Tales of the Valkyries - Hana

This is the first installment of a three part novella about a young Valkyrie named Hana, living among the mortals of Earth in the year 2013.

It is not a Velorian story, and it makes no reference to anything else that has appeared in my writing except for the Diaboli, who I vaguely attribute alien connections, but through the same pathway as the Valkyries themselves.

In Part One, we see Hana, the protagonist of the story, as a rebellious seventeen year old who has declared that she doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps as a Valkyrie. In fact, its not clear if she wants to follow in anyone's footsteps. She lives on a US Army base in Okinawa, and dresses and hangs out with the Goths at her school, rejecting anything and everything related to the Army. She has a foul mouth on her and a depreciating attitude toward anyone who thinks there is meaning to life.

Then, to her own surprise, when faced with an emergency at her place of work, she instinctively lives up to her proud heritage and saves a soldier by the name of Sergeant Rob York. An event she does not want to acknowledge or even remember as she slides back into her Goth ways.

But life has a way of seeking out heroes, and when Hana's father, an Army Apache helicopter pilot, is captured by the insurgents in Iraq and threatened with beheading, she seeks out the one man who she thinks can help her save her father. Together, she and the man she saved, Sergeant Rob York, secretly travel to Iraq to try to rescue her father, and land right in the middle of the thirteen-year long Iraqi war.

Lots of military action as she and Rob take on a group of Iranian insurgents armed with the latest Russian tanks, their sole objective that of rescuing her father and the other hostages with him.

Part One (PDF 455K bytes)

Other Velorians - Corrididor

This is my first complete novella, and it's distinctly differently than my other work, in that it has both a beginning and an ending. Twenty-nine chapters in eight parts to make it easier to read, and illustrated with my visioning of my characters as per usual.

This is the story of the most ordinary of Velorians, a B-class maintenance technician working a dead-end job on Velor, a girl who used to ride with a flitter-bike gang, outlaws who dealt drugs and wandered aimlessly about Velor. But Vera has one unique talent, and because of that she gets her big shot: a chance to go off-world. To escape the gold field of Velor to repair the dying reactor on a distant mining asteroid named Corrididor.

She arrives to find that Corrididor is both her worst nightmare and her fondest dream. Obstacles lie in her way, not the least an Arion who's intent on destroying her and a reactor that threatens to go super-critical, but the story ends with Vera finding that thing we  are all searching for: That one true place in the universe where we belong.

Part One (HTML 31K bytes)

Part Two (HTML 28K bytes)

Part Three (HTML 103K bytes)

Part Four (HTML 65K bytes)

Part Five (HTML 86K bytes)

Part Six (HTML 82K bytes)

Part Seven (HTML 15K bytes)

Part Eight (HTML 45K bytes)

Earth - 2050AD

A new story that takes us back to the Banks family, back to Xara (Dani) and Kara (Lisa), along with Dani's boyfriend, Neil Sandecker. 

Set in the year 2050, it depicts a possible future of Earth and the warring Supremis powers who want to conquer or defend Earth.

Mandi Olson, one of my most compelling and lethal villains, also joins us, as she attempts to unite Earth under a single government ruled by her. Unfortunately, she finds that elements of the US government are more than willing to stand by her side.

The wide-ranging story features many new characters, including Sharon Best and her daughter, Kitja, and Sharon's lesbian spouse, a Kryp'terran woman named Andrea.

Author's Imagery (HTML)

A collection of images from the various chapters of Earth 2050AD.

Prologue: Extremes (HTML 114K bytes)

A new story that takes us back to the Banks family, back to Xara (Dani) and Kara (Lisa), along with Dani's boyfriend, Neil Sandecker. A complete story in six chapters that details one of the pivotal moments in Dani and Neil's evolving relationship. Sexual behavior, the differences in Terran and Velorian morality, and how that affects the way the two of them feel towards each other, plays a key role in this story. Of course, what would an AU story be without bad guys, and I won't disappoint you there.

Earth2050, Part 1-1 (HTML 34K bytes)

A new series begins. Sharon and Mandi are in cahoots, or so it seems.

Earth2050, Part 1-2 (HTML 62K bytes)

Mandi is up to her lethal mischief, and its now clear that Sharon's working for her. but of her own free will? And Xara is not having a good day.

Earth2050, Part 1-3 (HTML 106K bytes)

Fred Durst declares war on Mandi, and Sharon suddenly winds up back home on a stage, a week of her life gone.

Earth2050, Part 1-4 (HTML 125K bytes)

Mandi makes a powerful group inside the US Government an offer they can't refuse. Then we are introduced to Kitja Best, Sharon's daughter. Fred and Tami Walkters, his friend from Omega, begun hunting down Sharon so as to use to to go after Mandi.

Earth2050, Part 1-5 (HTML 102K bytes)

Kitja comes to the aid of her professor, who she has a big crush on. Fred and Tammi find and meet Sharon in Boulder, and wind up trapped by a blizzard with Sharon and Andrea at their house in the mountains.

