Visitors to this website probably know that I give away a lot of free fiction in the form of downloadable PDFs. (The list of them is found on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page. Just click on the titles you want to download.) Most of these PDF downloads correspond to short fiction collections or single, long novellas, but there are also complete novels available—two “Esther Brookstone” novels so far. And I’ve just added two new items: Revenge at Last and Sleuthing, British-Style, Volume Four.

“Revenge at Last” is also the first novella in this three-novella collection of the same name. It’s something like a sequel to the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy, which in turn was a spin-off from the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. In the novella, Morgan gets a new boss, DCI Mark Hunter, and a new murder case, its female victim being a rock group’s sometimes soloist and business manager.

The second novella in this collection, “Kill Shot,” features Owen Wilson, one of Steve Morgan’s detective sergeants, who describes the murder case of a young IT expert who was also an avid amateur athlete. Owen was forced to become Senior Investigating Officer on a previous case; he must also do some heavy lifting now on this one.

The third novella, “Memories of East Berlin,” finds the inimitable Esther Brookstone, now retired, and Philippa Bernard, Hal Leonard’s lovely French girlfriend, now working for the DGSI, attending a short watercolors-painting course at a university in Berlin. Esther recognizes someone from her distant past when she was an MI6 spy in East Berlin.

The second new PDF download, Sleuthing, British-Style, Volume Four, continues this series of short fiction collections with three new novellas set in the UK but also with new characters. In “The Hit-and-Run Victim,” Detective Inspector Maggie Olson gets involved with the victim, an ER doctor, but investigating that case leads to something much more insidious. In “Playtime in the Park,” investigative reporter Ben teams up with ER nurse Christy and old Detective Inspector Ed Stevenson to investigate why someone attempts to murder a visiting businessman from NYC. Finally, in “The Viking’s Axe,” Detective Inspector Mark Meadows and his two detective sergeants work hard to discover who killed a fifth- and sixth-form school professor with an ancient battle axe.

Please note all this short fiction has been carefully content- and copy-edited and formatted to give you many hours of reading enjoyment. As with all these free PDFs, I only skipped those last few final steps needed to publish these two collections with Draft2Digital/Smashwords. Consider them gifts to you, my readers. I hope you enjoy them.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on the “Join the Conversation” web page.)

The “Inspector Steve Morgan” Trilogy. While Steve’s arrival at Bristol PD from Scotland Yard is described in The Klimt Connection (eighth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” Series that’s more about Morgan’s secondment with MI5),  the three novels, Legacy of Evil, Cult of Evil, and Fear the Asian Evil, describe three murder cases that the detective inspector and his team at his new nick strive to solve despite facing all sorts of obstacles. (The novella described above considers yet another case.)

Morgan is one of my most complex characters. There might be more of his cases coming!

Enjoy.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

The Gift

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

            “You’re from the Middle East, I suppose,” Bubba said to Ed as they sped along.

“Iraq. I was an interpreter for the US Army. I was able to get here just before…well, you know. I’m still trying to get my family out.”

“Sometimes our government does things that make no sense. Where ‘bouts in Iraq did you serve?”

“Green Zone mostly. Outskirts of Baghdad. I retrained as an EMT when I arrived here in the States.”

“Probably better than truckin’. ‘Course I know how to fix a truck. Your heli’s a complete loss.”

“Not mine. Birdman’s. The dead pilot inside. He was a great guy. Lived to fly helis.”

“Sad. Heli looked old, though. They don’t last forever, you know. Them tourist ones are always going down.”

Bubba sounded the horn and went around two slow cars, doing so in the prohibited fast lane.

Please, troopers, don’t stop us now, mused Ed.

***

            “You fellas are in an awfully big hurry,” drawled the trooper.

“Cut me some slack, sir,” Bubba said. “Ed here needs to deliver a heart for a transplant.”

“Is that right? Where’s the heart?”

Ed pointed to the container behind his seat. It looked a bit like a picnic container for brewskis, but the red cross and lettering was distinctive.

The trooper nodded. “Okay, just follow me. I’ll use the siren and flashers. I can radio ahead too.”

