Steve Beaulieu

In this anthology, you'll find 17 tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. 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....

When Brood Company of the Star-System Elite Guards receive a distress call from a disabled vessel, they discover things are more dire than originally believed. Stranded in the middle of the Lawless Zone, the heavy freighter, Dead Ringer, has been overrun by Slugs and possibly... something even more diabolical, and deadly....

A dedicated toymaker, unable to find his wife, summons a desperate private investigator to his compound in the far north to help with the search. It doesn't take long for the investigator to learn that these aren't normal people, and this isn't a normal case....

Trident Nottingham III had an idea that would change the world forever: a shipbrain designed to make interstellar flight less restrictive and reduce the amount of time one spent attempting to meet regulations. What he didn't expect was that the shipbrain would develop a mind of its own....

Eichard, an organic farmer from Repreter, has one last haul of horch to sell at the Tri-Star System Farmer's Market. When he is boarded by pirates in the middle of the Lawless Zone, the memory of his dead daughter haunts him, and the pirates get more than they'd bargained for....