Other Free Fiction
Miscellaneous fiction not related to my other series.

Stories		Downloads
(alphabetical)		MS Word PDF Rich Text
Civilians   (28 page, 7,651 words) Terrans invading the alien pirate Khalians homeworld make a startling discovery among the planet's civilian slave population.  Originally published in the 1988 military sci-fi anthology The Fleet II: Counterattack.
THE CRAFTERS Two related short stories from different generations of a magical dynasty.
The Alchemist and The Witch, part I   (24 pages, 5,891 words) The short story that inspired the Crafters anthology.  The Witch Samona, resenting the Alchemist Amer for having magical powers without selling his soul to Satan in exchange, tries to turn him to the dark side. The Alchemist and The Witch, part II   (17 pages, 4,337 words) What do you do when Death knocks on your door?  Amer invites him in for a drink... and argues that he is NOT a warlock! Who Ghost There?, part I   (19 pages, 5,703 words) A neglected daughter's only companion is a dead ancestor.  Written for the second Crafters anthology, it is my attempt at a regency romance... with my own supernatural fantasy twist on it. Who Ghost There?, part II   (28 pages, 7,988 words) As the London season unfolds, Anthea finds herself torn between the delicious Lord Delbert and the mysterious Mr. Crafter—the decendent of Amer and Samona Crafter. Who Ghost There?, part III   (24 pages, 6,854 words) Fleeing from her fighting suitors, Anthea stumbles into a barrow of the wee folk.  The Faeries need her help—and won't take no for an answer!
Coronach of the Bell   ( 14 page, 3,645 words) The tragic tale of a valley clan—and the wizard they cast out to live alone in the mountains.  Origionally published in the 2003 DAW 30th Anniversary Fantasy Anthology.
THE GEORGIE DESRICK CHRONICLES In this series of connected short stories written for The Fleet anthologies, a human outcast, Georgie "Goblin" Desrick, is taken in by a band of alien pirates... and then things get interesting!
Pirates, part I   (25 pages, 6,638 words) In memory of David Hartwell (click image for larger picture of him) Shortly after hearing that the legendary, influential SFF editor David Hartwell had died rather suddenly in an accident in early 2016, I decided to post this story.  When I wrote this story back in 1990 for The Fleet vol. 5: Total War anthology, I poked gentle fun at Mr. Hartwell and his, er... flamboyant fashion choices in the character of Pirate Captain Goodheart, known and feared throughout the galaxy for his neckties.  Given the story's end, it feels strangely appropriate. Pirates, Part II   (26 pages, 6,447 words) With Goblin's help, the band of Khalian pirates grows, expands, and steps up thier raids... but their nemesis, Commander Sales of the Fleet, is slowly closing in on them.  From the 1990 anthology The Fleet 5: Total War. Orphans   (23 pages, 5,873 words) After the death of Captain Goodheart, Globin and the Khalian pirates of Barataria have only one goal: revenge.  From the 1991 anthology The Fleet 6: Crisis. Globin's Children, Part I   (25 pages, 7,296 words) Forty years later, the Khalian pirates of Brataria have forged an uneasy peace with humanity... but when a new threat arrises from the galactic core, their tenuous alliance is put to the test.  From the 1992 anthology Battlestation. Globin's Children, Part II   (28 pages, 7,354 words) The Baratarias set up a new mining & refining colony on Sandworld... but when Globin recieved a distress call that the colony is under attack by Ichtons, it's a race against the clock to save them. Hearing, Part I   (24 pages, 6,509 words) In the last of the Georgie Desrick tales, his Baratarian crew find a life pod, adrift for decades, containing still-living survivors of a brutal Ichton attack.  From the 1993 anthology Battlestation 2: Vanguard. Hearing, Part II   (19 pages, 4,754 words) After the Ichtons try to assassinate the life pod survivors, Globin realizes they might hold critical data to defeating the Ichtons—and don't even realize it.  Now Globin just needs to keep them alive long enough to figure out what it is.  From the 1993 anthology Battlestation 2: Vanguard.
THE GHOST OF RESARTUS A short story from the first anthology of the Bolo series. On a frontier colony bordering a hostile alien race, the colonists have repourposed their Bolo supertanks as farm equipment.  Worse, they're beginning to break down.  Even worse, the aliens are plannning to attack!