They pulled into the ER’s entrance about forty minutes later than the original time Ed had estimated. Nurses were waiting.

Are we in time to save the woman? thought Ed.

***

[Six months later…]

“Ready for the best damn barbecue this side of the Mississippi?” Mitch Brady called out to his guests when they walked nervously into his backyard. “You all find some seats and I’ll get you some brewskis.”

“Diet coke or some other soda for me,” Ed said, “if you have any.”

“I’ll get them,” said Dr. Chang. “You watch the meat, Mitch.” He later joined Bubba, Ed, and Charlie Red Feather, the state trooper, all of them a bit uncomfortable for being invited to what was a special family affair.

“We’re a bit like the UN here,” the surgeon said with a laugh, saluting his new friends with his Bud.

“Cherokee Nation in my case,” said Charlie, saluting them too. “Just my papa, though. Mama was a Mexican lady. I don’t drink much, but a cold beer on a hot day goes down well.”

At that moment, Dot Brady made her appearance. She came out of the house, looked around, and then walked toward them. She hugged them all.

“Thank you for coming. This is my birthday. I thought I wouldn’t have another one. Thanks to you fellows, I can. Thank you for saving my life.”

“Me too,” said Mitch, walking over. “Dot’s doing real good now.”

“That’s wonderful, Mr. Brady,” said Bubba.

“You bet it is. And call me Mitch. Let me introduce you all to the family. And then we feast. Watch out, though, ‘cause our daughters are eating for two. I even have lamp chops and chicken breasts for you, Ed.”

Ed smiled at Mitch and winked at Bubba and Charlie.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Binge-Reading #2. While I binge on other author’s series, you can binge on mine. Last week, I featured the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy.” This week, consider my “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” seven books that make concrete the first part of my trademark motto, “Around the world…,” because they generally start with a homicide in Manhattan but often move to other US and international settings. The one exception is Aristocrats and Assassins, which starts with Castilblanco and his wife Pam on vacation in Europe (Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, a main character in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, makes his first appearance here).

Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: The following is an old story that I dug out of my archives and modified. It reflects some current sociological concerns. It’s in two parts; the second appears tomorrow. Enjoy.]

The Gift

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

“We have a heart for you, Mrs. Brady,” the cardiologist said to his patient. He also smiled at the husband.

“Thank you, doctor.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

The husband glared at Dr. Chang. “Not from one of them virus patients, I hope. You’d like that I suppose. Or is it a black heart? She don’t need any black heart either.”

“Mitch!” This time the woman’s voice rose to a more normal level. “You should have left your bigotry at home!”

“Mr. Brady, can I speak to you outside?”

“I suppose. Be right back, Dot.”

The patient’s husband followed the doctor out of the room, a scowl on his face. The Chinese American doctor shut the door behind them.

He went right to the essential. “FYI, Mr. Brady: Your wife is going to die soon if she doesn’t receive this transplant. Do you understand that?”

“It is a black heart. I knew it!”

“It’s a healthy human heart. A man was killed in a terrible accident on the interstate. He was a full organ donor. Eyes, everything. Do you understand how lucky your wife and you are?”

“Black and male too. God help Dot!”

“His heart will save your wife’s life, Mr. Brady. Or do you want to be her murderer? That’s how I would think of you.”

“Listen here, you young punk!” Mitch Brady poked the doctor in the chest. “You can’t order me ‘round or insult me.”

“Let me suggest you go back in there, then, and tell your wife you want her to die. You might want to ask her what her choice is before you do that, though.”

He seemed a bit more subdued. “I know what the hell she wants. She’d like a chance to live to see her grandkids. Always talks about that, the stupid woman. Makes our daughters nuts.”

“Sounds like she’s a loving person. How did she come to marry you?”

Brady didn’t catch the insult and thought a moment. “There’s no other way?”

“No. And time is of the essence.”

“She’ll live?”

“No guarantees, but it’s her only chance at this moment.”

“A black man’s heart. What’s this world coming to? But okay. Let’s do it.”

***

            “Only seventy miles? Piece of cake, Ed.”

