Arnold Davidson sat on the stage-front barstool at the Krazy Kat Klub just as he had done every night for the past twoweeks. There was a military bearing to the way he stood and walked. But his slight limp and some obvious, but muted, scars on the right side of his face made it clear that his fighting days were behind him. The girls called him “fiver on a budget,” meaning that he threw five dollar bills onto the stage or...

The UTCSS Neil deGrasse Tyson moved slowly through uncharted space. Technically it wasn’t uncharted, but no Terran ships had ever traveled into this relatively barren area of space. Through the years, the United Terran Confederation had sent many drone ships into this sector to explore and report back on gravitational fields, small asteroids, and any anomalies that might be present. But no crewed ships had ventured into t...

John has the best Halloween parties ever. I attended the first one of his parties ten years ago. I’m not on the guest list, never have been, but no one knows that. There are always a lot of party crashers at John’s Halloween parties. Part of the thrill of John’s parties is that everyone is totally anonymous. Many years ago such masked parties were quite the rage, but modern costumes and disguises are so much better. In fa...