Zoran Neptunus XII swam to the top of the Flying Dutchess, the submersible ship of the Seablood Pirates. He planted his webbed feet in a bracing stance on top of the ship as he scanned the Atlantean slaver ship’s heat signatures with his inherited Royal Eye. Taking the form of a bulbous mantis shrimp eye on the end of a stalk growing from his left eye socket, it let him see into both the ultraviol...

(This short story is the origin of two characters of great importance to the story of Terra Nova [working series title], the Science-Fantasy series I’m writing, set in a future where the polar ice caps melting forces humanity to migrate into the ocean, where they find the Atlantean Empire, which survived sinking during the end of the last Glacial Period, and subsequent life on the sea floor, throu...

Nothing drives one crazy

Quite like bureaucracy.

You’re so devilish

Even spelling you is a…

Rich.

Everyone raves about your role at the DMV!

Oh, they hate it? Nah, couldn’t be!

The systems of government without you would feel oh so cheapened,

I mean, what would we do without the politicians whose pockets you deepen?

We all just love all your red tape,

And the taxes you enable feel kinda like...

If silence had a smell, it would smell like the morning dew just before sunrise, waiting for the bus to take you to school before the rest of the world around you is awake. Or maybe a new and empty house, when you’re upstairs checking out all the rooms while your family is outside checking out the backyard, just out of earshot. It can be the smell of something safe and comforting when the world ou...