A high tech software and medical conglomerate is capitalizing on decades of advancement and the evolution of medical and computer science, which may enable the seamless merging of the human mind with the modern electronic world. Created and born in a laboratory, seven-year old Toby Crawford is an engineered test subject for new research on human simulation and artificial intelligence. Toby is a genius with a photographic memory, otherwise enviable gifts; Toby was born with a limited short-...

In this examination of the ubiquitous practice of bullying among youth, compelling first person stories vividly convey the lived experience of peer torment and how it impacted the lives of five diverse young women. Author Keith Berry’s own autoethnographic narratives and analysis add important relational communication, methodological, and ethical dimensions to their accounts. The personal stories create an opening to understand how this form of physical and verbal violence shapes identitie...

The concept of identity has steadily emerged in importance in the field of intercultural communication, especially over the last two decades. In a transnational world marked by complex connectivity as well as enduring differences and power inequities, it is imperative to understand and continuously theorize how we perceive the self in relation to the cultural other. Such understandings play a central role in how we negotiate relationships, build alliances, promote peace, and strive for soc...

It was a leap of faith every time. The odds were always against them. Dropping into a deep-penetration strategic reconnaissance mission from near space takes a strong personality. Angela Yancey needs to get through to Jason Bridger before he kills them both. A short story.

A world wide quake occurs when Black Matter condenses inside our planet with White Matter, causing the very mantle of the earth itself to begin breaking apart.The Eiffel Tower is destroyed.The Vatican is gone forever, a smoking pit.The White House and most of Washington D.C. are beneath the waves.London is demolished as if it never existed.Milions die within minutes of each other as cities collapse, damns break, waters rise and flood the inland coast...

This collection features 10 stories from Scott Seldon's Galactic Confederation Universe. Smuggler Tramp Darvon makes a run through a dangerous stellar nursery. Smuggler Hazdon Brenker is tricked into doing a job by a girl out for revenge. Customs Marine Sgt. Rolfel is tested to see if he has what it takes to be promoted to commander and then he and his best friend take a leisure cruise that turns out to be more business than pleasure. Trader Alluren Beldaras makes a normal delivery, but en...

Hank Beveridge and Lieutenant Newton Shapiro are a couple of nice guys whose worlds just happen to collide. Hank's getting up in years and Newton has his first independent field command. On Third World, women of marrying age are scarce as hen's teeth. Hank's still looking though. Newton has a job to do, no matter who gets hurt. The Empire is a long ways away, but the locals are at least peaceable.

Doctor Horace Brooks has never met a patient he doesn't like, and he's careful to go over all the issues with husband and wife before proceeding with gene-therapy and the modern fountain of youth…the only question is whether anyone is listening, trendy country club members Ed and Michelle Newell being a good case in point. Couples should share more before making such a life-changing decision. A science-fiction satire and short story.

God flooded the earth to annihilate humanity's sins. What if that sinful race didn't die when floodwaters covered them but instead adapted to breathe water?Under the depths of the ocean one boy has raised himself, until the day when he meets a dark-skinned man with news that will change the lives of his civilization forever.Now he must save his people from another empire of water dwellers bent on enslaving the oceans and torturing his peaceful realm.Yet another ques...

In the small town of "Three Hands" not much happens. There is one sheriff with no deputy, just an old horse. The day the famous and mythical assassin, Rez Diamond makes camp outside of town things become more interesting for the lonely sheriff. Why would someone so famous come to little Three Hands? Never in history has a single individual been more feared, where Rez Diamond goes, death follows.

Mike was give up by his parents to the government as a young boy. He and, his flight computer, Gee Vee were trained has pilots in the Unified Worlds Space Corp. Having been trained from a young boy to his graduation day at 18, Mike and Gee Vee have already made a name for themselves defending the Unified Worlds. But once they graduate there tasked along with his companions to bring the rim worlds under the Unified Worlds rule. It is this Unification of worlds that has them far from home an...

Twelve thousand years later, low on reaction mass and with 20,000 colonists aboard, Ark One is coming in hot. Captain Sandra Jensen and Astrogator Dooley Peeters have a plan to save her. There is the question of how they will be received, on an Earth that has returned to barbarism. That is, if they can slow her down enough to get a shuttle away.