2160 AD ૨૧૨૪ MA “These are dark times, Poron Cesil. Dark times indeed.” “No question about it, Councilor Rimosi. Bad enough we added the bluefaces. Worse that we added the fish and the lizards and the gorram shaars. But the frakking bhatwani? You’ve gotta be frakking kidding me. The Empire won’t survive it.” Jori Rimosi …
Category: Short Stories
Chapter One The Debate by D.X. Machina
2157 AD ૨૧૨૪ MA The cabinet meeting was nearing adjournment when Pane Segdi’s pad chirruped. She looked down, and her eyes widened. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known this was coming. They all had. Still, not even four months had passed since First Contact, and at that point, they’d been told it would be a …
Part 4 Vignettes: Alex's Odyssey by JohnnyScribe
Rixie’s eyes fluttered open and she stared at the ceiling for a long moment. Today she had resolved herself to do something that she had been procrastinating on- though not without reason. With a sigh Rixie hauled herself out of bed and threw a bathrobe over herself, cinching it tight as she padded down the …
Epilogue Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? by D.X. Machina
A few weeks later…. “So anything else I need to know before I meet with the leadership group?” “Yeah,” Ammer said, flipping through his pad. “Titan Party’s numbers have spiked in my most recent models. 30-40 probably, 50 isn’t out of the question.” Loona leaned back in the chair. “Gorram, knew that was coming, but….” …
Chapter Six Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? by D.X. Machina
“You don’t mean that,” Danae said. “What, that we’re awful? We are, Day. Ammer didn’t say it, but I know why he didn’t want to press charges against mom. Not because he was forgiving – though he is, Day, he is – but because he couldn’t. I could press charges against mom, for damaging my …
Chapter Five Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? by D.X. Machina
A few weeks later…. Thio Smit watched his son carefully. Ammer was so very like him in so many ways. Oh, he had his mother’s book smarts – not that Thio was a fool, but Ammer had Jaya’s love of learning. True, his was focused on politics, but he had been quite successful in his …
Chapter Four Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? by D.X. Machina
He had gone unconscious, limp in her hand. She needed just one more good, hard squeeze, and the greatest threat to her daughter’s future would be eliminated. Inna would hate her. She knew that. But in time, perhaps, she’d realize she’d done right. She’d find a good Titan boy or girl, and have a child …
Chapter Three Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? by D.X. Machina
Inna stared at her mother, almost defiantly. She hated owning Ammer, even though she was proud – hell, awed – that he trusted her enough to place control of his life in her hands. And she was determined to be worthy of that trust. She hadn’t told him, but she’d given Loona a signed, undated …
The Red String Part 2 by DX Machina and JohnnyScribe
Ryan had spent the better part of the past two days pacing. Had it been any other girl in the galaxy, he would have had little doubt what an invitation to a date in her guest suite meant. Oh, he would have verified it when he got there, of course, but he would almost never …
The Red String by DX Machina and JohnnyScribe
Ryan Alexander Carey pulled his coat tight against the chill of the Avalonian night air. He was out on the street, softly lit by evenly spaced electric lamps. Up ahead, he saw his destination. The bar took up nearly half a block now. A far cry from the hole-in-the-wall his father had founded the establishment …