Tired and exhausted Glen pressed the down button. And when there wasn’t an immediate ding, he groaned. After a long day, all Glen wanted to do was go home and collapse into his bed and sleep. Glen stumbled to the folding chair propped against the wall across from the elevator. He opened the chair and sat down, while he waited for the old and creeping elevator to arrive. And after what felt like an interminable wait, the elevator’s bell dinged. So, Glen stood up and put the chair back against the wall.

As the doors slid apart, Glen noticed a man and a woman riding in the car. He waited for a moment, but neither of them moved to get out of the car, so he walked in. With a glance at the floor buttons, Glen saw that the only floor selected was the ground floor...

Keldon froze beneath a ring of arrows. When he shifted his gaze to study the deadly points, every bow pulled tighter, as if daring him to move again. Keldon raised his hands, gesturing his surrender to their silent command. “I’m not looking for a fight.”

“Why are you here?” asked one creature, preparing to release his arrow into Keldon’s chest.

Keldon shifted his body to face the voice’s source. But the moment his leg twitched, an arrow tore through his pant leg and buried into the soil. As Keldon grasped the damaged material, a different voice resounded through the shadowy woods...

Running home a pudgy little boy, Darren Gilbert, fled from his bullies. He decided to risk taking his shortcut home, sure that they didn’t know about it. As he drew closer, he churned his legs faster even after he turned down the alley. As he ran past a dumpster, he risked a glance behind him. Unfortunately, Darren collided with someone falling to the ground. As Darren Gilbert tried to climb to his feet an all to familiar voice taunted him. “So you thought we didn’t know about this shortcut of yours.”

“Oh, no,” Darren muttered as he lifted his eyes to Dolmen’s...

Journeys are all about the experience. No matter where you are going or what you are doing the trip will always be a part of the experience. When I published Dead Man’s Hand, I remember being on cloud nine at every major milestone...

Last month we witnessed one of Harrison’s mad scientist moments, while he was studying a relic. This month the spotlight shifts back to Sylvia, who last we saw saved the life of her employer, pouncing on the would-be assassin. It turned out that the man was irate over what the king did to his sibling. And when the dust settled from the attempt, the king ordered the man’s execution...

As the craft’s journey drew to the end of its trip, the doctors examined Rylan for the last time. Sitting on the edge of an examination bed, Rylan’s fingers were tapping away. So far not one of the crews who landed on either Latria or Medicia developed radiation sickness. Rylan suspected that he was the only member of the landing parties to receive this level of care. As time dragged on the captain’s voice boomed through the intercoms. “We’re about three hours from the Larian system. Any member of the crew that has made planetfall, report to sickbay immediately.”

Bouncing his head side to side, Rylan glanced at the doctor hiding behind a console. “Well doc, can you finish up my exam before you get slammed with the last minute rush...

Having helped guide the decision to colonize their new world, Caitlin and Quinn have to unify the colonists to achieve their goals…..

Caleb stopped at the closest tree to check his weapons. Once done, he reoriented and scanned for the faint trail left by his team’s last hunt. The landscape offered no guidance. Everything looked the same. He sighed, holstered his sidearm, and lifted his rifle before continuing. A fine mist hung heavy with the scent of moss and earth, obscuring his view.

Even the birds had stopped calling, leaving only the soft crunch of Caleb’s boots to mark the passage of time. The silence pressed against his ears like a warning. He rubbed his eyes and forced himself to keep moving. Without the dwarves’ help, the settlement would fail, and his search had turned up nothing. He could almost hear their gregarious laughter echoing beneath phantom cries and the imagined groan of the settlement.

The woods felt heavier with each step, like they resented his presence...

