Twenty-seven years old and he was already a world-renowned horticulturalist. I glanced at the already opened resume on my computer. I'd conducted thousands of interviews by then and was beginning to lose count. 'Congratulations on making it this far, Mr.-' I hesitated at his name. People had given it a number of creative nicknames like 'The Devil's Fist,' or 'Ragna-Rock,' but in my opinion there was no reason to call it anything different than what it was. At least until a massive asteroid was discovered hurtling toward Earth with no intention of stopping, and money became as useless as the paper it was printed on. It was the pinnacle of my illustrious technical career which had left me one of the richest men on the planet.

He didn't make it more than a step before he stopped to stare out of my window at the tremendous spaceship docked in the center of my compound.

The guard and I exchanged a nod and he bowed out of the room, leaving myself, and the candidate, alone. I quickly downed the remnants of a glass of lukewarm whiskey in my liver-spotted hand to calm my mind, then placed it down behind my computer screen. A security guard ushered in the Titan Project's next candidate. Patty Jansen - 'This Deceitful State of Truth' Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff - 'Water Babies' Bruno - 'Interview for the End of the World' Daniel Arenson - 'The Firebug and the Pharaoh' Craig Martelle - 'The Trenches of Centauri Prime' David VanDyke - 'As the Sparks Fly Upward' Walk beside unforgettable characters on the bridge across the stars.įeaturing a Foreword by Kevin J. Travel the cosmos to find amazing adventure. Open this collection and take your first steps into tomorrow. Who are we, really? Should we survive? How do we become something greater without losing what makes us human? You might even discover something about yourself as each author opens a window on the soul of mankind. Flee the apocalypse of modern-day Earth, fly a fighter in the cold emptiness of deep space, and find new life on the distant shores of an alien world. In this anthology, you'll find seventeen tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. The universe is dangerous, wondrous-a vast canvas upon which humanity sketches its hopes for the future.

Shadows Burned In by Chris Pourteau