Out on the ice-buried planet, Commander Red Stone led his Free Companions to almost certain death. They died for a dangerous dream that had only one chance in a thousand trillion to come true. Is there a better reason for dying?
Thomas Morgan, a disillusioned former U.S. Army soldier, is drifting through life as a salvager in the deserts of the Southwest. Haunted by his past and seeking purpose, he stumbles across a bizarre artifact in the ruins of a decommissioned military research facility—a sleek, palm-sized orb pulsating with energy. The orb, a self-contained AI named Solace, introduces itself as an ancient construct designed by a lost alien civilization. Solace reveals that hidden beneath the sands lies the Erebus.
There have been a number of interesting theories advanced about life on Mars, but the intriguing picture of the world of Longtree and Channeljumper in its infinite variations, tonal and thematic. The Mars of these two is an old culture, old and finite.
The first ripples of blue fire touched Dio's men. Bolts of it fastened on gun-butts, and knuckles. Men screamed and fell. Jill cried out as he tore silver ornaments from her dress.
When Rudy bought a recycled robot to help his grandmother, he was expecting a home assistant, not a combat android with ninja reflexes and a killer instinct. Doña Nilda sees in her new companion the perfect opportunity to become the most feared vigilante in the area. Between extreme training, debt collectors fleeing in terror, and a flamethrower “standard for night operations,” Grandma and her robot take neighborhood security to a completely illegal level.
Venus was the most miserable planet in the system, peopled by miserable excuses for human beings. And somewhere among this conglomeration of boiling protoplasm there was a being unlike the others, a being who walked and talked like the others but who was different--and afraid the difference would be discovered. You'll remember this short story.
He was tired of people--a "human interest" columnist, who specializes in glamorizations of the commonplace and sordid is likely to get that way. So. this starship seemed to offer the ideal escape from it all