Weekly Science Fiction, Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery Magazine

SpaceWays Weekly Logo

The Weekly Magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery

ISSN: 1206-8691

Stories Published In 1999

---------------------------
Publications
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
By Author
Title: A
Title: B
Title: C
Title: D
Title: E
Title: F
Title: G
Title: H
Title: I
Title: J
Title: K
Title: L
Title: M
Title: N
Title: O
Title: P
Title: R
Title: S
Title: T
Title: U
Title: V
Title: W
Title: X
--------------------
Home
Reader's Letters
Links
History
Index

These are the stories SpaceWays Weekly published in 1999.

January February March April May June July August September October November December

"Change"
Carol Tompkins
Issue #70 January 1 1999
A base on a distant planet has a problem; one of their people has killed a native and apparently gone mad in the process. The natives tell the base commander that someone among the humans must make compensation. The base commander presents himself, expecting the aliens to kill him. Instead, the aliens need him to fill the place left vacant by their dead member. The story tells about the changes, physical and mental, that he goes through while living with them.

"Earth Coffee"
David L. Kuzminski
Issue #71 January 8 1999
Just a another little two-bit coffee shop in the city. Until a huge lumbering alien comes in and starts to babble at the waitress. She's not one to get into a flap; after all, it's the city and she's seen it all before. She holds up a menu with pictures on it so the guy can point to what he wants; coffee. After downing a pitcher of it, the alien hands her a coin and lumbers out. The coin is worthless has currency, but it's solid gold. Soon, the little coffee shop is busy than ever as word spreads through the galaxy that they have good coffee and take gold coins in payment!

"Getaway"
William L. Churchman
Issue #72 January 15 1999
One of the deadliest killers of the decade has escaped from prison and is on the run. He pauses to watch some televisions in a store window to see if the news has any reports about him. A report about a scientist announcing the perfection of his time machine catches his attention; especially since the guy is here in town. He barges into the scientist's lab and forces the man to send him back in time, the ultimate escape! When the police arrive, they are furious that the scientist inflicted some unsuspecting era with the hideous killer. But the scientist calmly points out that although the machine moves you through time, it does not move you through space and the Earth wasn't in the same place fifty years ago.

"The Street Shooter and The Death Angel"
Jean Goldstrom
Issue #73 January 22 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
An old city reporter has been working the "death desk", writing obituaries. Working closely with the dead, he has come to the acquaintance of a Death Angel, an angel who guides the dead from their bodies to the afterlife. When the angel shows up to take the Street Shooter, what old time newspaper photographers are called, he doesn't realize how tough the job will be. The Street Shooter doesn't want to go until he's had a chance to photograph the Creation of the Universe. A wonderfully sad story which really brings to life the type of people journalists in the big city used to be before college education became a requirement.

"The Sleeping Admiral"
Leigh Kimmel
Issue #74 January 29 1999
A story about a mermaid princess who doesn't want to marry the guy her father has set her up with. She has fallen in love with the story of an Admiral who was cursed to sleep forever in a tower by the sea until his true love kisses him. Fleeing from her arranged marriage, she seeks out the tower and finds it. Dragging herself up to it, up the stairs inside and then up onto his bier is almost too much for her. But she brings him out of his sleep. He tells her that they cannot live together and he carries her back to the sea. As the dawn light touches the couple, it transforms her tail into legs. And they lived happily ever after.

"Croons the Maiden, 'Unto Virgins Only Come'"
Paula L. Fleming
Issue #75 February 5 1999
A young girl flees from a life she finds intolerable, only to be caught up by unscrupulous people who force her into a whore house. One of the self-defense mechanisms she uses is to gaze out the window and sing to the stars. She sings silently, in her mind so that her masters do not hear. She sings to hide, to soothe herself, to have something that they cannot take from her. One day a rich maiden comes to the city. Claren hears from a city guard that the princess's mother wants to give her a wedding gift of a stuffed and mounted unicorn head. Legend has it, that unicorns only come to virgins so the princess herself would be the bait. Claren is horrified, so she flees from the whore house and escapes the city. She stumbles through the woods, hoping to spoil the hunt, thinking that she might be able to frighten off the unicorn. A unicorn does indeed appear, but he has come for Claren, not the princess. Claren is confused, for she is not a virgin. But the unicorn has come to return something to her; the part of herself that she has sang out to the stars. Now that she is whole once again, she vows to help other unfortunates like herself, wherever they may be. The unicorn takes her up upon his back and the ride off.

