Aftermath
Fahdah awakened, and knew she had to be dead because there was no more pain. There was nothing. Just darkness, and the thin whisper of cool air touching her cheek. Not the afterlife she'd expected. Not the gardens of Jannah, not the fires of Jahannam,...
RVA: Through a Hologram Darkly
It hadn't taken much to pull the outfit together. Melanie already had a full body scan of herself on file for ordering formal business dresses. She sat at her desk in the office she kept on Nagrim Prime, and took a sip of wine. She merged it with the...
RVA: The Red Vixen Redux
"This is going to be an interesting conversation," Rolas noted dryly, as their personal skimmer hummed along the road to Greenholme Colony's Governor's Mansion. Not wishing to waste time, they'd driven it straight out of the cargo of the borrowed House...
RVA: Rank Hath Its Privileges''
"Rolas, a word in private, if you would," Lieutenant Cannonloader said to Rolas. They were in the engineering locker room aboard the_FNS Emphatic_, changing out of their tech coveralls and back into their proper uniforms after the end of their shift....
RVA: High Tea
"I do appreciate you inviting us here to your holiday manor," Hazel said, sipping her tea lightly, as she sat across from Lady Midnight in the sitting room of Rolas and Midnight's holiday...
Groupthink
Dr. Jordan gave Astrid a look over her drink. "How's your paper on AI psychology going?" The young grad student gave Jordan a shrug. "I'm not sure. My original intent was to get a better idea of how morphs engage in real time threat analysis...
Renaissance Affair
"Y'know, Chula, I don't think a sari is really renfaire attire," I pointed out. We picked up our tickets from the booth and stepped through the stone archway into the faire. It was already filled with a few thousand revelers, several stages with shows,...
Ring of Blood
When I finally woke up, the world had ended 1,500 years ago. But that was okay, because God built a new one. ### I stood outside on the neatly manicured lawn of the waking center. Through the open archway leading inside the recovery room. I...
Summervixen Redux
It had been a moment of rare congeniality between Melanie and her sister-in-law Sallivera. The event had been triggered by the end of the long legal battle to have Salli's wife, Alinadar, finally freed of her criminal indenture, allowing her and Salli...
At Prayer
Once Fahdah had dreamed of gold and jewels. Of walking on strange, alien worlds, her body draped in robes of silken finery. Of having power. Waqur rabbighfir warham wa'anta khayrur rahimeen. (So say, "Our Lord! Grant us forgiveness and mercy! For...
Oiled Leather
You couldn't miss the smell of oiled leather. In Salli's mind it brought back memories of rides she had taken in her youth, aboard very expensive imported Terran horses at first, suitable for young cubs, and then the much more dangerous and deliriously...