Filling the Void - Chapter Ten
Dagen checked his appearance in the wall mirror hanging beside his front door. He wasn't a particularly vain man, but after having appeared in public one too many times with uncombed hair and/or a raisin stuck to his tooth, he'd decided that putting a...
Filling the Void - Chapter Sixteen
"He hardly calls any more," Dagen complained, knowing full well that he sounded like a churlish old fishwife but not caring enough to stop. "I almost feel as if I've been abandoned." "You got along just fine before you had Victus in your life," Abbot...
Filling the Void - Chapter Nineteen
"So what's this guy like?" Lucas asked, as he smoothed wrinkles from his shirt. "You know, really. The way everyone gets that weird look in their eyes whenever someone mentions his name, he must be a real piece of work." "If by, 'a piece of work' you...
Worlds Apart, Chapter Fifteen
In the end, Dan's off-the-cuff guess was correct. Whatever had crippled their ship had hit it with enough force to rotate it almost 180 degrees by the time it arrived at the jump gate, and by sheer dumb luck the engines speared through the field...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-Two
From the chair in his private office, Negin Mal glared down at his personal guards from the raised platform he'd had constructed behind the desk to enhance his psychological advantage. To Mal's consternation, Victus's air of cool detachment hadn't...
Worlds Apart - Chapter Fourteen
As always, thanks go out to TheGoldenUnicorn and JK Victus for their tireless help and friendship! Dan sucked the last of his drink through the straw with a satisfying slurp, earning a disapproving glare from of one of the matrons playing bridge at a...
Worlds Apart - Chapter Seventeen
Victus grunted and heaved along with a half-dozen other men as they wrestled another group of folding seats that had been liberated from the ship’s theater. They navigated into the landing bay through milling groups of people, then stacked the...
Worlds Apart - Chapter Twenty Three
Drops of rain spattered against the tractor’s bright green paint, throwing smaller droplets into Bo’s face as he worked. Annoying as it was, he would never complain about rain. Long summers working on his grandparents’ farm as a youngster...
Worlds Apart - Epilogue
...begin message... ...2466.14.59.22.81... "Attention! Attention! This authorized alert message from the Civilian Defense Bureau lasts two minutes and five seconds. This is not a drill. Please listen to this end of this message for important...
Worlds Apart - Chapter Nineteen
Dan turned and watched as shuttle six rose a meter off the landing bay floor, pivoted, and smoothly followed shuttle one on its way to the planet. On its way out, Dan saw Victus through the cockpit’s reinforced front window. Standing behind the...
Worlds Apart - Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dan had expected to rejoin the survey crew by nightfall, but an unexpected headwind slowed their progress to a crawl. “It's getting dark soon," he told the person on the other end of the radio, “and I don't want Dali to...run into something we...
Filling the Void - Chapter Twenty-four (and a half)
Sixteen hours spent riding between House Mal and the Kenzine monastery had given Victus plenty of time to think. He'd started his journey contemplating the possibility that Lucas MacKenzie would have been better off had he been left in the pits, but...