Chronicles of the Heart of Fire

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if humanity had been "contaminated" by contact with an alien people back during the last Ice Age? The tales in this story universe explore that possibility. Although only three of them are currently available, this is the story universe I've worked on the longest, and it has the largest number of story outlines and partially completed stories.

At present, there are two time frames in which these stories fall. The first is Day of the Dragon's Return, set in the years after 2050 A.D. The second is The Delphian Chronicles, set about 300 years later.

Hunting the Red Wolf, set in Day of the Dragon's Return, tosses Alan Rufus Wolfe, aka The Red Wolf in the virtual reality game to which he's addicted, into a pickle wherein he must figure out how to meld his real self with his game persona to rescue not only Claire Daniels, the last woman he ever expected to fall in love with, but everyone in the Solar System from the clutches of the Dragon no one realizes has returned. Set in The Free Cities of Tycho in the middle of this century, it is the first in what is expected to be a collection of at least six or seven novels, all of which will stand on their own.

To read Hunting the Red Wolf, right click here and select "Save Target As..." (in Firefox, "Save link target as...") to download the pdf file. It could take awhile on a 56K modem so be patient.

Step Out To The Stars, set in The Delphian Chronicles, is both the name of a living ship and the dance band which inhabits her as they travel about the Confederation playing gigs and trying to get out of the trouble they usually fall into. This is a set of four related novellas, each told by one of the members of the dance band. Not only must they deal with the Tovs, but with the Old Empire boys, not to mention the skeletons in their own closets. If you loved Star Trek, you'll love these tales, too.

To read Step Out To The Stars, right click here and select "Save Target As... to download the file. Again, it could take awhile, so please be patient.

Breakout, also set in The Delphian Chronicles and serving as a kind of sequel to Step Out To The Stars, takes place mostly at Starbase 9, on the Tov frontier. Tom Witworth, captain of the Thomas Utrecht, a Wolf Class Star Destroyer, discovers the answer to his killer headaches is not more Slwethian Brandy. Instead, he has to cope with an attempt to destroy Starbase 9 so as to leave the frontier wide open to takeover by the Tovs, the efforts of the base portmaster to kill any Delphians he can find so as to enable the takeover of the Confederation by the Old Empire, and the curiousity of a planet-sized intelligence expressed in the form of little green fuzzballs which can eat you out of house and home. (Do Tribbles come to mind???)

To read Breakout, right click here and select "Save Target As..." to download the file. As mentioned above, it could take awhile.

If you like these tales, please feel free to pass the link along, and let me know if you'd like to see more of them. Just email me at tkholmes1951@hotmail.com