Leaning along the edge of the enclosed bridge, Kyle Rickman was staring out into his city. His left hand was cradling a precious cargo, his notebook for this case. He’d only been working on the case for a few days, but it was already mostly full, and there were plenty of thoughts circling around his mind just none particularly helpful. Kyle’s frown was warmed by the setting sun, but he fought the growing smile as he scratched the stubble invading his chin. He turned to lean against the railing as he reviewed the facts he had recorded. There were a lot of things that might be useful, but he didn’t have the central thread to pull it all together, yet. And he was running out of time to help his client.

Except for the latest fact, sighing Kyle tapped his pencil on the new lead and hoped that his friend would be able to run the test quickly. He slipped his pencil into his shirt pocket as he put his notebook back into his pocket, then Kyle grabbed his phone, so to call the lab to see if there was an update, but before he could unlock it a call from his office came in...

I have been a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe dating back to its inception with Iron Man, so I get excited about every film that comes out. Now I remember all of the emotions that were swirling in me at the conclusion of Avengers: Infinity War’s, despite intellectually knowing that it would happen. But when the film’s final post-credit scene ended with Nick Fury’s pager falling through his disintegrating fingers, I got excited with the teasing of Captain Marvel. Many things went through my mind, but the biggest was why not before, and so I’ve been eagerly waiting to get the backstory. And we finally got the answers we were waiting for, and then some.

Going in I knew the film was going to take place in the mid-nineties and it would be Carol Danvers origin, and these stories can be a lot of fun, if not a little overdone...

A pair of rough hands slammed into Lucas’s swaying back, driving him to the ground amidst the skeletonized vehicles and scattered debris. He rolled over and stared up into the sun, blinking as it beat down upon him. Despite his scattered mind, Lucas caught sight of his assailant squatting beside him, licking his lips.

“I’ll give you a full minute head start.”

Lucas covered his eyes as he turned toward the voice. “What?”

The stranger rose, stepping to his left to position the sun behind his head. With his face obscured, his singular command boomed out, echoing off the ruined vehicles...

Before the ship left Latria, the captain opened communications with the government back home letting them know about the planet below. They were told to continue on with their journey to Medicia to discover if it shared the same fate as Latria. So while the command crew plotted a course to their next destination, all of the members of the landing crew were reported to the ship’s infirmary. Once there they were forced into isolation so the doctors could ensure that their exposure to the radiation would do no lasting harm.

The trip to Medicia took three weeks, though the landing crew spent the first two in isolation. Only being released when all the tests came up negative did the doctors grudgingly allowed them to leave, as they demanded that their fleeing patients avoid any strenuous duties or activities. Yet as soon as Rylan escaped they containment he was ordered to the captain’s ready room...

Last month Harrison was introduced, and he displayed his desire to find a way to do what he loved, rather than be a slave to his father’s will. At least that was what he thought, this month we return to Harrison’s story to see how his life has changed as a result of his victory...

Walking towards the engine room, Daniel could hear Franco yelling at the now-stalled engine. The captain put his hand upon the hallway of his craft and whispered to it apologizing for his engineer’s hostility. When he was fifteen feet of the door, he saw Rachel run out of the room and just avoid getting struck by a random part of the engine as she slid to the ground. Daniel shook his head and helped her up asking, “I take it he’s having issues with the repairs?”

She nudged the piece lying between them with her foot answering, “Just a little it would seem.”

“He told me he would have us flying again in twenty minutes,” Daniel said as he entered the line of fire...

Having just forced Napoleon to retreat from Russia, despite the damage inflicted upon their forces from the starving and mistreated dragons freed from the Russian breeding grounds, they were unable to secure his capture. Unfortunately for the Russian troops and countryside, Laurence’s pleas for their conditions were too little too late for them to have claimed the dragons for their side. It also made his life a little uncomfortable, while he was at a party for the Czar, he sucker-punched a nobleman who had talked about poisoning the dragons to be rid of them. By this time most of Laurence’s memories had returned to him, and he was outraged by the man’s behavior, yet knowing he shouldn’t participate in a duel he did anyway bring Hammond along as his second.

He was injured in the exchange due to a misfire, but he was able to recover...