Short Fiction

Ed Garth

Garth is the returning rescuer in a story of lost memory and buried guilt: he came back to a cavern world where Doc Willard, the man he thought he killed, still lives behind a barrier the Zarno cannot cross. Their reunion hinges on a fake sacrifice that went wrong, a stale antitoxin, and five years of not knowing. His drive to reach the hidden hangar and its Ancient flying-boats makes him the engine of the escape plot.

Nicholas Martin

Martin is a negotiator who has been coasting on an impressed character-matrix and now wants an upgrade—something less civilized, more terrifying. He talks a semantically adjusted robot into the swap by weaponizing Disraeli's golden tongue, then waits for the Ivan-effect to hit. His gamble on character over size is the hinge of the story's central confrontation with St. Cyr.

Derek Stuart

Stuart is the remembering eye in the Port Room, the man who knew Steve Arnsen when he was rakehell and handsome and dragged Doug O'Brien along like a kite's tail. He reads the ravaged face across the table and knows the question coming is not small. His willingness to listen—and to see the crystal—makes him the witness the story needs.

Jerry Vanning

Vanning sits at his drink watching ships roll across the tarmac, killing time before a flight, when an old friend sits down looking like a damned soul. He buys the drinks, asks the plain question, and gets shown a shagreen box and a crystal that flows with slow light. His calm curiosity is the reader's entry into the story's central mystery.

Steve Arnsen

Arnsen is a man split from his old self: the Hercules-built rakehell now carries hell in his face and a shagreen box in his cupped hands. He came back hoping Earth would erase what happened, but he is already booking passage to Callisto or Mars, anywhere but here. The question he needs answered—and the crystal he shows—pull the story into its uncanny territory.

Samuel Dantan

Dantan is a predator shaped by grief: once godson to an old shaman, he became an outlaw after Redhelm raiders killed a girl he loved, and he has been smashing commandments across the spaceways ever since. Now the Redhelms hunt him across the dying tundras, and the double moons have not yet risen. His return to Klanvahr—drawn by love and hatred in equal measure—sets the story's pursuit in motion.