VS: This week it was reported an individual had found a Celtic ring that was more than 1000 years old, which of course reminded me of my interstellar archaeologist in CURSE OF THE ALIEN RING. She also finds an ancient ring but when she puts it on her finger it catapults her thousands of years into the past and into the arms of a doomed king. The individual who found the Pictish ring didn’t get that experience!

The excerpt, right after she finds the ring inside an ancioent wooden box: 

Picking the ring up, Dianora held it this way and that, to watch the lights catch on the facets of the stones and the fires blazing within the central stone. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try it on once…before she reported it of course. This incredible ring was meant for a woman’s hand and here she was. The Belmane people had been humanoid, as with so many of the races scattered throughout the galaxy.

With no further argument, she slid the ring onto her hand and sighed. A perfect fit.

There was a violet flash of light from the huge stone and pain struck in her temples. She doubled over as if she’d been struck in the gut by a sword. Head on the table, she tried to catch her breath and call for help but couldn’t form words. Closing her eyes, she saw a vision of desperately battling warriors, one group valiantly attempting to defend a woman wearing the same ring, while another equally determined squad of nightmarish soldiers tried to break through the circle of her defenders. One man in particular caught Dianora’s eye—he was clearly the leader of the ones making a last stand. The woman in her vision never took her eyes off him as he fought, slashing and parrying and mowing down the enemy beside his men, trying to protect her.

Dianora blacked out and when she came to, the vision was gone as was the pain. Desperately she tried to remove the ring but it refused to budge from her finger until she’d tugged so much the skin was raw and her finger was swelling around the band. In tears, she tried to think what to do. Calling for help would gain her assistance in removing the ring but then she’d be in terrible trouble, her career over before it really began, she was sure.

She decided to go to her quarters, calm down and then try again later to remove the ring. If she could sneak it back into the box in the morning before the rest of her colleagues came onto the site, then she could ‘discover’ it again in public and matters would be fine. Flicking off her work lights she rose and left the tent.

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CURSE OF THE ALIEN RING by Veronica Scott

VS Note: I was supposed to be writing a short story for a holiday anthology but the story kept getting longer and I realized it no longer fit the antho theme, so I wrote them another and here is this one!

Dianora Devlin was on her first interstellar archaeological expedition since graduating from college when she made an incredible find – a gorgeous alien ring, one of the few artifacts of a long-vanished civilization. Unfortunately she yielded to the temptation to try the ring on and nothing was ever the same in her life thereafter. The ring had a will of its own and was determined to plunge her into a life of adventure and unexpected romance with a man from the planet’s ancient past.

Garrin was the last, legendary king of Argorn, imprisoned by his enemies and soon to die when the mysterious woman first appeared to him. She was wearing the ring which had been passed down in his family for generations and was said to possess great powers. When Dianora set him free and then disappeared, he wondered if the ring would ever bring her back to him.

Torn between her time and his, Dianora can’t decide if the ring is cursed or if she should trust her heart, abandon her career and take the risk of returning to Garrin. Could she find new purpose in his world and a Happy Ever After in his arms?

This 33K novella is a standalone science fiction romance story set in my Sectors interstellar civilization.

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