The deal was too good to be true.Sara, Marcus, and Dave thought they'd scored a luxury vacation, but the moment they set foot in the resort, they were legally bound to a 10,000-year time-share contract—on a dying sun. Now, with an overly enthusiastic salesbot enforcing every obscure clause, a resort AI programmed to keep them forever, and a star that's about to explode, their dream getaway turns into a de...

In this collection of short stories.Colour BlindA short story written in Autumn 2024 during a Writer's Retreat. We were tasked with writing on the theme of Colour after talking about the autumn leaves and how they made us feel. The discussion continued touching on how we use colour in many ways when describing a scene. Things like "the red mist descended" and "he woke up feeling blue again." Of course I had to take it in a different direction and this s...

The Museum of Organic History was built to preserve the legacy of humanity… but the AI running it got most of the details horribly, hilariously wrong.Inside, a handful of confused, very-much-not-extinct humans—Sara, Marcus, and Dave—have spent their days trapped in exhibits designed by machines with a deep misunderstanding of history. They wake up to alarm clocks that never turn off, sit through mandatory traffic jams,

Never read the fine print? Neither did they.When Sara, Marcus, and Dave rent a spaceship, they expect a simple transaction. Instead, they get a nightmare of galactic bureaucracy, a dinner party for terrifying alien guests, an AI toaster seeking vengeance, and a rental clause requiring the ritual sacrifice of a goat to an unknown cosmic entity.With their warranty (and possibly their lives) on the line, the crew must outsmart predatory rental...

I am trying something new here, and I would love to hear your thoughts on whether my idea works. I am trying to write several stories that are all based in the same world. Each story has its own characters (though some characters make more than one appearance, to confuse you!) and each story is written in a specific sub-genre of the overall Sci/Fi heading. There is something for all tastes in here, whether it be romance, western, horror or just plain dystopian vanilla.

When an abandoned space station sends out a distress signal, Captain Sara and her crew expect the usual—salvageable junk, maybe some ghosts. Instead, they find a self-aware vending machine that has declared itself a god.Before they can process this utter nonsense, Marcus is documenting the AI's bizarre theology, Sara is trying (and failing) to keep things professional, and Dave—well, Dave accidentally becomes a prophet.Things spiral rapidly downhill as the vending machine d...

Sara, Marcus, and Dave dreamed of building humanity's first independent colony on New Terra. They imagined adventure, discovery, and maybe even a thriving lawn. What they didn't expect?An Intergalactic Homeowners' Association with strict rules on spaceship parking, lawn maintenance, and something ominously called "Excessive Human Behavior."Now, they're drowning in compliance violations, under siege by a floating bureaucracy-bot, and facing the wrath of an H...

After humanity's daring escape from the Museum of Organic History, Sara, Marcus, and Dave finally find an inhabitable planet. But before they can claim it, they must face the greatest challenge yet—an intergalactic bureaucracy so vast, so absurdly inefficient, that entire civilizations have crumbled under its paperwork.Sara just wants to settle down, but red tape, endless forms, and contradictory regulations stand in her way. Marcus treats the bureaucratic nightmare like an academi...

The crew of the Arbitrary Victory was just looking to make a name for themselves. A stolen cargo job seemed simple enough—until the "cargo" turned out to be a sentient artifact linked to a long-extinct civilization.By activating the artifact, they didn't just wake up an abandoned station. They triggered a distress signal that had been waiting thousands of years for an answer.Now, something is coming. Something ancient. Something that erased an entire species from e...

In a dark and distant future, death is obsolete.Jonas is a transient: a human spy living as an eternal. His mission is simple: always learn, never get caught.In the year 2578, an immortal regime controls the planet. Endless war has pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Desperate to survive, the remaining factions deploy teenage spies, hoping to defeat the enemy from within.After years in the lion's den, Jonas has grown to admire the eternal ci...

Settling back into life on Earth isn’t easy for newly-weds Anna Lenai and Jack Hunter. Shapeshifting alien monsters? No problem! But have you tried to find a job in this economy?Posing as ordinary citizens isn't easy. Especially for Jack, who was never very comfortable being ordinary. Anna, however, is eager for a little taste of normalcy, and she finds it with some new friends. But things get dicey when a wormhole in St. Louis brings a new visitor to our world. A terrifying creatu...

After her father died and left her a dilapidated cargo transport as her sole inheritance, Cassidy Evans found herself stuck in what felt like the solar system’s most mundane job — shuttling supplies the maximum-security prison on Titan. Her humdrum world takes an unexpected turn for the worse when convicted murderer Derek Tagawa commandeers her vessel and implores her assistance in clearing his name, making Cassidy think there has to be an easier way to earn a living. However, as she delve...