"$1,000 a Plate" takes place on Mars' moon Deimos, at a time when it has been highly commercialized and visitor friendly. The enterpreneurial casino business has arrived to entice the tourist trade to part with their dollars, while research and exploration is taking place via astronomers and their telescopes searching the heavens in Deimos' crystal clear atmosphere. But there is a problem...
Hard Science Fiction mixed with Romantic Love and Sex. What more is there? (Sorry, no war here!) -- Two teens starting a universe shifting life. Simple beginning, Grandiose ending. ;-)
Just missing the tall, gaunt man who dodged down the stairs of the Earth Embassy. A figure loomed in a doorway and he snapped off a quick blaster shot at it--missed. He'd killed one man, wounded others--and was carrying papers stolen from the secret Embassy files. They had to stop him--but they couldn't! And, worlds away, the men of Department 99 watched on their galaxy-spanning view-screen. knowing they were responsible for this disaster--and powerless to do anything about it!
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection In the final months of the nineteenth century, Paris revels in being the City of Light. Yet it is hard, and often dirty, work to maintain its place as the pinnacle of civilization. Someone must deal with mysterious sightings, thieves falling from the sky and breaches in State security. Someone like M. Vautrin, confidential investigator... ~9,000 words. [Advisory: aeroships and orange cats play significant roles in this story]
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection London, 1829. Two criminal enclaves battle for supremacy south of the Thames. Second in a steampunk collection from 2015 (notice: no real or virtual steam was applied in this particular story). ~5,200 words.
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection It's 1957. In a Toronto waterfront warehouse, a group of automatons are having a religious experience. WHAT? ~4,700 words.
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection Bunny Boyce was happy to serve in a unit where aeros didn't crash: they had landing incidents. On a New Year's test flight, both his attitude and luck began to change. ~ 4,000 words.
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection What is a routine study for his parents leaves a much deeper impression on a 12-year old. A lifetime of loss, disappointment and betrayal is balanced by recollections of a single act of bravery and sacrifice. ~ 4,100 words.
From the Phantom of the Louvre collection A young Australian, resilient and yearning to set her own course in life, journeys far to do so: first sailing South to the sea, then ... ~5,560 words.