"Alison Courliss"
James S. Dorr
Issue #76 February 12 1999
Alison Courliss has a problem; while walking through the city park, her dog gets eaten by a crocodile. In the police station, where she goes to file a report about it, are a reporter looking for a story, an advertising agent trying to deny that the laundry powder samples they gave out through their newspaper are not causing the mysterious foam rising out of the sewers, the two cops who tried the save the dog by shooting at the crocodile and the animal rights activists who are trying to sue the cops. The reporter manages to mangle things to the point that Alison ends up in court on charges of harming an endangered species. A story of an ecology driven past its natural limits.

"Watchers on the Nerves"
Patricia Salisbury
Issue #77 February 19 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
It is the future and Big Brother is Watching. U.S. citizens have voted in a nation wide security camera system. The cameras are everywhere and what they record, audio and video, is all the evidence needed to convict anyone of anything. Unless you're rich and an executive officer in the company which builds the cameras. Playing a deadly game, he picks up a street walker, has sex with her and strangles her during the act. All in front of the bedroom camera. Two detectives are set to lock the guy up for life, when strings are pulled and they are told it was an accident, let the nice man go. To add insult to injury, they are told to give him a ride home. The gloating exec notes that the camera on their dash board isn't working; especially after one detective insults him. His anger rises and he is threatening to destroy both of them. Another problem with the future is the sad state of repair, or lack of it, of the streets. The detective driving expertly times hitting a monster pothole which knocks her car out of control. In a valiant effort to protect the citizens in cars and on foot, she battles the car for control, impacting a telephone pole. The impact drives the exec through the windshield; in disregard of the law, again, he was not wearing his seatbelt. A cautionary tale about how things we think will help us, actually end up being worse than the problem they were meant to cure.

"Class of 3057"
David L. Kuzminski
Issue #78 February 26 1999
On a distant world, the population pressures are severe due to science having conquered all illnesses. With complete immunity to everything, the world is being overrun with people. In order to gain the right to have children, you have to enter a combat college. Each year, the two colleges field their teams in a stadium to take part in the world's favourite sport; watching the college men kill each other for the right to reproduce.

"Showing the Flag"
Leigh Kimmel
Issue #79 March 05 1999
A fantasy tale about world where there are three genders; male, female and intersex, one which is both. One country is highly prejudiced against the intersexes, to point of making it illegal. A naval fleet of another country is visiting in harbour when one of their sailors returns from shore leave during a riot. The riot had happened because a poor woman was discovered to have an intersex baby. The sailor had grabbed the baby and made a run for his ship; the Admiral's Flag ship. When a Shapangan delegation approaches and demands to search for the missing baby, the Admiral, who is also intersex, tells them to feel free. When the baby is discovered, they are told that the baby is the Admiral 's. Making threats the whole time, they return to shore. As the fleet departs, the Admiral declares that a large statue the Shapangan's are so proud of, at the mouth of their harbour, is a navigation hazard and asks her gunners to remove the obstacle.

"Habitbreakers"
James Keenan
Issue #80 March 12 1999
We are creatures of habit and sometimes we wish to break those habits. Enter into the picture a company who implants a behaviour modification chip which can break bad habits for you. A man with a severe drug addiction undergoes the procedure. But then the authorities start to round up the people who have chips and having them forcibly removed. It turns out that the chips encourage violently aggressive behaviour. Soon, the few rich people who are in danger of losing their chips, or already have, are looking for the ones who still have them. And they are willing to kill to get the chips.

"The Alien in the Gray Flannel Suit"
Jay Arr Henderson
Issue #81 March 19 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
A humorous story about a small town reporter who stumbles onto an alien researcher living in his town. It's the Big Story he's been waiting, his ticket to the Big City, Easy Street, Fame and Fortune. He forces the alien into an interview then rapidly becomes frustrated when he discovers that the alien is totally bland, totally boring, here on a totally boring research project examining totally boring things about a totally boring human race. He throws up his hands in frustration and storms out. As the door closes behind him, the alien's disguise collapses, revealing a hideous monster who is greatly relieved that he got rid of the human in time!

