CHAPTER 74
I woke that morning sandwiched between the two and bursting for a pee. There was no way I could use the bottle, it would have freaked Darren too much, so I elbowed Eric to move and went out his side.

CHAPTER 73
It is as strange as I hinted, how Christmas passes like a train in the distance when you are working, but we had managed to distribute some oddities and soddities to our friends, and Ginny and Kate, Stewie and Sally, made it for an unChristmas Dinner on an off day, for which Ginny and I prepared a Thai banquet with some Vietnamese twists, including spicy omelette eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves with fresh lemon grass. Well, that was as unChristmassy as we could imagine.

Der junge Zauberer, der sich mit seinem Rucksack in einer Ecke des Airports abwartend niedergelaáŸen hatte, hob aufmerkend den Kopf als er já¤h aus seinem Nachsinnen geriáŸen wurde als die wohlklingende Stimme einer Frau á¼ber das Lautsprechersystem den nahen Start seines Fluges anká¼ndigte. "Ladies and gentlemen, the passengers of the flight number 235 to Dublin, Ireland, please may come to..."

CHAPTER 71
We found the house, in the end, after a couple of false starts, and it was in a quiet back street in Horley. Not the most wonderful of areas, or houses, not at all like the one Steph had inherited, but it had three bedrooms, a very large garage, a reasonably spacious conservatory and a garden shaded by some huge mature horse chestnut trees. Only five miles from work, as well, for both of us, the route identical as far as the nick.

CHAPTER 70
He grinned to take the edge of the old joke, and I realised as his eyes went over my shoulder that the old joke was more for the benefit of Steph than me. I felt her hand come down on my shoulder, and I put mine over it.

The day Samantha caught the train (part two)

What Samantha did not know was that her new parents had arranged for a hotel for the night as they knew that the last train would have left before the party had finished.

CHAPTER 68
There were a few places that could work, but we realised there was going to be a lot of legwork ahead. We made a long-list, then a short-list, both of places and of estate agents that seemed at least a little less reptilian than the norm.

CHAPTER 67
I stumbled out of the bathroom straight into Den, who almost picked me up as he moved me out of the door in obvious urgency.

Mom wants a daughter! Or does she? Darren's mother takes him shopping for a younger look. Darren experiences an epiphany.

Gina and Katie —
the Journey Begins

Novelette
by Andrea Lena DiMaggio

CHAPTER 65
Monday came, and it turned out that Kate had managed to pull some strings of her own and get the night off, along with the following Tuesday. Eric and I were staying with the Woodruffs that night, as riding half-cut through Crawley at pub closing time is never sensible.

CHAPTER 64
We walked down to tea hand in hand, to a knowing smile from Naomi.

“Darren, dear, the special biscuits?”

FTL-2... Faster Than Life.

Chapter 2

I’ve never been in Suspension before…I wake in pain, not pain, pain but this hurt, my lungs aren’t happy with the change in my breathing or the adjustment to room temperature. My skin prickles with waking sensations pins and needles like the entire surface was asleep and there’s dry mouth and a nasty headache.

“Good morning cadets, please get your belongings and get ready to transfer to the Apollo.”

CHAPTER 62
The deed poll was something I had been thinking about for some time. It could be said I had been doing so all my life, as my first memories were inextricably linked to feeling wrong, and as I had gradually found out who I was, the name had been obvious.

Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

CHAPTER 2

After the shuttle landed and I rented a vehicle, we headed toward my home. I, hesitantly, turned to Karen.

“Uh, there is something I should tell you before we get there. I was essentially a girl before puberty.”

FTL…

Faster Than Light…

Faster Than Life…

It’s a saying a parable of sorts from the old days. It used to be you’d be dead and gone and your great grand kids would be the ones arriving to where you used to be heading. Then came the great invention of FTL space flight. The basic theory of it requires the ship involved to have a man made micro-singularity as the engine core. It creates its own gravity and when you jump it’s using a particle beam to link it to another gravity well or a star and your ship is attracted to the larger field.

CHAPTER 59
Den just said, with a flicker of his eyes, “I will tell you a story one day, yeah?” and was off. The night was absolutely dead, work wise, and I spent large chunks of it nattering with Jim. I had, of course, noticed the civilian support staff flicking glances at my girls, but nothing worrying. Jim was at least open about things.

CHAPTER 57
Eric was down at the weekend, just as I switched to night shifts. He arrived early Friday evening, as I lay in bed trying to get a few hours sleep before going in, and the first I knew was when a warm body slipped into bed with me. I grunted a bit, then made my complaint.

Traveling North

Thirty years have passed yet in my mind it is always you, with Jimmy still a tiny baby in your arms that I still see.