Millimeter for millimeter, the cosmic ray neutron shielding power of iron outperforms lead by a factor of five. And Carl Newman’s Remote Sensing suite had found the mother of all mother lodes in the largest asteroid belt ever seen by man; free for the taking. And, as if that were not enough, low orbit magneto-metric mapping of the system’s only habitable planet suggested it too contained vast underground deposits of the metal.

(This story first appeared in the anthology Alien Dimensions; Space Fiction Short Story Anthology Series #23; Edited by Neil A. Hogan, 2022)

Nothing can be in two places at the same time or in two times at the same place. The first seems obvious to us. The second is guaranteed by the expansion of the universe and the fact that every planet, every star, every galaxy in the universe is constantly moving. Here won’t be here tomorrow.

(This story first appeared in Antipodean SF issue 283, 21 Apr. 2022)

One more year — I told Devon that’s all we needed. I was so sure that working together we would find the key to prolong the reaction. But Devon doubted. His allowance consumed and the debts mounting, his pride could not abide the shame of failure. Even though I told him it did not matter to me, that I had already found two families that would have hired me as governess, that I knew we could succeed together, he would not have it. So we went to America to see this John Keely. It was December of 1887; the man was at the height of his fame.

(This story first appeared in Antipodean SF issue 280; January 2022)

“Cuneiform?” Air Marshall James Garrett of the Royal Australian Air Force bristled as his eyes swept through that roomful of alliance cryptologists. In the end, he just hung his head and muttered. “Why the hell would a technologically advanced civilisation, centuries ahead of our own, store their classified data in cuneiform?”

(This story was first published in the October issue of Antipodean SF, the speculative fiction e-zine. It also appeared April 10, 2022 as a podcast in the Antipodean SF Radio Show.)

Someone is hunting down thugs in the City of Living Dreams, where any pleasure or drug is available for a price.  Though the planet is strictly off-limits to military personnel in training,  Lieutenant Junior Grade Palladia Conté is discovered there, and immediately conscripted to help stop the killing spree.

A measure of the depth, first appeared 2008 in Residential Aliens where it’s available for reading.

Leona is missing, presumed dead in the same freak accident that took her parents; and her trusted mentor is planning to sell her as a weapon.

If you read A measure of the depth and wondered what the future holds for Zeta Reti, this self-contained sequel continues her story, ten years later. It is set in the Soldiers of Mercy universe.