have happened. Then we decided to recognize each other, after all. Zane stopped walking. Dolph and I had already stopped. We stood face to face. The wind gusted over us, making Zane squint. I saw the white in the frown lines he’d acquired…
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A Cauldron Of Stars, Chapter 1
I strolled along the main drag of Uimaphathat Refugee Camp with my old Panama at a jaunty angle and a sparkly fairy flying two feet above my head. Dust blew like smoke on the wind of this unmemorable Fringe planet, which rattled the cat’s cradle of power lines overhead, and tangled the banners hanging out…
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The Chemical Mage Chapter 4
Colm slid into the shadow of the byre, taking care not to step on the dead Ghosts sprawled against the wall. Lacking a battlesuit, he was vulnerable to enemy fire, so careful, careful, and remember that when you’re away from your ship you haven’t got eyes in the back of your head. With a hurried…
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The Chemical Mage Chapter 3
Meg cleared the outbuildings one by one. She wasn’t a farm girl. Grew up in Tokyo, thinking that produce grew on supermarket shelves. She didn’t know what all these sheds and barns were for. What they had become was abattoirs. Ghosts lay everywhere, cut down by rifle or machine-gun fire. It didn’t help that they…
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The Chemical Mage Chapter 2
The medevac request had come from a settlement called Drumlin Farm. Colm called the local artillery command post, located in a former mountaineering base camp on the island’s central peak, and asked them to lay off shelling the area until he got in and out. Just a professional courtesy. They said sure, we’re out of…
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The Chemical Mage Chapter 1
Beep. Beep. Beeeeep. The duty officer on the flight deck of the Unsinkable, an FTL-capable supercarrier, took the call. “Sorry, Sarge, we cannot launch a routine medevac after dark. Call back at first light.” Colm Mackenzie, having opened one eye without being fully aware of it, went back to sleep. Curled on a storage chest…
