Gralgiran took the brush out of his mouth. “And that’s all you have planned for our time at the station?” As had become their habits, he
Gralgiran took the brush out of his mouth. “And that’s all you have planned for our time at the station?” As had become their habits, he and Jeremy were talking while getting ready for their work. He returned to brushing his teeth.
“I don’t know what else there is for me to do. Bob’s going to be busy with Federation people. Thuruk and the others are going to watch a game. And b...
2025-05-17 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Too tired. He’d let himself get too abyss tired if he hadn’t noticed the life essence in the room until now. He had to give it to Charlie
Too tired.
He’d let himself get too abyss tired if he hadn’t noticed the life essence in the room until now.
He had to give it to Charlie, as the fighter leaned forward in the chair and cast his face in shadows. He could definitely look menacing.
“Care to explain what you’ve been up to?” the man asked.
“Before you say you don’t know what he’s talking about,...
2025-05-16 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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“What do I want to do to that man?” Jeremy chuckled at the question. Leiha hadn’t asked about him as often as he’d expected, since he’d told her about Omar Seywan, but as she had now, when she did, it took him by surprise. “I want to wring his neck, throw him in that cursed machine and let him see just how good it feels to be ‘healed’.” He took a breath. “I guess that doesn’t reflect all that good, does it?”
“The male orchestrated your torture. Wanting him to feel what you went through isn’t unreasonable. Th...
2025-05-15 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“Stop fidgeting,” Herns said, attaching cut fabrics around Tibs’s arm with needles. “I’m sure you’ve been poked by sharper things.” Tibs
“Stop fidgeting,” Herns said, attaching cut fabrics around Tibs’s arm with needles. “I’m sure you’ve been poked by sharper things.”
Tibs was more concerned with having to explain the lack of blood, if the tailor noticed he’d pieced flesh.
The fidgeting came about because he’d been forced to stand still too long. Knowing the fitting needed to be done didn’t...
2025-05-14 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The call came in while Gralgiran was dressing. The display told him who it was, and he smiled. “Hi.” “I hate him,” Jeremy said, sounding les
The call came in while Gralgiran was dressing. The display told him who it was, and he smiled.
“Hi.”
“I hate him,” Jeremy said, sounding less than his usual healthy self.
“Who?” He went over what he remembered of his Heart’s friends and didn’t come up with any possibilities there. Toom was one, but while he’d been noticed stalking Jeremy by a few hunters...
2025-05-13 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Tibs looked into the theater through the open high shutters, keeping the rain from going in. He tried to see and sense anyone out of place, but he didn’t know the people who were part of the theater well enough.
Neither Charlie nor Uzoma had been at the tavern they’d agreed to meet at. Which had to mean something had gone wrong. If they’d been captured, those who had done that now knew about the theater.
A look only told him people on the stage were acting out something, the many lights ensuring they were visible. Not if th...
2025-05-12 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The table materializes the way objects do in some of the science fiction movies in Bases’s collection. Seemingly out of nothing. He has them grow out of the floor, or the counter, or table, when those are already there. The only thing he doesn’t do that with is food. He never grows that before us.
Freaks people out, he told me when I asked why not. And it is kind of gross, I have to admit. Food ‘appears’ while we aren’t looking, or in a cabinet, or the fridge, or any other method that isn’t us looking at it.
This even...
2025-05-11 13:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The city was large, larger than any he could remember being—but that could be what spending almost thirty years in a small town did to someone. The guards looked him over as he entered, but he had nothing threatening on him. All he wore were the clothes he’d had on when Leo died and the dust of the road. He’d destroyed all his possessions when he’d erased the town from existence.
He walked among the people, not seeing them, or the buildings they were gawking at. He heard, but didn’t listen to, the merchants selling their wares...
2025-05-11 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“Hi mom. I don’t even know if you are going to get this. My friend tells me there’s bound to be ways, but somehow I doubt that after what
“Hi mom. I don’t even know if you are going to get this. My friend tells me there’s bound to be ways, but somehow I doubt that after what they did to me, those people are going to make it easy for anything I have to say to make it to Earth. Not that I’m going to talk about that.
“You won’t believe how hard it’s been to get myself to record this. It’s been suggested since w...
2025-05-10 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Charlie staggered into Tibs under the strength of the wind as they exited the tavern. He let the impact throw him to the ground, then
Charlie staggered into Tibs under the strength of the wind as they exited the tavern. He let the impact throw him to the ground, then accepted the fighter’s hand. He looked to the graying sky as he stood.
Charlie grinned as he looked up. “Told you we were due for a storm,” he said over the howling wind.
Tibs had hoped for more warning. “Get Uzoma and what we need. I’ll meet you at t...
2025-05-09 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Gralgiran watched the Earther step out of the Psychologist’s office and didn’t entirely recognize the male. The furtive wariness was gone,
Gralgiran watched the Earther step out of the Psychologist’s office and didn’t entirely recognize the male. The furtive wariness was gone, or at least not at the surface. It wasn’t entirely calm he was seeing, but there was a sense Bob the Soldier now knew the ground he walked on, the smells in the air, and the sounds among the trees.
She had contacted him, and asked that he be prese...
2025-05-08 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Tibs was surprised when the muscular woman by the door simply nodded him onward before focusing on pulling the rope and raising the large
Tibs was surprised when the muscular woman by the door simply nodded him onward before focusing on pulling the rope and raising the large bundle of something containing a lot of metal essence to a man in the rafters. He’d expected to have to justify his presence since Cynta wasn’t with him.
Inside, it was similar. Those who noticed him, as he headed for the door in the wall, acknowledged hi...