Ed handed the refrigerated container to the pilot and climbed aboard the helicopter. He had complete confidence in Birdman to get him and his precious cargo to Mercy Hospital in time. Ed had lost count of how many times they’d done it before. He put on the headphones and adjusted the mike. Birdman already had his on, his bald head glistening with perspiration. One might expect the tattoos to start running in the heat.

“They have three landing pads,” Ed said over the engine noise. “At least one should be open.”

“I’ll land on the lawn if I have to. Hold on!”    (more…)

[Although we live in NJ (only thirteen miles from the Lincoln Tunnel), wildlife is plentiful around here, especially now during the pandemic. We’ve even had deer on the lawn. Earlier this spring, we had a woodchuck mother make her annual return to her hideaway under our shed, and squirrels and chipmunks seem plentiful this year as well. The little tale that follows is just another reminder that Nature’s creatures can do just fine without us. Consider this story a fable. Hopefully it brightens your life a bit.]

The Cardinals

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

Mrs. Cardinal had picked Mr. Cardinal because he was a good-looking guy strutting on the branches and whistling his songs. He was a rather modest fellow as male cardinals ago, in spite of his spiffy red plumage. As a new wife, though, she chose a less than ideal place to build her nest—a forsythia hedge that formed the boundary between the Moores’ house and the neighbors’. It was high enough to keep her young safe from the neighborhood terrorists, the cat sisters; the cardinals rather enjoyed taunting them as they eyed them from below. But Mrs, Cardinal, being a new mom, hadn’t counted on the hedge trimmers, mowers, and leaf blowers.

The human gardeners threatened the nest with their trimming shears. At least they didn’t make that much noise, only a subtle snip-snip, but they seemed more dangerous than the cat sisters. Mrs. Cardinal left her children and Mr. Cardinal to forage, while Mr. Cardinal, also wary of the trimmers, stood guard from the neighbors’ portico.

The mowers and blowers then arrived. The cardinal parents decided that was more noise than threat, but when the human’s machines started, they darted away, only returning after they came to that decision. They’d also concluded that those machines weren’t so bad: they kept the cat sisters at bay.

The little cardinals are growing up now and soon will be ready to leave the nest and start their own families in their dangerous world of threatening cats, humans, and the latter’s tools. Winter would come and be a threat too. But even with all that, their cardinal lives were full of joy.

Moral: Gaia’s great wheel of life continues to roll along, in spite of human technology.

***

Comments are welcome.

Binge-reading #1. Reading an entire series certainly qualifies as binge-reading…and why not? The books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are examples of those rare kinds of thriller David Baldacci, Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver, James Patterson,  and others might want to write but can’t: Each sci-fi novel in this trilogy is a big thrill ride. Full Medical is about a conspiracy where world leaders make sure they have enough body parts as they age; you’ll meet the clones. Evil Agenda is about an evil genius who’s out to take over the world; the clones are still around to try to stop him, and they’re joined by a mutant warrior. No Amber Waves of Grain is about a North Korean industrialist who’s out for revenge against the West; the clones team up with that first evil genius to try and stop him—but Chinese and Russians are lurking around too. The entire series can be found on Amazon and Smashwords and at all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker&Taylor, Gardners, etc.). Many entertaining hours of reading await you.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]

Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

Some of Captain Irving’s crew were stunned by Obregon’s history lesson; others just curious.

“I might speak for the others in saying that we’ve just heard a very long sci-fi saga,” said Betty Liu, Irving’s chief navigator, “and are amazed that it’s all true.”

“Rather incomplete,” said Lester, “but Carlos did a good job. You can fill in the details at your leisure by chatting with Brendan’s AI. By the way, as soon as yours is fixed, we can try to update its database.”

“The question now becomes,” Irving said to his crew, “what do we want to do.”

“This ITUIP has colonies, you say?” Liu asked Carlos and Lester.

Lester shrugged. “Colonies come in many shapes and forms. ITUIP, with the SEB’s catalog of potential colony planets, can be accessed by anyone in the Union. Starships, as they make their rounds through ITUIP, update their databases with data collected by the SEB. Let’s call it organized chaos because the ships are the fastest form of communication within ITUIP, so all databases aren’t equal.”

