by Dave Smeds
A screech echoed across the valley. On the crag, the hugin was looking right at Neil. There it was, its race already witness to the eviction of one set of planetary tenants. He wondered if it were possible that they did know the answer to the big mystery of Gamma Leporis A-III. Perhaps they had seen just how and why the Eridanin had lost their lease.
Neil didn’t care. That was the past.
“Get the hell outta here,” he murmured toward the avian, as he would to an obnoxious little brother. Joyfully.
What did the past matter? If humans were to be proper stewards of this world, they had to look forward.
The hugin screeched, dived to the valley floor, and rose with a prairie wriggler in its claws. It paid no more attention to Neil.
A wave of giddiness surged from Neil’s toes to the crown of his head, settling at last in the region of his heart. He recognized the feeling. He had last felt it before the ark was launched, back before his transformation from pioneer to consul. Back when he was optimistic about the colony’s potential.
He drew out his notebook and called up his niece’s painting. A few weeks ago he had seen an acre near Landfall that would be perfect for a vegetable garden. He could put the house on a rise above the river that bisected the capital downstream. He had some architectural plans in his database. For the first time on-planet, he began to examine them, noting little changes he might like to make.
The world was full of possibilities.
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COPYRIGHT & CREDITS
FUTURES NEAR AND FAR
Dave Smeds
Entire contents Copyright © 2014 by Dave Smeds. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61138-456-7
Cover Design: Dave Smeds. Artwork by Dave Smeds incorporating “Asteroid Field and Nebula” by Angela Harburn, Dreamstime.
Ebook formatting: Vonda N. McIntyre.
Proofreaders: Sara Stamey, Phyllis Radford.
This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Digital edition: 20141027vnm
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Suicidal Tendencies” was first published in Full Spectrum 4, edited by Lou Aronica, Betsy Mitchell, and Amy Stout; Bantam Books, NY; April, 1993. Copyright © 1993 by Dave Smeds.
“Termites” was first published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, May, 1987. Edited by Gardner Dozois. Copyright © 1987 by Dave Smeds.
“New Breed” was published without the author’s consent in Inside Karate, September, 1985. Its first authorized publication (as “Tournament”) was in Far Frontiers, Volume VI, edited by Jerry Pournelle and Jim Baen; Baen Books, NY; October, 1986. Copyright © 1985, 1986 by Dave Smeds.
“A Marathon Runner in the Human Race” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1994. Edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Copyright © 1994 by Dave Smeds.
“The Easy Way Down from Avernus” was first published in Deals with the Devil, edited by Mike Resnick; DAW Books, NY; October, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Dave Smeds.
“Reef Apes” was first published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, August, 1992. Edited by Gardner Dozois. Copyright © 1992 by Dave Smeds.
“Homespun and Handmade” was first published in Slipstreams, edited by John Helfers; DAW Books, NY; May, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Dave Smeds.
“Evaporation” was first published in Nanodreams, edited by Elton Elliott; Baen Books, NY; August, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Dave Smeds.
“Foreigners” was first published in G.A.S. — The Journal of the Gross Americans’ Society #8, Marina, CA; Spring, 1989. Edited by Jeannette M. Hopper. Copyright © 1989 by Dave Smeds.
“The Cookie Jar” was first published in The Age of Wonders, edited by Jeffry Dwight; SFF-Net, Plano, TX; September, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by Dave Smeds.
“Fearless” was first published in Warriors of Blood and Dream, edited by Roger Zelazny and Martin H. Greenberg; Avon Books, NY; June, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Dave Smeds.
“A Raven on My Shoulder” was first published in The Age of Reason, edited by Kurt Roth; SFF-Net, Plano, TX; September, 1999. Copyright © 1999 by Dave Smeds.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Smeds is the author of novels, short fiction, comic book scripts, and screenplays. His writing spans several sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy including sword-and-sorcery, hard sf, contemporary fantasy, superhero, martial arts, horror, and erotica.
His novels include The Sorcery Within, The Schemes of Dragons, Piper in the Night, and X-Men: Law of the Jungle. Over a hundred of his stories have appeared in magazines such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Pulphouse, Penthouse Hot Talk, and anthologies such as Full Spectrum 4, Peter S. Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn, David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible, Return to Avalon, and over a dozen installments of the Sword & Sorceress series. Some of these works have been collected in the volumes Embracing the Starlight and Raiding the Hoard of Enchantment.
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BOOKS BY DAVE SMEDS
The Sorcery Within
The Schemes of Dragons
The Wizard’s Nemesis
X-Men: Law of the Jungle
Embracing the Starlight
Piper in the Night
Raiding the Hoard of Enchantment
Futures Near and Far
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