"The Missing Half of Irian"
Jonathan Fesmire
Issue #82 March 26 1999
A fantasy tale about Irian, who is a dual. A dual is two people who share the same body. The body alters in appearance according to which person is in control. Oanya is female and Irian is male. One night, Oanya is nearly raped and stabbed in the process. As she starts to fall unconscious, Irian seizes control and fights off the attacker. He finds a healer and tells her what happened. The problem is, he can't find Oanya, whom he can normally converse with due to their connection. Now Roanin must enlist the help of an acquaintance who hates duals in order to force the change upon Irian so that they can heal Oanya before she dies.

"Tomb Stone"
Paula L. Fleming
Issue #83 April 2 1999
Rat is a thief and always has been. He's also just a kid. When he gets caught with a pouch which isn't his, he manages to get loose and decides to get out of the city for a day or two. Outside, he enters a tomb where he plans to stay the night. While counting the gold from the pouch, he accidentally triggers a secret panel, revealing a huge gem. As he contemplates this treasure, a cold winds stirs across his back. He is suddenly on his feet and running, running for his life. On the road, he runs into two guardian priests. They get the story from him and decide that the gold he has could be best put to use paying his way into their college. So Rat grows up to be become a guardian priest. The priesthood also doesn't object to his occasional forays into old habits; after all, it is the dead they are concerned with, not the living. And since most of his thefts are used to get his childhood friends decent burials, they are content.

"Wings"
Patricia Salisbury
Issue #84 April 9 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
Mary is an aging farmer. She only has one old cow left and a few chickens. One winter, she dreams of wings flapping in the night. While shovelling out her cow's shed, she discovers an egg. Not any kind of egg she's ever seen. She considers having it for breakfast, but then she tucks it into the manure pile. She's amazed, the next time she notices the egg, that it's keeping warm with nothing sitting on it. For week's she puzzles over the nature of the egg. Then, one morning, she hears pecking. She watches in amazement as the little hatchling breaks free. Picking it, she notices that the head is deformed and that she should probably kill the poor thing immediately. Then she rubs some of the down off and discovers not skin, but scales. She notices that the wings are webbed fingers and the pointed beak, when it gapes open is lined with needle like teeth. The little, long toed feet in end in claws. Mary thinks back to the wings in her dream; perhaps it wasn't a dream after all. For here was a little creature which should not exist, and yet it did. Deciding that the old farm would last long enough to get one more life off to a good start, she takes the little hatchling inside to feed it.

"Kinetic"
Trevor Perrin
Issue #85 April 16 1999
This is a wonderful tale which really conveys a sense of motion and action through the written word. Johnny is a cop, but he's also a kinetic. Kinetic's are people which unusual psychic powers. Under the influence of a careful mix of drugs, kinetics become powerful weapons, nearly superhuman. But Johnny feels like he's falling apart and cannot control himself any longer, so he quits. He takes up a quiet office, meets a nice woman at work who has a nice kid. He is starting to unwind and feel like life can be normal. Until two detectives come in and ask him to return to deal with a hostage taking. The nearest functional kinetic would not make it on time and the hostage takers are starting to kill people. Johnny refuses, he doesn't want to go back to that. So they tell him it's a school, full of children. The two dead hostages are children. Johnny's woman friend over-hears the conversation and is amazed to discover that he's a kinetic. One cop mentions the name of the school and she pales; her son goes to that school. So Johnny comes back. In the prep-van, he tells the tech to pump him up to the max. The tech refuses, saying it could kill him. Johnny threatens him until he gets his own way. Drugged into a level exceeding anything he had ever done before, he heads into the school. Since he can't enter without being seen, and the hostages are in the gymnasium, he decides to make a new door. Brick and steel vaporize as he walks through the wall. He unleashes his power through the gymnasium and the terrorists "turn to popcorn".