“That said, we can hardly keep up with the demand for colony planets,” said Obregon. “When a colony has become stable and is beyond those first pioneering decades, it usually becomes a member of ITUIP…but not always. There are benefits, although some colonists don’t see them and are happy to be left alone. ITUIP respects that, and sometimes must enforce the latter by putting colonies into quarantine when strange regimes control them.”

“We were sent here to colonize this planet,” Irving said. “Couldn’t we still do that?”

Liu and the others nodded.

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Lester said, “if that’s what you want.”

Liu looked around the table at her colleagues. “Give us a few minutes,” she said.

***

“Do you think there’ll be a heated discussion?” Lester asked Carlos as they explored the silent, centuries-old starship. Different things interested each man, but the overall experience was as if they were in a historical hologram.

Obregon was about to answer when the voice of one of the techies came into their ear implants.

“Captain, we’ve found the glitch. Some circuits in their AI blew. They corresponded to subroutines that control the cryo process, including its associated sensors. Fortunately everything kept functioning on automatic. Even the failsafe coding locked up.”

“In other words, they had redundancy, but that didn’t work either?”

“Right-o. The crewmembers awake at the time it happened couldn’t wake up those in cryo, and they couldn’t go into cryo either to save themselves. Simple as that. Everything else in the ship continued to function. That’s mostly autonomous systems where the AI’s not needed. It’s in a coma, by the way.”

“Can you repair it? If these people are going to start a colony, they’ll need a functioning AI.”

“We’ll keep working. It’s not a trivial task. This is antiquated stuff. Cutting edge for the times, I suppose, but long ago surpassed.”

“Let’s assume they can fix the AI,” Obregon said to Lester. “If they want a colony, we should help them by completing our survey.”

“Of course.”

They were called back to the ready room.

***

“Some of us would like to hitch a ride on Brendan,” Irving informed Lester and Carlos. “Others want to start a colony. Is that possible?”

“I don’t see why not,” Lester said. “But are there enough of you staying to make the colony viable?”

“Four men and six women are staying,” said Irving.

“The women will be busy,” Obregon observed with a smile.

Liu smiled back at him. “That was the plan we agreed to back on Earth. Only Andy is going with the other women on Brendan.”

“I guess we’d better get busy, Lester, and finish our survey. That will at least give the colonists a running start. Five of these people need a cab, but the other ten need a planet.”

“I’d agree if I knew what a cab was.”

“If I tell you, will you get me another medical staff member when we return to Sanctuary?”

The colonists from Earth smiled at that exchange. They knew what  a cab was. Obregon would win in that barter.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]

Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

Obregon discovered that the number of people in cryounits was fifteen. Together with the mummified bodies found in Hope’s C&C, that made twenty Humans who had manned shifts where they would periodically wake up and check the ship’s systems and its precious cargo. Unlike the three previous colony ships, Hope carried mostly potential Humans—thousands of frozen fetuses, ova, and sperm would provide ample genetic diversity for a new colony. Only the colonization of the planet had never occurred. And why didn’t it? What went wrong?

He left those questions for the techies. Instead, he selected the first person to wake, Captain Josh Irving. He seemed to be the logical choice.

Obregon had to perform the task manually. The ship’s clock was stuck and its primitive AI dead. While the techies tried to figure out what had happened—better still, why the five awake and on duty couldn’t fix the problem or save themselves—Obregon and his staff had work to do.

***

“I don’t understand,” Irving said.

Obregon was sitting with him in the snack galley of Brendan, having left the other medics in his staff to continue with the process of waking up the other fourteen. The man was sipping tea; Obregon was watching him carefully for side effects. Some people out of cryo could have spasms long after being revived, something doctors called “cold epilepsy”; others could have mental problems, even dementia. Most did well, though.

“Which part?”

Obregon had explained how many centuries had passed since the Tali invasion of Earth, and how Brendan had come upon Hope. He’d also provided an all too brief summary of near-Earth history since Hope had left the Sol system.

“A lot of things. How did this Swarm come into being?”

