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For my snippet today I’ve reached back to 2016 and a fun short story I wrote for an anthology. Here’s my note about the story:

Veronica’s Note: I was excited when Linnea Sinclair invited me to contribute a story to Dealer’s Choice, since I was going to be a co-host of her Interstellar Bar & Grille event at the 2016 RT Booklovers Convention. Who could refuse a chance to be in an anthology with one of the scifi romance greats? The story had to revolve around a casino and although I have a gaming establishment on the ‘A’ deck of the Nebula Zephyr from the STAR CRUISE series, the story that came to mind was a play on the Old West tropes. A gunslinger rides into town, gets involved with the local troubles despite his best intentions, and ends up defending the dance hall girl. Or in this case, the retired Special Forces operator heading home gets stranded on a remote space station, gets involved with the local miners’ troubles and…yup, there’s a dance hall girl!

2024: This is also the first time I mentioned the generational billionaire Kumisarc family and there’s a member of the family in my next book STAR CRUISE DREAM DANCER, which will be out this April.

The excerpt from GOLDEN TOKEN:  Charlie has been forced to spend a few days on a space station waiting for his ride to show up. He’s rented a place to stay and was given a ‘gold’ coin besides.

The rental units were a level down from the terminal. As Charlie navigated his way there, his impression that this was a facility with marginal maintenance was reinforced. Dents and patches in the hull, a gravlift that was like swimming in glue, refuse gathered along the edges of corridors—Sectors Station 47 was not a happy place. Not as bad as some he’d been in over the years, but not anywhere he wanted to linger. The few people he passed had the same pasty, pinched look the desk clerk exhibited, intent on their own errands, virtually ignoring him.

He walked through the housing corridor, noting how many of the door indicators showed green for unoccupied. This place had fallen on hard times, judging by the vacancies.  He found the number he’d been assigned and pulled the key from his pocket. The casino token came with it, rolling to the deck with a clink and wavering away. Charlie kept his hold on the kitbag and tried to get the archaic key strip to work. The loss of the flamboyant token wasn’t even a minor irritation to him right now, not worth chasing.

“See a penny, pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck,” said a melodious voice from his left. “I think this must be yours, stranger?”

He half turned, finding himself facing a woman as tall as he was, dressed in the standard beige, one-piece Station uniform but wearing an incongruous pair of red stiletto heels. Her hair was lavender and aqua, massed curls bouncing as she walked toward him, token held in well-manicured fingers.

Automatically he extended his own hand. “Penny? Is that what it’s called?”

Green eyes sparkling, she laughed. “Who knows? My granny taught me the saying when I was a kid.  Said it was an Old Terra proverb from before credits were invented. I like the rhythm.”

“You can keep it if you want,” he offered. “You found it.”

“Employees aren’t allowed to gamble or drink with those. For the paying customers only.” She dropped the coin onto his palm. Leaning closer, she said, “Basically it’s a scam to get you into the casino.”

“You work there?” A whiff of her exotic perfume made his head whirl. He made up his mind he was paying the place a visit. He ventured a safe guess. “Dealer? Which table?”

Laughing, she edged past him in the corridor. “Come and find out. I’ll be…on duty, in an hour.”

The view as she walked toward the gravlift was the most appealing thing he’d seen since arriving. He raised his voice. “I’m Charlie by the way.”

Not bothering to glance back, she waved one shapely hand. “Nice to meet you, new neighbor Charlie.”

VS: This short story plus a Star Cruise novella and two other Star Cruise short stories are available in this volume:

STAR CRUISE A NOVELLA: STOWAWAY with Star Cruise Rescue and Golden Token Short Stories. 

In this volume I’ve gathered three stories set in the Sectors which have previously only been available in anthologies (which are no longer on sale), plus a bonus Sectors short holiday story that I originally wrote for my blog.

Star Cruise: Stowaway: A novella of 22K words, previously in the first Pets in Space™ anthology.

Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.

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