2025-05-07 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy contacted his friend with as little thoughts put into it as he could. There had been three aborted attempts because he’d tried to
Jeremy contacted his friend with as little thoughts put into it as he could. There had been three aborted attempts because he’d tried to plan how he’d do it, and the programming had picked up on enough to send him into a panic spiral.
This time, he was just doing it.
“Hey,” he said as soon as he received the connection-established signal.
The reply was slow in coming, and w...
2025-05-06 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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“More Ale!” Charlie yelled over the room’s conversations. Tibs had planned for them to go over the job. Workout what had gone their way,
“More Ale!” Charlie yelled over the room’s conversations.
Tibs had planned for them to go over the job. Workout what had gone their way, what had caught them unprepared, since it had been their first one together.
The others had, instead, dragged him to a tavern in a better part of the city and ordered food and too much ale for his liking. Uzoma didn’t drink as much, but he h...
2025-05-05 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Months and years passed.
Lars kept an eye on Leo, but his son was careful from the moment he received the warning, and in time, he stopped talking to his father about the water as if it had feelings. This was about the time Leo began paying attention to the boys in the town, and complained about his sister stealing all of them.
Lars did smile at that, as Alaine did have most of them enthralled, but he gave tips on how to attract the attention of those his son was interested in, and slowly he build a group of his own. His sister d...
2025-05-04 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Gralgiran sat at an unoccupied medical station, trying to focus on the information on his tablet. He’d tried to work, but when word reached
Gralgiran sat at an unoccupied medical station, trying to focus on the information on his tablet. He’d tried to work, but when word reached him the Psychologist had joined the Doctor while they looked over Bob, he’d had to come and find out why. Of course, he hadn’t learned anything. The room was locked and his authority ended on this side of it. So he’d sat and did what he could not to t...
2025-05-03 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Tibs leaned against the shop’s wall, watching stall displaying sewing tools on side and one with yarn on the other. He dressed in the rough,
Tibs leaned against the shop’s wall, watching stall displaying sewing tools on side and one with yarn on the other. He dressed in the rough, but refined clothing that was typical of the area. The people here couldn’t afford the good fabrics, having to limit themselves to the local wool and linens, but being able to pay good seamsters made that look better.
Carts distributed flowers thr...
2025-05-02 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jeremy had worked out they’d reached their destination not through an announcement—the captain didn’t usually broadcast information about
Jeremy had worked out they’d reached their destination not through an announcement—the captain didn’t usually broadcast information about the hunts—but by the increase in power usage throughout the ship. It had initially taken him by surprise. The previous times the ship had stopped, there had always been a drop in it.
Then he’d remembered those previous times had been at statio...
2025-05-01 13:00:11 +0000 UTC
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The house Charlie took Tibs to was a few blocks away from the city’s largest market, instead of an office on Office street, or one of the
The house Charlie took Tibs to was a few blocks away from the city’s largest market, instead of an office on Office street, or one of the business in the market, since they were all open at this time.
The neighborhood was one where people Tibs considered the Well-to-Do, but who still had to work for the coins they had, lived. The houses were well kept, and the decorations simple.
The ...
2025-04-30 13:00:19 +0000 UTC
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Gralgiran heard the readiness of his hunter in the shifting suit material as they prepare for whatever happened next. The offensive array
Gralgiran heard the readiness of his hunter in the shifting suit material as they prepare for whatever happened next.
The offensive array had them well covered, so any act of aggression would have consequences. They would act if he ordered it, or if the situation forced them, but he was not here for violence, and he had the sense this wasn’t a response to them specifically, but to any intrusi...
2025-04-29 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“Herns,” Cynta greeted the older man with a hug. “How are you doing?” “Good, as always. I see you took good care of what I made you, J— Who
“Herns,” Cynta greeted the older man with a hug. “How are you doing?”
“Good, as always. I see you took good care of what I made you, J— Who’s that?” The air of camaraderie turned sufficiently brittle, Tibs expected to see the essence change.
He looked around at the bolts of fabrics arrayed on crates, and clothing in various styles on racks, a few manikins and...
2025-04-28 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The blizzard hit without warning.
El had been traveling for a week since destroying the bandit camp, making good time south. The sky had been clear, the pressure high moments before things changed. Under a minute, the pressure dropped. The sky was covered by clouds so thick it felt like dusk as the temperature dropped. Then snow fell, and the winds picked up.
He hunkered down, figuring such a storm couldn’t last, but after two days, he realized this wasn’t natural. It might be a precursor to the insane weather that had come w...
2025-04-27 13:00:24 +0000 UTC
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Xander’s clearly reading something.
“Did you give him a pop-up?” Brandon asks.
“You said that ruins have them when an explorer steps in,” Dardanus replies, “so yes.”
“Just him?”
“The woman to his left is also an explorer, so she got it too.”
“That’s Rowana. She often works with him. Wait, how did you know she’s an explorer?”
“I can see what classes the people inside me are.”
“That’s convenient,” Brandon says, studying the image.
“It’s needed to proper...
2025-04-27 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“We’re approaching the coordinates, Captain,” Toom said. “Scans?” Gralgiran asked. “Nothing,” Wiuramsfick Jiaowel Dierim answered. “If this
“We’re approaching the coordinates, Captain,” Toom said.
“Scans?” Gralgiran asked.
“Nothing,” Wiuramsfick Jiaowel Dierim answered. “If this is where they want to meet us, we’re here early.”
Only, there had been no time provided.
When Tommy the Earther had let Gralgiran know his contact had agreed to speak, it was in the form of coordinates...
2025-04-26 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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