“Ah.” The first encounter with that collective intelligence had occurred after the invention of the superstring drive. “We don’t exactly know. It’s sealed itself off now, and swallowed the Shipbuilders. We’ve never found another Singer, either.” Obregon had told Irving the story of the Singer and the Swarm, the former collective intelligence serving as a psychiatrist for the latter. “Everyone believes that there are more like Singer, but maybe just not in near-Earth space. Brent Mueller witnessed Singer’s destruction and insisted that was its way of propagating the species.”

“Like dandelions spreading,” said Irving.

Obregon nodded, even though he had no idea what dandelions were. He blamed his ignorance on his laziness about querying the AI; he found it annoying at times. He’d operated and put a standard implant behind Irving’s ear that got them beyond the man’s old Standard to its new incarnation, one that had involved from the old over the centuries.

“I thought you might ask me about the superstring drive. I’m glad you didn’t because I can’t help you there.”

“I’m curious about that, but I’ll probably never understand it.”

“I’m in that fix too. All I care about is that Brendan’s engineering and nav crew understand it, and our AI, of course. The AI is an integral part of that drive technology, in fact.”

“Interesting.”

At that moment, the AI spoke.

“Dr. Obregon, the remainder of Captain Irving’s crew is now awake and asking for him.”

Obregon smiled at Irving. “Perhaps I’ll have to repeat my story. Would you and they feel better having our little meeting in your ready room aboard Hope? I’ll ask Lester to join us.”

***

Comments are always welcome.

Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.

Are you curious about those earlier colony ships and all the near-Earth history Dr. Carlos discussed with Captain Irving? There’s a simple solution: The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection is the epic history about the first colonies, the Tali invasion, Swarm and Singer, and beyond. This bargain ebook bundle is available at Amazon in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]

Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

“There’s a ship in orbit,” the AI announced to Brendan’s crew.

Obregon, who had been standing behind the captain, perked up.

“I thought we were the first ship to visit this solar system,” he reminded everyone in Command & Control.

“Put it on the screen,” the captain said. Lester often ignored Obregon’s observations, sometimes to his detriment.

Historian Obregon recognized the old ship immediately—not the particular ship, but the type. “It’s just like Magellan.”

“The colony ship sent to New Haven?” Lester said.

“Same type. Magellan became an orbital museum after it was retired from active service. But this ship is similar. It’s a big-rig interplanetary ship designed for the Sol system retrofitted to haul colonists somewhere, very slowly compared to modern ships. No superstring FTL drives back then.”

“I confirm Dr. Obregon’s observations,” said the AI. “This ship is named Hope.”

The ship’s AI was multi-purpose. Its most important task was to negotiate the jumps from universe to universe within the multiverse, what gave the appearance of FTL travel and a delicate task that Brendan’s navigation and engineering teams could understand in theory but lacked the computing speed in practice needed to do the job. Coordinating all the ship’s sensors and communications was secondary but also necessary. And the AI also provided an extensive database that was continuously updated at each port of call to contain most knowledge of each ITUIP member’s history.

“When was it sent out?” said Lester.

“That datum isn’t in my database,” said the AI.

“As far as I know,” said Obregon, “only three colony ships were launched before the Tali invasion of the Sol system.”

“Correct,” said the AI. “I have plans for the retrofitting of this one. They’d already christened it Hope. I have no data about its launch, though. There is a possible reason for that: Its projected launch date corresponds to that invasion.”

“Perhaps it was launched before the Tali reached Earth, maybe even during that invasion, out of desperation.” Obregon glanced at Brendan’s Tali navigator. “Sorry, Gor’rak.”

“No problem,” said the Tali. “All that’s ancient history.”

“Very ancient,” said Lester. “Is there any sign of life?”

“Unlikely after all these centuries,” said Obregon.

“It only takes minimal power to maintain orbit,” said the AI. “I have detected thrusters that are making the small orbital corrections necessary for such a low orbit.”

Obregon dove deep into history. The trip to New Haven his ancestors had taken took over a century. New Haven’s star was also G-type, 82 Eridani. He remembered details about that epic journey.

“By the same token, there might be people in cryounits onboard.”

“What?” said Lester. “That’s impossible!”

