The story is set in the near future about an elite pilot who struggles with memories and flashbacks about a past lover and is on a top secret mission to recover a lost ship and to make contact with a doctor, who is the lead researcher of the lost ship. He battles not just the environment but his own sanity, all while trying to focus on what is probably said to be one of the most important sortie not only of his career but his life in general.

Rhoe wants to fly but being born a half-breed dark swan; feathers are not something she can ever achieve. She asks her father for permission to join the flight academy of the planetary defense corps and to her surprise, he agrees.Her father gives her more than his agreement, he tells her about her mother and warns her that she may run into the legendary pilot herself.Rhoe runs into more than her mother, she meets a captain who sends her heart fluttering, and it is that firs...

An Apollo 11 astronaut and the Nebula Award–nominated author of Directive 51 present a novel that " conveys the wonder and promise of space" ( Publishers Weekly).Born the year of the Moon landing, Chris Terence spends his life fighting to return humanity to that pinnacle. An engineering student with dreams of spaceflight, he finds upon graduation that the United States no longer has need for astronauts. Years of bureaucratic meddli...

Whyt has been raised in luxury but craved two things, flight and getting her hands dirty. Her status as a half-swan keeps her from the first, and her mother keeps her from the second. She tries to escape both situations and, as a result, finds life as a test pilot and mechanic.Styvin Arguat has met Whyt before. He thought she was a shy little ninny. When she breaks out of her family’s home with his help and heads to the research base, he guesses that there may be more to her than e...

All-out war engulfs a distant quadrant of space. Hardcore warriors clash in high tech Battlenaut armor, pitting the ultimate fighting machines in epic struggles on a planetary scale. In the heart of this raging hell, the sleep-deprived Redeye squad fights harder than anyone. Pumped up on drugs, wired to the max, the Redeyes tear through enemy forces like berserk Vikings. But fatigue takes a toll, as the Redeyes start to see things that don't exist. And something that might exist after all-...

The adventure you're about to embark upon is one of discovery and hope, as humanity comes to terms with its 'First Contact'. When a fleet of spaceships arrives in orbit, it raises a number of compelling questions. What brings them here? Are they friendly? What will happen to us? The visitors from space do not behave exactly how we expected them to. But then, what did we really expect to happen? With the intentions of our visitors not being fully known or understood, we are powerless to do ...

A man is marooned on a government base on the far side of Earth's moon. It doesn't appear as if anyone is coming back...ever. There is food, shelter, air, and water enough to allow him to live for a long time. But the man doesn't want to just continue existing. He needs a goal--a reason to survive.

The only remaining path for the last free stars is paved in blood and glory.War is all Danica has ever known. As captain of her band of Tajji mercenaries, she’s fought more than her share of hopeless battles against undefeated foes. War has been her way of life ever since their diaspora from their shattered homeworld.But when a runaway princess vanishes on the eve of war, the rescue mission quickly becomes more than just another payday. The last free stars ...

Dragons of the Stars - 2 short stories about the future, where spaceships controlled by superintelligent AI's go renegade, venting their human crews into the vacuum of outer space and become the Dragons of the Stars."Under the Dragon" - The roar of the dragon's thrusters could not be heard through the vacuum of space. But Allan heard it anyway, in his mind, as the massive bulk of the renegade spaceship eclipsed the light of the distant Sun..."The First Dragon" - This mining...

The God Mars is a pulp-style science fiction series set in a rich world of varied cultures and colorful characters. The series is set on a partially-terraformed Mars a half-century after a man-made disaster cut thousands of colonists off from Earth. Left to survive with what few resources they had, the various groups develop different cultures at different levels of technology, ranging from the primitive to the frighteningly advanced. And all fear the return of their home planet, because t...

A short story in the Alcantaran series.All Kota and Zibo wanted to do was to start a family and to make a living, using the space ship freighter that Kota had salvaged. They had the retrofit started when the trouble started. Some idiot bureaucrat wanted them to be super spies for the Charter Alliance. They turned him down! His boss was more persuasive but they still didn't want to be spies. They just wanted to trade. Circumstances didn't give them a choice.

From distant planets to space-borne combat, from desperate attempts to win a race to the last hope of a beleaguered world, fifteen stories of Military SF and space opera, written to celebrate the 10th birthday of independent publisher NewCon Press.IntroductionThe Last Tank Commander – Allen StroudBetween Nine and Eleven – Adam RobertsTaking Flight – Una McCormackThe 10 Second War – Michael BrookesDecommissioned – Tade Thompson...