Part I   (17 pages, 4,354 words) On a frontier colony bordering a hostile alien race, the colonists have turned their defensive Bolo supertanks into... tractors. Part II   (19 pages, 4,657 words) What do you do when a heavily-armed, self-aware supertank begins to go insane?
GORDON'S QUEST Norse and Chinese gods battle through human avatars during China's Taiping Rebellion in this short story I wrote for the 1992 Gods of War anthology (which I also edited).
Part I   (23 pages, 5,729 words) As the Chinese god Shang-Ti is hijacked by Taiping Rebellion, the Norse god Tyr sends British officer Charles Gordon to China to fight them. Part II   (23 pages, 5,812 words) Despite an uncooperative Chinese bureacracy and an unreliable mercenary army, Major Gordon manages to defeat the Taiping rebels... but Tyr isn't done with Gordon yet.
How the Rebellion Came to a Shuddering Halt   ( 1 page, 100 words) This is a "Drabble," an extremely short story, what today is called "Flash Fiction."  In 1990, the Drabble Project published their second volume, Drabble II: Double Century, which contained one hundred stories by one hundred authors of exactly one hundred words each—no more, no less.  This was my entry.  I suspect fans of my writing will find the ending fairly predictable. I decided to post it here because, as only 1000 copies of Drabble II were ever published, I figure very few people have ever read it.  I'd also like to point out that this teaser is now longer that the actually story is (sorry, I can't resist a little perversity).
In the Heavens and On Earth   ( 17 pages, 4,699 words) I've always been fascinated by China, so for in my story in the 1994 anthology Dragon's Eye, centuries of Asian history plays out as the Chinese Dragon battles Mongols, Saints, Samurai, Commies, Yankees... and, ultimately, itself.
Mission of Mercy   ( 20 pages, 4,791 words) In the middle of a civil war, a military medical relief mission to treat a plague-ridden city brings peace to the conflict... but not quite in the way they anticipated.  From a story I wrote for the 1993 anthology The Harriers 2: Blood and War.
PAPA DON'T 'LOW With his planet under siege by the alien Hothri, a quartermaster fed up with defective weaponry wages war against the military-industrial complex to improve quality... and stumbles across a darker secret than mere incompetence.
Part I   (33 pages, 7,575 words) Sidelined from the battlefield due to an injury, Pepe "Papa" Stuart becomes a quartermaster who flatly rejects and returns defective weaponry rather than arm his ships and soldiers with them - and immeadiately makes both civilian and military enemies. Part II   (23 pages, 5,199 words) As Papa's quest for reliable weaponry for the troops continues, he makes new allies and enemies, investigates industry's quality control procedures (or lack thereof), defies an Admiral's order to lower his quality standards... and suffers another assassination attempt. Part III   (27 pages, 5,799 words) As Papa slowly forces the military's civilian contractors to improve weapon quality, he begin to suspect a darker motivation than just profit for the defective merchandise, which Alice proceeds to secretly investigate. Part IV   (8 pages, 1,855 words) The true reason behind the Arista weaponry industry's defective merchandse is finally revealed and swiftly dealt with—but at a terrible cost to Alice and Papa.
PRIDE AND PUPPETRY In this leading short story I wrote for the 1995 fantasy anthology The Day the Magic Stopped, which I also edited, a knight disguised as a wandering entertainier hides the secret of one very special puppet.
Part I   (17 pages, 4,924 words) Sir Cairn, disguised as a puppeteer, arrives in a new city looking for a wizard to hire who can reverse a hostile spell placed on the Prince Orlin. Part II   (20 pages, 5,820 words) Sir Cairn takes Prince Orlin to a wizard who might be able to restore him from puppet-sized to man-sized... if he can convince her the Prince deserves to be helped.
Return With Your Spacesuit Or On It   (21 pages, 5,779 words) Comedic short story about a young man caught in a tug-of-war between his military mother and artistic girlfriend—and he's the rope!  Can he find a way to escape their war to control him—and control his own life instead? Two years later, Steve Ziplow turned the story into a radio play for Ziplow Sci-Fi Shorts vol II.  You can click here to listen to the radio play, or download the MP3 version of the radio play here. This story was co-written by my daughter Eleanore and I (meaning she wrote it and I proofread, edited, and stuck my name on it) for the 1996 sci-fi Mother's Day anthology Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear, with cover art by David Mattingly, who also did the cover art for my Starship Troupers series.