“Not really,” said the AI. “We still use cryounits along with portadocs in the lifeboats where a superstring drive isn’t available.”

“You’ll want to send a security team over to Hope, Lester,” said Obregon. “And my people should be there too, just in case there are people in the units. If they are, we’ll have to gently wake them up from a very long nap.” He waved a hand to the C&C crew. “I’m done talking. I’m going to get my people ready.”

***

Comments are always welcome.

Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]

Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

Carlos Obregon’s tenure in the Space Exploration Bureau (SEB) was filled with many new and interesting events, but some of the most interesting weren’t experienced on E-type planets already listed in catalogs. Revisiting those listed to check or make a more complete study to ensure they were still suitable for colonization could be boring routine.

Most intelligent species in the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets (ITUIP, pronounced “eye-tweep”), for which SEB was a Union-wide agency, preferred E-type planets and wanted real estate for colonies. That final SEB step, which consisted of a complete mapping, lists of available natural resources, more studies of flora and fauna, and rules for a gentle remodeling to meet colonists’ needs with minimal damage to the environment—what used to be called terraforming—was a necessary one but rarely presented problems for Obregon and his medical staff.

No, he always found it more interesting to make the initial discovery of a new E-type planet and study it only enough to include it in the catalog. Some E-type planets were detectable using extensions of techniques dating all the way back to Earth’s twentieth century but remained unvisited until the starship Brendan visited the solar system; others were in solar systems obscured by galactic debris, requiring a visit, making the initial E and what it stood for in SEB more appropriate.

***

Many systems had E-sized planets, not gas giants but stony worlds like the planets corresponding to the three original Earth colonies, Novo Mondo, Sanctuary, and New Haven, along with Venus, Earth, and Mars in the Sol system. But just Venus and Mars offered evidence that E-sized didn’t necessarily imply livable, at least not without domes, like on Mars. “Livable” in the sense of Earth’s habitat required satisfying the multi-dimensional version of the Goldilocks Principle: Everything had to be just right. Obregon was one of the few on Brendan who knew the origins of the term Goldilocks Principle because of his interest in Earth history, although anyone could ask the ship’s AI for that information.

So Obregon was interested in the solar system they were entering, one never visited before by any SEB starship. The combined knowledge database of several intelligent species—Humans, Rangers, Tali, Usks, and others—contained references only to the G-type star, its gravity well forcing the AI to take the starship back into normal space long before reaching the star’s farthest planet.

Even then, the news was good. There were three E-sized planets with orbits in that zone where liquid water might be found. There were only two gas giants, each with multiple moons, and numerous asteroids between the third E-sized planet and the first gas giant.

They would visit them all. Moons of gas giants sometimes were habitable, and pure science always justified a short visit, if only to collect data.

***

The two gas giants had a lot of moons, but none were E-sized or habitable. They had their share of their massive planet’s gas, mostly frozen methane. Brendan moved on to the third planet after a week in orbit around each gas giant.

That third E-type planet was bigger than Mars, but its sands were dirty yellow from the sulfur, not red. There were polar caps of frozen, unpotable water loaded with chemicals. It was possible to live on such an inhospitable planet—Sanctuary was an example of how to do it—but the atmosphere was just as toxic as Sanctuary’s.

Not choice real estate, thought Obregon when he heard the news. After five weeks in orbit, Brendan moved on the second E-type planet, a blue-like jewel mostly covered by water like New Haven. It looked perfect. There was a problem, though.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Passing the Divisive Torch

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

“My daughter, my princess, and your next president!”

The old man stepped aside from the lectern and offered the mike to the much younger woman, dressed in a famous designer’s gown, not from one of her own brands.

“You have been blessed to have my father’s steady hand at the tiller of the ship of state,” she began. “I will continue his work to make America great again!” There were cheers and thousands of nodding red hats in the crowd.

One Secret Service agent in that crowd stood by his partner, a woman. He never stopped surveilling that mass of humanity. There were always death threats against the old president and his daughter now, and only two weeks earlier, a mob of his white supremacist supporters had lynched a black man.

“You know, Lara, I’m sick of this bullshit. I’m not a fascist nor a racist. I’m resigning tomorrow. My own daughter has received death threats.”

