J.P. Medved

Arla Lightrider is the newest captain of the Profit and Luck, her late father's aether tradeship. She plans to follow in his footsteps, shuttling cargo through the tradelanes as a member of the Galactic Merchants Compact. Though her work is complicated by the new Imperium government's crackdown on the Compact's unregulated free traders, she thinks she can handle anything the stars throw at her. But when a strange alien offers to pay her handsomely for transport to a fringe world, she becomes caught in a conspiracy that could shake the foundations of the new galactic order. For her passenger carries something the Imperium desperately wants; something it is willing to kill to possess or destroy. And, Arla soon learns, despite the new government's brutal consolidation of power, there are still pockets of resistance alive throughout the galaxy. Not everyone is content to live under the heel of the Aether Imperium. Under the Heel of the Aether Imperium is a 12,000 word steampunk space opera novella.

A Steampunk Short Story

Under the Heel of the Aether Imperium

Wendy McElroy

William F. Wu

George Donnelly

Jake Antares

Jack McDonald Burnett

Robert S. Hirsch

Jonathan David Baird

From the Imperium-controlled aetherlanes to a tech noir restitution agency in the Free Zone and from a steampunk, 1894 China with clockwork automatons to a post-1984 Orwellian dystopia with mandatory goodpharm, here are ten science fiction stories of defiance and daring. Split evenly between strong female and male leads, these heroes fight losing battles on principle alone, discover lies hidden deep inside themselves, execute daring rescues and fight for love and liberty in a society where human dignity is cheaper than obsolete swarmbots. These original, never-before-published works are from veteran authors, including William F. Wu, as well as emerging talents.

Legends of Future Resistance

Defiant, She Advanced

Venus in 1887 is no paradise. Hardy colonists eke out a meager living cultivating blue Kosh root to ship back to Earth via aether transit, and traders and explorers brave the deadly foliage and even deadlier fauna of the Aphrodite continent's inner forests in search of riches. Lieutenant Albo Collins has just come to Venus straight from graduating West Point, and the young officer craves more to do than cleaning drunks off the streets of New Philadelphia. When the governor orders the First Venusian Colonial Infantry to the northern border of the colony Collins gets his wish, but as he marches into the unexplored wilderness hot on the trail of Federalist raiders, he has little idea what horrors await him, in the shade of the Ishtar trees. In the Shade of the Ishtar Trees is a 10,000 word (40 pages) steampunk novella.

In the Shade of the Ishtar Trees: A Tale of the First Venus War (a steampunk short story)

J.P. Medved

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