Sarah

Someone was coming down the path. He was a man, somehow official and shoddy looking at the same time. The official elements of his person were encouraging, enough so that Sarah was prepared to accept the other less impressive aspects. Officialness meant that he might be coming on official business. At present, there was only one … [continue]

In the year 527 al (after launch) the captain/navigator Constantine Smith arranged for his son Commodus Smith, to inherit civil and navigational command of the ship. Thus was born the Smith dynasty, which ruled unchallenged until the ascension of Quintus Smith to the throne in 811 al.

Shortly after Quintus took the throne he began a massive … [continue]

SARAH SPIVAK

Sarah Spivak drove a small electrical cart along a worn dirt road. To her left was a field of tall grass and wild flowers, to her right a forest of young oak and beech. The day was warm bordering on hot, and there was not a cloud in the sky, nor was there a sun in the … [continue]

HOWARD DEKAKE

Howard Dekake had barely slept in three days, not since that night. He had tried going to bed as usual, but sleep itself was impossible. His mind kept turning over and under what he had heard, trying without success to make it mean something else, something innocuous. He tried telling himself that it was just some boozy babbling … [continue]

Gregory woke. For a long moment he lay in bed with his eyes closed, wallowing in misery. His head throbbed, his eyelids seemed to be glued shut, and his mouth tasted of smoked animal waste. It was more than a hangover, it was the full fruition of biological and karmic payback for every bit of fun Gregory had ever had. … [continue]

I woke with the dawn and began getting up. Progress was incremental. First I rolled to the edge of the cot and then I sent my feet out to scout for the floor. For a moment I rested there, feet on the floor, elbows on my knees and head in my hands. The whole of my body ached, but certain … [continue]

The hat poured me a stiff one, the bottle angled so that the liquor came out slow and steady. He pushed the cup across the table and left the bottle in the middle. His own cup stayed empty.

“Aren’t you going to have one?” I asked.

“I’m not going to drink with you Sam. It wouldn’t … [continue]

When I came to it was still dark outside. I was in the ditch, and my head ached from more than just bad booze. At some point that bastard Ike must’ve given me the bum’s rush. I felt around my mouth to see if I still had any teeth left, I didn’t find any new empty spots, I supposed Ike … [continue]

At first he was no more than a plume of dust in the western sky. He could have been an excited mule dear or a stubborn Comanche, but something told me to keep watching the horizon. Out here you learn the virtue of patience the hard way. You wait for the mail wagon and the whisky peddler and then you … [continue]