Smith's Monthly #11 Read online

  “But after that is stable?” Benny asked, leaning forward.

  Ray smiled. “We hope you and Gina in a few years will recruit the other four.”

  “We can do that,” Benny said. “And then what?”

  “If we could see into the future,” Tacita said, “we would.”

  “But we can’t,” Ray said smiling.

  Benny nodded. He knew that, for the moment, Ray and Tacita didn’t want to talk about any possible plans. And that honestly made sense to Benny. He and Gina needed to concentrate on saving lives.

  And finding a new way for people on his Earth to live going forward.

  Benny stood and Gina did as well, slightly ahead of Ray and Tacita.

  “It’s time we get started,” Benny said.

  “I agree,” Ray said.

  Ray reached over and took Tacita’s hand and an instant later they were back in Chairman Carson’s office.

  Carson jumped to his feet and bowed slightly to all of them.

  “I’m glad you have joined us,” Ray said to Benny. “Good luck in this coming battle.”

  “Yes,” Tacita said. “Best success.”

  And with that they were both gone.

  Benny glanced at the startled face of Chairman Carson. “Thank you, Chairman, for the use of your office.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Gina said.

  “Any time,” Carson said.

  “Shall we go to work?” Benny asked Gina.

  “Let’s do it,” she said, giving him that smile he was coming to love more than anything.

  A moment later, side-by-side, they were bent over a screen in her apartment office, their shoulders touching as they studied the green dots and the notes Gina had made about each person.

  Even though Benny now understood the vast expanse of human worlds out there in the stars, even though this was his first day as a Seeder, his only focus was on his home city, his home planet, and saving as many people as he could as quickly as he could.

  There would be time later to really think about what had happened. And what he had agreed to.

  The larger Seeders Universe would take time for him to understand. But many people out there in his home city amid all the death didn’t have time.

  So he was focused.

  And he knew that the woman of his dreams beside him felt exactly the same way.

  They needed to quickly find survivors.

  And then together rescue them.

  After all, saving human life, human cultures, was what Seeders did.

  He was now a Seeder. And that felt exactly right.

  PIPE DREAMS

  Belief in yourself runs strong

  through creations…

  conceptions…

  ideas…

  All encased in gold.

  “Fools gold,” they say, laughing

  and snickering.

  “No chance.”

  “No Way.”

  “Never Work.”

  And you argue, “But, maybe…”

  or “What if?”

  Seeing goals

  possibilities,

  maybe even a future.

  “That’s crazy,” they say,

  closed minds closing down

  in disgust.

  “It’s never been done.”

  “It sure won’t work.”

  And so it goes…

  The dreams, the beliefs dim

  flicker and fade

  with each opposing sentence,

  now contained neatly in lists of things

  you must think about before…

  Your dreams and beliefs,

  pushed and shoved by ridicule,

  smashed by laughter,

  are finally filed by a coward

  in a drawer labeled dreams.

  If you enjoyed this volume of Smith’s Monthly, don’t miss the next: Subscribe today!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith published more than a hundred novels in thirty years and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

  He wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

  He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

  He now writes his own original fiction under just the one name, Dean Wesley Smith. In addition to his upcoming novel releases, his monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly premiered October 1, 2013, filled entirely with his original novels and stories.

  Dean also worked as an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He now plays a role as an executive editor for the original anthology series Fiction River.

  For more information go to www.deanwesleysmith.com, www.smithsmonthly.com or www.fictionriver.com.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Introduction: Stories Go On and On

  Dried Up: A Poker Boy Story

  One

  Two

  Three

  Well, Maybe Not

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  The Life and Times of Buffalo Jimmy: Chapters 31-33

  PART THIRTY-ONE

  PART THIRTY-TWO

  PART THIRTY-THREE

  Cucumber Party: A Buckey the Space Pirate Story

  Patience

  The Adventures of Hawk: Chapters 31-33

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Marriage in Six Floors

  FIRST FLOOR

  SECOND FLOOR

  THIRD FLOOR

  FOURTH FLOOR

  FIFTH FLOOR

  SIXTH FLOOR

  The Case of the Intrusive Furniture: A Pilgrim Hugh Incident

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  The High Edge: A Seeders Universe Novel

  The Disaster

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  The Rescue

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The First Steps

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Forming a Team

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty
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  Chapter Forty-one

  Pipe Dreams

  Smith's Monthly

  About the Author

  Copyright Information