’ve been looking forward to this issue for awhile.More on that in a bit.By this time, we have gotten past Valentine’s Dayin one piece and have survived some of the coldestweather in many moons. It’s time for some hot sf, andwe have got some treats for you in Issue 16.We start with

Checkers

, by Andrew LeBlanc, abouta game that is literally out of this world.

Two lonely robots, a broken space station, the ruined Earth, and a fight against boredom.

The commander had been teary-eyed during theconfrontation, and now his eye sockets were empty—a dusty skeleton in a helmetless space-suit.The maintenance bot pushed a red piece to far endof the board.King me.In this issue, we present the return of Jack Brandfrom John M. Whalen with part one of two of his lateststory,

Carbonville

He nodded his green head and the two bodyguardscame back out of the jungle. The Kazuli who’d done thetalking in the elevator came up to Brand and, withouttelegraphing anything, hit him hard in the stomach.Brand doubled over, and the Kazuli’s fist smashedagainst his cheek. He staggered back a few steps andsteadied himself. The Kazuli just stood there.“What was that for?” Brand asked.“I don’t like cheap cops who think they can comehere into my private world and ask me to rat on peopleI may or may not know. This is just a warning, Brand. If you’re smart, you’ll pay attention and get out of Car-bonville. Now beat it!”I often get the question “How is

The Sky Pirate

space opera?” Up to now, all I could say is that it wasswashbuckling adventure. I begin to challenge thatanswer with this chapter,

Comes the Watcher

. Stayalert for the end – it’ll knock your socks off.Chapter 8 of

The Adventures of the Sky Pirate

is toldfrom the POV of a nameless narrator who shadowsCooper Flynn as he arrives at the Haddirron NavalAcademy. Flynn has followed a potential spy and mustgain access to the Academy before she can give awaythe secrets of Briar Island and endanger the lives of thousands of innocents. She has two things he doesnot: a Commission parchment, and her name on theadmissions rolls.Flynn’s not about to let a little thing like that stophim, and casts about to do what has never been donebefore.If he lives that long.Cooper Flynn sailed in by himself in a very nicelittle sloop. He tied up to the dock at twilight whenthe waterfront was largely deserted. I sat with one legover the edge of the dock, mending a net as he tiedup, apparently engrossed in my work. He stretched hislegs and cracked his neck, then he tied his long blackhair back into a knot and went searching for food.He kept a very low profile, but he was a rankamateur compared to my kind, and I had no troublefollowing him without being seen.It is one of two things I do best.Sean T. M. Stiennon is back with Chapter 8 of hisserial novel,

Memory Wipe

The Price Paid

After barely escaping Lashiir, Takeda Croster setsoff for the remote colony world Nihil aboard a ship

piloted by the Rover Esheera Nii. He seeks a man called Cramer Orano who might know more about his mys

terious body, who might even know what happened inthe years before Takeda’s memory.

Lashiir didn’t take trophies, but he did write thename of those victims he considered worthy in a bookbound with nightstone with pages stretched fromfanglurker tongues. He would scribe Takeda and theLithrallian with his finest ink. Then he would considerwhere to take himself next. Perhaps Imperia, whereTsiika might drink the blood of the most powerfulhumans in the Empire.Someday, perhaps, he might even return to theDark Sphere in triumph. When his book was completeand when he was strong enough to face the warriorwho awaited him there.Stay tuned for the next issue for the next install-ment of the

JASPER SQUAD

and

Deuces Wild

serials.

Johne (Phy) Cook

Overlord’s Lair