Tuesday's Short - The Starman's Arrival

This week’s short story takes us from a fantasy world where elven raiders ride spiders and ghosts are real, to a distant colonial world trying to break free from raiders. Welcome to The Starman's Arrival.

Knocking over those crates of beer was a death sentence. I did it on purpose, in front of everyone, and then I did the only thing I could—I ran. I think I saved the starman. Now, the only way I’ll know, is if the supply ship comes in time to drive the raiders away—and I get back out of Blacklegs’ Forest alive. Wish me luck, okay? I’m gonna need it.

The Starman's Arrival (Extract)

He came in a shower of light, a beam that shot out from the orbiting starship and set him precisely in the centre of the town square. It was lucky the bandits shot him before he had fully formed; the round passed right through. His look of surprise, however, is etched, forever, on my memory.

And then I screamed, and knocked over an entire rack of beer, shattering the bottles on the cobbles, and drawing the bandits’ attention. Always a bad idea. I ran. The bandits ran.

By the time they thought to look back, the starman had disappeared… which brought me to the now very obvious flaw in my plan: I’d just wrecked a large part of their next shipment. Deliberately. In full sight of everyone. Trouble did not begin to describe the mess I’d just landed myself in.

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The Starman's Arrival is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/bQB9QZ.

You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story over on her blog: kriswrites.com. Why don't you go and check it out?