The black woman studied him. “There are a lot of young people ready to revolt, millennials and gen-Z’ers mostly. I can’t blame them. My own son is an activist too. But I need my job.”

“I’m going to be a PI,” her partner said. “Business is booming for them. Attorneys are busy defending people from one side or the other—probably a lost cause for his enemies—and they need people to gather evidence. I’ll be okay with my pension and all that, especially mentally.”

“I’ll envy you. Protecting this SOB and his Barbie-doll spawn is a pain in the butt. Everybody hates them, except those in his fascist inner circle who pucker up and kiss his derriere. How did we come to this?”

“Nothing lasts forever, not even America.”

***

Comments are always welcome.

Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand! This is my longest title, but not my longest novel—and has both direct and hidden meaning. It’s the last novel in the Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection, all three books sold as a bargain ebook bundle. Read together, the reader will experience centuries of future history, going from a dystopian Earth run by multinational corporations and policed by their mercenaries; to first contact out among the stars and saving a strange collective intelligence; and finally to this story of how a psychotic industrialist schemes to take over all of near-Earth space (this is my bow to Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, and this villain is my Mule). Available in .mobi (Kindle) format at Amazon and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.). Hours of reading entertainment.

Around the world and to the Stars! In libris libertas!

[Scientific fact: The same rules now in place for COVID-19 also work to slow down climate change, as recent evidence shows. The virus is our immediate enemy; climate change is the long-term one that will affect all our descendants. I debated posting this little sci-fi story, but it seemed like a good time to do so. Neither likely presidential candidate has a clear environmental policy. People and politicians need to get smart to be safe and do their jobs of protecting society. And they need to think both short-term and long-term. The future of human beings on planet Earth isn’t guaranteed by any means. We haven’t been here very long in the grand scheme of things, and our time here could be shorter than many people realize.]

End Game

Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore

Raging waters in front of them, roaring flames in back—Dave hugged his wife and girls.  What can I say now? To his wife, maybe “I thought they were wrong”? To his girls, “You have no future”?

A Coast Guard helicopter was busy rescuing some families. Their turn would come if they didn’t drown or burn to a crisp first.

“How could this happen?” his wife Barbara asked.

He could hardly hear her question over the wind’s roar. It increased the storm surge and fanned the flames.

He had no answer, so he considered it a rhetorical question. If anything, she was asking it of the Universe, or their tiny piece of it, once a paradise but now threatening and foreboding.

He’d gone along with the other climate change deniers of his party. Industries came first; so did economic prosperity. He’d even believed that climate change was a hoax—didn’t the president say so?—just something liberals dreamed up to take away their economic good times.

Many things were like that. Guns don’t kill; certain crazies just used them to kill. Why waste money on saving lives of patients with fourth-stage cancer? And don’t we have to take care of our own before all those people seeking asylum from corrupt governments run amok?

His internal dialogue went on and on. He’d bought the party line. Why not? With the redistricting, he’d always be returned to Congress, just like the tenure those leftist professors had allowing them to brainwash college students.

He looked back at the flames and then at the approaching waters. Maybe the water will save us from the flames?

He looked skyward and heard the thump-thump of the helicopter. He waved as the searchlight bathed his family.

His mood started to change. They would be saved, but they wouldn’t be going home. The house had either become smoldering cinders or was underwater. But they would survive.

They had passed the tipping point long ago. That’s what the liberal media said. He doubted it. That’s just another one of their lies! He began planning his next speech to his constituents.

***

Comments are always welcome!

Mind Games. This is A.B. Carolan’s third book in the “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries” series. Androids with psi powers? What could go wrong? Della returns to her home in the Dark Domes on the planet Sanctuary to find her adopted father murdered. All her life he has told her to keep her psi powers hidden, but now she must hone her skills to find his murderer. Her quest takes her to Earth and then New Haven, planets in different star systems. She acquires many friends on those journeys and battles many enemies.  Set in my ITUIP (“Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets”), this novel is available in print and ebook (.mobi for Kindles) format on Amazon, and in all ebook formats on Smashwords and at its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Thompson, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!