Earth2050, Part 1-6 (HTML 140K bytes)

Kitja finds that even she's not immune to the forces of love, and Mandi visits an old, Scalantran trader in deep space to begin her collection of weapons to arm Valkyrie7. She very nearly doesn't return, but when she does, she brings a weapon that nobody expected, including her.

Earth2050, Part 1-7 (HTML 143K bytes)

Another rocket goes down as Mandi begins to tighten the noose on Earth, Kitja and Eric have an encounter, and Andrea winds up making Eric an offer he can't refuse. Kara takes out an Arion lab in the Alps, and then begins a fight to save Tyrell Pharmaceuticals from a hostile takeover. Her ace in the hole to convince the Board of Directors is none other than her daughter, Xara.

Earth2050, Part 1-8 (HTML 85K bytes)

Crystal begins working on a very special project of her own, and Fred had a meeting with Kara before returning to Mandi's underground complex. There he finds himself handed over to a girl young enough to be his daughter, their shared mission that of taking out some very crooked cops.

Earth2050, Part 1-9 (HTML 101K bytes)

Fred and Lucia work together to take out some Arions, and a new alliance is born of those desperate to escape Mandi. Admiral Sadler has to accept the truth about Azriel... that she's not nearly as human as he'd dreamed.

Earth2050, Part 1-10 (HTML 39K bytes)

Eric makes the mistake of getting drunk with Andrea, and gets more than he asked for in the bargain. Kitja makes a move, but the object of her fancy turns out to be a big surprise.

Earth2050, Part 1-11 (HTML 68K bytes)

Kitja decides to pay Kerry back for humiliating her, and comes face to face with a Tset'lar in the process. When the dust settles, she's not quite the girl she was before.

Vignettes and random wanderings of a fertile mind

(Which might have something to do with my entering the phase where we turn to fertilizer, but that's another story)

All Supremis Team

Some jobs are more interesting than others.

Aryan Pride?

I don't know if this should be called Aryan Pride or Arion Arrogance or something in between. But this one photo from the local newspaper and the article that accompanied it made for some reflection on a Sunday morning.

Addicted

Sometimes even a Protector proves to be weak, and falls under unholy influence of the yellow metal. And as a lonely miner finds, man and superwoman were not designed to share all things.

Ordinary Velorians

Ordinary Velorians is offered in PDF file format. Given the novella size of Shore Leave, you may want to download the files and read them on your notebook or desktop computer, or an appropriately configured PDA. The author's conceptualization of major characters will be available for browsing in the Photo Gallery at some point, but you may choose to envision the characters on your own, free of my influence.

The story of a young Velorian, born P1 and destined to be a Protector, who runs away from the Enlightenment to find a new life among the ordinary humans on Kelsor 7.

Alisa Liddel has advanced degrees in Astro Physics and her passion is exploring wormholes as a member of a Kelsorian survey ship. But she's also secretly a superhuman. A goddess in some people's eyes, an Angel even, yet she's just a girl inside the golden body of a Velorian.

A girl who wishes only to be human.

Unfortunately, the universe seems to have other ideas, and she finds herself increasingly drawn into the conflict between Arion and Velorian, the age old war of the Supremis.
 

Alisa's Story - Introductions (PDF -62K bytes)

A short story about her arrival on survey ship Ander's Flame, and a rather unique meeting with her new Captain.

Shore Leave, Episode One - The Gwyndylyn

(PDF version - 4800K bytes) - includes pictures

(HTML version - 557K bytes) - includes thumbnails and links

A novella-length story about Alisa's encounter with a hidden and dangerous world named Rostran, located on the distant end of an unexplored and anomalous wormhole. She finds that pretending to be human is difficult on a world where no one else is... human.

McCloud's Daughters

A new saga in the Ordinary Velorians series that Brantley and I are writing. Ben Smith, a man from Earth who was educated on Velor, wakes up after a battle in space to find himself on a  hidden world named Sanctuary. There he meets Ann McCloud and her four daughters. Ann was born an Arion Prime, yet amazingly, she has undergone the Velorian Rites to become a Protector. Her four daughters, three by a Kryp'terran father, and one by an Arion Prime, are intent on continuing their unique genetic legacy, cut off from the rest of the universe. In a surprising twist at the end, we find that the world of Sanctuary and the world of Rostran (Shore Leave) are interconnected in ways no one could have predicted.

Part One (PDF -174K bytes)

Part Two (PDF -99K bytes)

Author's Imagery (PDF -852K bytes)

Paix des Femmes

Background:

The Arion Empire and the Velorian Enlightenment, homes of the two Supremis races, destroyed each other in Earth's 19th century. It's now 2019, and the first two decades of the 21st century have been difficult. Nuclear and biological terrorism have blighted portions of the world, and the United States has become a global dictator, fighting desperately to hold the world together and prevent terrorism. Most countries fear the US, but they also need its protection and its trade to survive. The era of the Ugly American has returned with a vengeance.

Out in the wider universe, the Pactrel, a spider-like race of traders and merchants, are now the true power, replacing the Galen who have disappeared completely. Given that they are pathologically afraid of physical injury (they live to be thousands of years old), the Pactrel enlist agents to prepare new and dangerous worlds for profitable commerce.

