Here’s a snippet from my story, “Collaborator” in the new Lost Signals anthology of tales from Chuck Gannon’s Terran Republic:
Agent Conrad shared her credentials, though it took a moment to figure
out how to get them to the mayor’s primitive comp. The mayor looked at
his screen, which was now flashing at him. “Hmm, your ID is quite
literally demanding my attention. So please, have a seat. You were
saying that you’re lookin’ for someone?”
“Yes. Professor James Marlow.” She sat
in the cubicle’s guest chair. The wood of the cubicle was fragrant,
like sandalwood, masking any less pleasant odors. Conrad showed the
mayor a picture on her pad: a pale, ginger-haired, clean-shaven man.
“Why are you lookin’ for him?” he said.
“He betrayed the human race.”
“During the invasion of Earth?” The mayor took off his glasses and
rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Unfortunately, not
that uncommon a crime. We have folks here who are probably former
CoDevCo, and we have likely deserters from both sides, and so forth, but
I have no fricken idea what their real backgrounds are. Frankly, as
long as they keep the peace here, I don’t wanna know.”
“This man’s betrayal was at a higher, more public level. And we have reason to believe he may be betraying us again.”
“I see.” The mayor glanced again at the photo. “I haven’t seen anyone here who looks like that.”
“He doesn’t have that name and face anymore,” said Conrad.
“Huh. Then how will you be able to ID him? Going to check everyone’s DNA?”
“Better,” said Agent Conrad. “I have his story.” And with that, she began the collaborator’s tale.
I’ll be at Washington DC’s Awesome Con this weekend. My panel is: 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM (room 154) Dark History Meets Dark Fantasy and SF My co-panelists are Jack Campbell (John Hemry), Alma Katsu, Alan Smale, and Robert E Water. Hope to see you there!
The wonderful folks at Graphic Audio have released their dramatic audio performance of American Craftsmen! Books 2 and 3 of the trilogy will be coming soon.
I’ll be reading on All Saints’ Day at the World Fantasy Convention at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. I hope to see you at the reading, or at the convention, or at the hotel restaurant/bar. https://wfc2018.org/wfc_online_program.php
Friday Sept. 28 to Sunday Sept. 30, I’ll be at Capclave, a wonderful DC-area convention for talking with your favorite science fiction and fantasy authors (www.capclave.org). Here’s my schedule:
Reading: Saturday 4:30
Panels, etc.:
Fri 6PM: SFF of Political Resistance
Fri 8PM: Author Table (I may take off early to hear Sarah Avery read).
Sat 11AM How We Imagine the Future and What It Says About US
Sat 1PM What Makes Alternate History So Compelling?
I’ve figured out the real way that the Battlestar Galactica reboot ended (versus the Hollywood version we saw on TV). The real BSG story was just too dang sad. After all they’d been through, the fleet (and not just the leader) was dying. They arrived at Earth during the last ice age. They’d already taken major losses, only to discover that a combination of toxins in Earth’s food, new diseases, and a slightly different biochemistry meant that they wouldn’t survive more than a generation on this new world. At the end of their resources, they chose to stay anyway to help the local humans, who were experiencing a population bottleneck. The fleet arranged for the destruction of their advanced technology not because they didn’t want to use it anymore, but because they couldn’t allow such technology to fall into the hands of a bunch of hunter-gatherers, and there wasn’t enough time to uplift them to a technological civilization. If they held on to the tech for too long as their numbers dwindled, the locals would overwhelm them and take it. But before the fleet destroyed their tech, they took measures to decrease the albedo of the ice caps to end the ice age sooner. And they had another plan–they’d give these hunter-gatherers the knowledge of agriculture.
Only one person was biochemically equipped to survive indefinitely on this new world–the human/Cylon hybrid named Hera. It was she who continued the project of the spread agricultural knowledge among the local humans after the rest of the fleet was dead. With her unique genome, she may have lived for hundreds of years (she may be alive still). She told stories about the fleet that had brought her to this new world; if she was capable of having children with the locals, she gave them the names she remembered in the fleet’s honor (Adama, Apollo, etc.). Besides inspiring the obvious goddess’s name, she also became the inspiration for Demeter and the other goddesses of agriculture. But she never forgot what she’d lost.
The war with the Cylons became the revolt of the Anunnaki, among other stories
This weekend I’ll be at both Capclave (DC) and New York Comic Con.
Capclave:
Friday (Oct. 6): Book Launch for War and Craft (8-10PM)
Alternate History panel (4PM)
Comic Con:
Sunday (Oct. 8): War of the Words: Battles in Fiction panel (10:45-11:45AM)
Post-panel signing (12-1PM)
