This story has been out for a long time (ten years now!) and it’s finally getting a stand-alone release today! This is a special story for me for a bunch of reasons
- It’s the first time someone paid me for a story.
- It was one of my first stories to be released in audio.
- It’s hard sci-fi, which I don’t write much.
- Some very personal things drove aspects of this story.
I wanted to do this quite a few years ago but couldn’t find an appropriate image for the cover. For me, a cover is what makes a book start to feel real, so when I finally found the right image, I knew it was time.
There are a lot of ways to enjoy this story, some of them free. Here they all are (including the new stand-alone edition)
- The Last Flight of the Acurus. The new release. Ebook and paperback editions available.
- Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #58. This is where it first appeared.
- Anomalous Reading: Thirteen Curious and Confounding Tales. The story is here with twelve other stories of mine. Ebook and paperback editions available.
- StarShipSofa episode 394. This features an audio edition of this story as well as one of my other stories.
Read (or listen) any way you like. Here’s the blurb for the story:
He’ll risk everything to save his friend
Adventurous by nature and inspired by man’s colonization of the Moon and Mars, Rajesh Wells became a belter, one of the pioneering men and woman living and dying in the asteroid belt.
But when disaster strikes and his ship is disabled, Rajesh finds himself facing his biggest challenge yet. With rescue a long way off and his commander and friend spinning helplessly towards an asteroid and certain death, Rajesh ventures out alone into the dark void to save her.
It will take all his courage, every trick he can come up with, just to survive.
In this taunt novelette of friendship and survival in space, Robert J. McCarter, the author of Seeing Forever, takes you to the asteroid belt with a surprising tale of friendship and bravery that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
