The muffled thump of metal on metal. Again. A third time and the door buckles. A final blow and the thick metal door breaks from its hinges, falling into the room with a crash. Hard white light streams in through the doorway, silhouetting an enormous figure holding a heavy, steel battering ram. He steps back, disappearing into the spotlight glare. A second man steps into the light. He holds a terminal out in front of him and scans the room, its bright-green light blinking off-and-on, reflecti...

The muffled thump of metal on metal. Again. A third time and the door buckles, a piece of the lock flying off and hitting an overturned chair. A final blow and the thick metal door breaks from its hinges, falling into the room with a crash. Hard white light streams in through the doorway, silhouetting an enormous figure in a radiation suit carrying a heavy steel battering ram. The figure steps back, disappearing into the glare of the spotlights. A second figure, also wearing one of the bulky ...

He climbs, struggling not to lose his footing. The man stretches out a gloved hand and grabs a steel reinforcement-bar. It is one of many. They used to be buried deep inside concrete walls, now they are just another part of the devastation--convenient handholds in his search. The man hauls himself up onto the mountain of concrete. "Are you okay, Professor Steadman?" a voice crackles over the intercom. Professor Steadman stands and looks out across the ruined USAF base. He is breathing heavily...

He struggles not to lose his footing. The man stretches out a hand, grabs hold of a long steel bar sticking out of the wreckage and hauls himself up onto steadier ground. The bar was once buried deep within thick concrete walls, reinforcing them, holding them up. Now it is just a convenient handhold for a stubborn old man. He should have let someone else do this. Someone younger. Someone fitter. He should be sat in the back of one of their air-conditioned trailers, watching via the suit's hea...

A figure mounts the wreckage. He struggles not to loose his footing. It is not easy--the heavy suit he wears makes movement difficult, but without it he would be dead in minutes. The air is choked with radioactive dust, blown by the desert winds from the hole in the earth that was once a power station. The man stops and looks around, having to turn his entire upper body to see clearly through the small glass faceplate. He reaches down to his side, grabs a small terminal clipped to his huge be...

Chapter 1. The star-craft thundered through the portal, exhaust gases from its vast engines buffeting the thin atmosphere of the toroidal habitat ring like a hurricane; ionised particles creating storms or aurora borealis in the magnetic shielding. If there had been anyone left alive on the ring looking up through that atmosphere, it would have been a spectacular site. But there was no one left here to appreciate it. There had been no one here for more than one hundred and thirty years. No on...

Commander Vog placed his spectacles on the desk, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s what?” He asked the underling. The underling gulped nervously. “Er, it’s not ... not worked, sir.” He stammered. Vog replaced his glasses and took a deep breath. “How do you mean?” “Well, something a bit odd’s happened, sir.” Vog glared at the underling. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he needed to glare at somebody, and this guy just happened to be there. The underling backed slowly ou...

Cadarence slipped the controls into manual and plunged the craft towards the boiling mass below. The great red, orange and yellow bands grew larger, closer, and as they did, they lost their forms. Colours became inter-mingled, overlapping, merging; new patterns were evident and then, in a fleeting instant gone, moving on, as both his sense of scale changed, and the great forces that dominated them pulled them into new contortions. Vast winds shaped this planet, the currents of which where the...

*15* A small blue led began to flash on the console. The room was otherwise completely dark. A second, green led illuminated, next to the first. This seemed to trigger some deep automatic system, which in turn brought the room into operation. Panels began to emit soft glows in order to distinguish them from the surrounding blackness of the consoles they were embedded in. Displays became backlit. The sound of fluid coursing back and forth through various systems began to rise. As the activity ...

*8* “Those aren’t exactly the basis of a healthy diet. I’d have thought you of all people would know that, Doc.” “Malloy. Shouldn’t you be in the mess hall with the rest of your company?” I said, pushing back the panel to get at the nutrition bar. “Hey, don’t be like that, Doc, I thought maybe you ‘n’ me could have lunch together. Y’know I don’t ever recall having seen you in the mess- I wonder why that could possibly be?” His tone was more than slightly accusatory, but I ignored him. In the ...