33 Short stories hard copy edition. Includes historical, SF, fantasy, humour, ghost, horror.
Pax Imperii ¹
Alternate Universe - Realistic
Back in Stalin's day, bureaucracy functioned as intended; pervasive and intrusive; and oppressors and victims remained anonymous. In this Earth, bowler hats and pin stripes are symbols of power. The Ministry, along with the Foreign Corps, administers the Earth 'for its own good'. Pax Imperii - the peace of the empire.
Assume a state of affairs in which the British Empire reforms; that accounts for the Commonwealth. The United States has become the First Empire and everything else sits in the New Empire; all run by UK-WorldGov. Is the shape of the Earth still unclear?
Set against the backdrop of a 'Bacup Water'.
Wending Hall
Fiction - Historical
The founding of a public school in the fictional village of Wicester, is a story within a story. In this vignette, a mercenary and a trader reflect on their changed circumstance as Norman and Anglo-Saxon. Normans did not divide their lands among their children and the mercenary is a third child. He has no inheritance and the Crusades are a promise of adventure and loot. The trader has married into Soghdian blood – in the ancient world, the Soghdians were synonymous with trade on the Silk Road – and he anticipates the rise of the Genghiz Khan. The trader strikes a bargain. As a result, resonances of that past live to shine through to the present.
Carrie
Humour
A feral feline lurks in the heart of every tame tabby. What do cats think of our ways? Does anything we do make sense to them?
Dodger
Humour
Dogs. Small ones, large ones; all know their place in man's world. But do masters know the rules of the pack? Rarely. So some-one must guard the house, check out strangers for danger and sniff out interesting smells.
Derelict
Science Fiction
At great expense an exploration and survey vessel is commissioned and is investigating VIRGOHI121. If you’re into astronomy you’ll know that this is a place where the proportion of dark matter to normal matter is abnormally high. Dark matter galaxies can be risky and if you find a space derelict there, you can bet the risk factor goes up. Just to make things interesting UK-WorldGov (the British Empire in all but name) is sponsoring this mission.
Joe
Science Fiction
The Earth has been overrun by xenophids – giant sized creatures from outer-space. Joe is trying to contact survivors and he’s looking for them in the Appalachians. Humanity is on the brink of extinction, yet not everyone he meets is pulling the same way. First Contact with a vengeance. Shades of Orson Welles!
Excerpt
Excerpt from 'Joe: Safe House'
This building wasn't a thin paper-maché style box like most homes. It was big. Robust. Secure. Outside the thud-dump, thud-dump of alien creatures, as they hunted down survivors, could barely be heard.
Joe didn't imagine screams of terror and agony, he was just glad to be hidden.
They were safe for a while.
They stood facing each other, her back to the locked door.
Lights were a luxury. The dim glow of his pen-torch refracted from the floor on her chin. Pools of darkness hid her eyes. Beyond this little could be seen.
She looked on. Impassive shadow before him in the darkened room. Silent consideration.
Too late. Always too late; for regrets; for snap changes in direction. And far too late.
Eleanor. Long, long gone.
She'd laughed in his face when he'd asked her out. Kind? Unkind? He didn't know. All he remembered was feeling crushed and wondering if he'd ever be able to cope in her presence again.
She'd burned in his mind for a while.
Eleanor, had gone to Pittsburgh. Living with a no-good jerk who was bad news. Then the Xenophids had come. Big ugly bugs. Fast. Running rampage. The big cities became a killing ground. Joe was lucky to get out alive. He'd been on vacation.
Pittsburgh had been razed in an unsuccessful scorched earth gambit. The bugs had survived. For the people that were left it was an utter disaster.
'I lost touch those many years ago.'
Did he say that, or was he merely thinking in the dark?
'Things just moved on. And I – I let them go on without me. I wish I could have picked them back up.'
No. That was all done and gone; a pre-bug time.
At first he'd been plagued with nightmares. From which he woke sweating and confused.
Xenophids.
Hunting people.
Men, women and children.
What happened once they were caught? No survivors. But ragged, ruined flesh told its own tale. Played with for sport. The slowest speared with those sabre-sharp, serrated mandibles. The thought of terrified men, women and children herded into their killing grounds, played repeatedly in his mind.
Is that what happened to Eleanor?
No. Don't go there.
He thought he heard a closer noise. A scratching and grinding.
Did that smudge darkened face before him coax memory?
What had happened in Pittsburgh? Why couldn't he think? His thoughts were spinning.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
There it was again.
'Go on,' that moon glimmed face urged him.
Scratch, scratch....
Crack. A sound like shot.
Harsh light from ahead. But she, in front of him didn't seem to notice.
The wall. It was being dismantled behind her. Coming apart. Were there shapes outside? How? They had fled down flights of stairs to the basement.
'Aaah!'
Fierce shards of light pierced his eyes through jagged breaks in the wall.
Joe mentally recoiled.
The dark. The dark. He was safe in the dark. But light flickered and limned her. Could she not see?
She looked at him, unaware of movement behind.
Behind.
Hulked against the light.
A large, long, spindle like limb, feeling forward.
Don't move, Joe!
It'll see you!
Closer.
Closer.
He didn't dare speak, but surely she must know.
A small voice continued its narration,
'I really wanted to be with Eleanor. It's not that she didn't care for me. Just that I didn't express my feelings very well. I'm sure that it could have worked out...'
On and on the voice droned.
The woman in front seemed intent, concentrating on him. Perhaps she knew his story, even if she didn't hear. Yes. She must be a good listener, and he was pouring out his heart to her. That must be it.
But the light behind her. And that waving limb... was it a feeler? Was it a mandible?
She jerked suddenly as if grabbed from behind. A movement, a wild gyration as her hair was flung about and finally he saw her face.
Desperate.
Pleading.
Terror in her eyes, mirror to the horror that froze him.
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