THE SIMULATED GOLEM In this short story origionally written for the 1990 anthology Time Gate II: Dangerous Interfaces, a businessman commissions a computer simulation of the mind of the long-dead Rabbi Loew to find out how to make a golem.
Part I   (14 pages, 3,598 words) A businessman commissions a computer simulation of the mind of the long-dead Rabbi Loew to find out how to make a golem.  But there's a problem: the Golem of Prague is just a myth; it never existed. Part II   (12 pages, 3,164 words) When the company tries to delete Rabbi Loew's simulation, he's forced to create a golem to defend himself... assuming he can keep control of it, that is...
SHARED EXPERIENCE In this short story origionally written for he 1994 anthology Bolos 2: The Unconquerable, when a horde of over a million aliens attack a human frontier colony, only 2000 people and 80 tanks are available to defend it.
Part I   (20 pages, 5,794 words) One by one, the Bolo tanks fall in combat while the last one furiously undergoes repairs. Part II   (25 pages, 7,622 words) Larry and Dawn survive their bunker being destroyed while Titan, the last Bolo, takes on the Harpy invaders alone. Part III   (17 pages, 4,524 words) Titan, the last surviving Bolo, lays a trap for the invading Harpies while Larry and Dawn make a desperate dash for safety.
SIR HAROLD AND THE TRUSTEES This is the leading story from the 1992 anthology The Enchanter Reborn, which I was lucky enough and honored to co-edit with L. Sprague deCamp!  With his fellow faculty off dimension-jumping through fantasy realms, Incompleat Enchanter Harold Shea scrambles to explain thier absence to the Board of Trustees.
Part I   (24 pages, 7,004 words) Harold Shea convinces his university's Board of Trustees that his fellow faculty are doing research abroad, but he needs the professor's cooperation to pull it off... which means he had to track them down in whatever fantasy universe they ended up in. Part II   (21 pages, 5,547 words) Harold, Belphebe, and Dr. Chalmers do battle with a fearsome hydra, then catch the evil wizard who conjured it—only the culprit turns out to be quite a surprise!
SIR HAROLD AND THE MONKEY KING Also from the 1992 Enchanter Reborn anthology.  While searching for a lost friend, Harold Shea explores the mythical world of Taoist legend as portrayed in Wu Cheng'en's classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Part I   (16 pages, 4,801 words) When Dr. Chalmers's wife Florimel gets lost somewhere in the multiverse, he appeals to Harold Shea to help him find her.  Their first stop brings them face-to-face with an angry Monkey King who doesn't take well to trespassers—espicially round-eyed barabrians. Part II   (13 pages, 3,794 words) Shea and Chalmers join the Buddhist monk Tripitaka and the Monkey King on their journey to India, meeting many allies and enemies along the way. Part III   (14 pages, 3,838 words) Shea and his companions convince a young prince that this father, the king, has been murdered and replaced by a sorcerer in disguise. Part IV   (18 pages, 4,733 words) To reanimate the dead king, all Shea has to do is go to Heaven and convince Lao-Tzu to give him a drop of the Life-Restoring Elixir.  How hard can it be?
SIR HAROLD AND THE HINDU KING From the follow up 1995 Exotic Enchanter anthology.  Still searching for Florimel, Shea and Chamlers arrive in the world of Hindu mythology from Vikram and the Vampire by the sage Bhavabhuti, but translated for the West by Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Part I   (14 pages, 4,023 words) Shea and Chamlers arrive in a world of Hindu mythology, run into a rajah in disguise, and all are promptly captured by a ruthless gang of thieves. Part II   (15 pages, 4,691 words) Surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the thieves take the captured Shea, Chamlers, and disguised Rajah back to their hideout, where a serving maid offers to help them escape.  But can they trust her?  Or is it a trap? Part III   (17 pages, 5,289 words) Shea, Chalmers, and Rajah Randhir make good their escape.  The Rajah deals out harsh justice to the thieves terrorizing his city before leading an army to wipe out their hidden nest... but no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Part IV   (12 pages, 3,155 words) Rajah Randhir defeats the thieves, captures their leader, and sentences him to execution—right as an old rival of Shea and Chalmers appears in the crowd. Part V   (14 pages, 4,120 words) Chalmers finally finds his lost wife Florimel—and finds her bewitched, thinking she's the wife of the condemned Bandit King.