The Pactrel turn to the planet Aurora, the last gathering place for the rag-tag survivors of the Turning (the last battle of the centuries long Velorian/Arion war). Populated by both Arions and Velorians, their swords buried, Aurora is the home to a dying population who have been either sterilized from the fearsome genetic weapons used in the Turning, or are too badly injured to survive childbearing.  The Pactrel make the Supremis a deal. Consign your next four generations of offspring to work for us, and we'll revitalize your genetic heritage. A pact with the devil that only those with a hopeless future would sign.

The still proud Supremis take the deal.

Unfortunately, even with the Pactrel's help, the working stock of Supremis DNA has been too badly damaged for any offspring to be born with full Supremis abilities. The Pactrel compensate for this by implanting Vendorian BioMech devices that bond with human flesh.

The Pactrel call their new agents Shaadar, which in their language means 'Powerful Servant'.

They aim them at Earth, their next conquest in the quest for ever more profitable trade.

The first book, Pax des Femmes, deals with the Shaadar's attempt to prepare Earth for the coming of the Pactrel. Their first task is to end all war on Earth. They do that by selectively targeting the leaders of the world's military forces. Also, any political leader who advocates the use of military force.  In 2019, that means they are mostly targeting Americans.

In a turnabout that is truly Machiavellian in origin, the young Shaadar on Earth do not realize that the first product the Pactrel will offer the Terrans will be Vendorian weapons that were originally designed to kill Supremis. Those weapons include powerful androids who were designed centuries ago to defeat Arion Primes in hand-to-hand combat. 

As some of the Shaadar are killed by the now empowered Terrans, Aurora is compelled to send more agents to Earth to complete their mission. And the Pactrel happily provide more weapons to stop them. Thus they begin a spiraling need for more and better weapons and technology. If unchecked, Earth will ultimately sell its soul to the Pactrellian Merchantile.

But the Pactrel didn't take one thing into account. Humans are known for their insatiable sense of curiosity and creative intelligence. No matter whether a person was born Shaadarian or Terran, in the depths of their hearts and dreams, they share the desire to right any wrong or injustice. They yearn to be free, and are often willing to give up their lives for that freedom. Even to fight against hopeless odds, or impossibly powerful foes.

Pax des Femmes

Project Archangel

Book One, Part One (paix_femme_bk1_pt1b.pdf, 368K)

(Pictured: Major Tala Laut, Commander of the Shaadarian pacification effort on Earth.
 

Book One, Part Two

Book Two, Part One

Book Two, Part Two

As the Book One opens, the Pactrel have decided that Earth is finally ready for intergalactic commerce. They have only to eliminate the risk of war, terrorism or militant action on Earth, and to give the Terrans a reason to pay their exorbitant fees for goods that they will suddenly find themselves in desperate need of.

A wondrous universe of advanced technology opens up for the Terrans, even as they discover too late that the oldest curses of humanity are not unique to their world.

Other Stories

Relic Hunter (**NEW**)

by Shadar

A fan fiction story regarding Lara Croft, written as part of a writing contest theme that dealt with 'ordinary' heroines suddenly gaining unusual abilities and facing new challenges. In this story, I've blended the Lara Croft heritage with a Kryptonian timeline involving Kal El having a Velorian wife and a daughter. His cousin Kara Zor-el appears as well. Think of it as Lara Croft meets Superman's family, but all told from an AU perspective. Which means it has a bit of spice too.

The Commandant's Wife

by Shadar

Set more in the old AU than in AUOW, this one explores what happens when an Arion male and a Protector decide they have common goals. The salvation of Earth. A fools errant.

Feline Imperative - Classic AU

by Sharon Best and JH

A blast from the past. An old AU story, continued by JH with some edits from me. A couple of cool picts from JH too. Those who liked the original AU will like this one.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 (HTML 90K bytes) (**NEW**)

Kara finds out how kinky at Scalantran big shot can be; Sharon takes the first step toward her marketing career; and the Betans show off.

Aurora Universe - Redux  

by Shadar

I decided to try my hand at writing my first ever Aurora Universe chapter, but from the perspective of my preferences today. It's a totally new story, borrowing only the concept of introducing the seminal character of the AU... Aurora (Fairchild) Zor'El. I poke some fun at some current events while I'm at it.

The Quality of Mercy

by Shadar

An alternate universe story set in the current time, with the Supremis war infecting the societies of Earth. Yet in the midst of this carnage and duplicity, inside the deceptions of the Empire, the uniquely human quality of mercy still lives in some hearts.

Gypsy (PDF 530K bytes)

by Shadar

The universe is a stranger place than we know. And that sanity isn't always what it seems. A short story about a teacher and his wife, their relationship already unusual enough, and the ways in which they are visited by a woman who changes the future of Earth. Peace, prosperity, and the end of war and violence. A look into a possible future. Illustrated.

Possible Future Stories

Other Velorians - Andros Family

Other Velorians - Elsa

Other Velorians - Freedom Fighter

Other Velorians - Ettas