"Memoirs of an Intergalactic Diplomat (Or, How To Cook An Antarean And Get Away With It)"
S. D. Campbell
Issue #86 April 23 1999
An amusing story about Earth being visited by aliens who look like pink bunnies. One of the alien envoys gets shot and eaten by a mountain man and his family. Now the human diplomat has to smooth things over before the bunnies blow up the planet. When he discovers that brussel sprouts act like aphrodisiacs and they love Cuban cigars (to eat, not smoke) he not only patches things up but nails a very lucrative trading agreement.

"Splendour In The Desert"
Thomas Claburn
Issue #87 April 30 1999
Sarah's family, husband and child, have died. She has forgotten how to grieve, how to fear. Giving up her lands and social position, he is now on a quest to reach the Oracle, to ask it a question. Along the way, she comes to a poor village, seeking shelter for the night. While visiting, she learns that the Royal Cartographer is in the area and that this village and the next are vying to be placed on the map. Being placed on the map means prosperity for any village. But the villagers fear that they cannot get the cartographer to visit, as the next village has a slick talking chief, with a grand hall and finer foods. Sarah knows the reputation of this cartographer, from her days around nobility and offers to intervene on the villager's behalf. She crashes the dinner that the other village is throwing for the cartographer. Speaking to him, she challenges him to visit the other village, for a dinner far better than any this village can produce, in a much greater hall. Intrigued, the cartographer agrees to visit the next evening. Sarah now has to move fast, for the village does not have anything bigger than a hut. When the delegation arrives, including the chief of the other village, she leads them to a hill top which has a huge stone slab laid out as a table, with hand woven mats to rest on. After dinner, the visiting chief is derisive of Sarah's efforts, bragging how the hill top can hardly compare with his grand hall. Sarah points out that their torches are the stars and moon, more glorious than his sputtering torches, their roof is the sky which houses the Empire, and the table is shorn from the roots of the earth, older and stronger than any tree. The cartographer and other guests leave. The next morning a scroll is delivered to the village, a map with their village name upon it. And the hill next to it was named Sarah's Table.

"A Song For The Witch"
Frank Tuttle
Issue #88 May 7 1999
A fantasy tale about a travelling bard who decides to take a shortcut through some woods. Only, it turns out not to be so short when he gets lost and finds himself in an ancient place where a witch was spelled into a trap. Held as a guest/prisoner, he makes a bargain for his freedom. He would compose a song about the witch, to be spread about the land, if she would guide him back to the road. She accepts the challenge and he manages to pull it off. But she notes that the song isn't finished. He points out that her story does not appear to be complete and he cannot complete the song. She releases him and he makes his way, quickly, to the next town. While performing in the inn, he notices a woman in a hooded cloak listening to his new song. After the performance, he discovers it is the witch, free of her prison, and reminding him that he still must complete the song one day!

"Witness Protection"
Atk. Butterfly
Issue #89 May 14 1999
The police have a new crime fighting method. "Witnesses" go into tanks which enable them to project themselves somewhere else in the city. In fact, they can project four separate copies of themselves. This ghostly copies move around and watch. Crime is down because the witnesses cannot be touched or harmed and their testimony is legal in court. It's hard to get away with a crime when someone is standing there watching your! But then a witness gets killed while she's in her tank. The police figure out that someone has built an illegal tank and discovered a way to attack a witness's projections with their own, and kill the witness in the process.

"Times Gone Bye"
Michael T. Marsh
Issue #90 May 21 1999
A story about feeling like you were born in the wrong era. A real estate company can offer to sell you a home any place and any time period you desire. A little family decides that their era is too dangerous and difficult to live in, that they would like to live in a simpler time, so they buy a small place in the early years of the United States. After six months, they discover that without all of the conveniences of their time, like medical science, that the simpler time does not equate to a simpler life. So they return to their own era, learning to appreciate what they have.

"Harry's Nebula"
Michael W. Watt
Issue #91 May 28 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
Harry is a science fiction writer who would like to win a Nebula for his work. His career took a sudden turn for the better and his fiction was selling like hotcakes. Finally, it happened, he was winning a Nebula. But Harry's feeling a little guilty, for the stories were not entirely his own. While staying in his mountain cabin, there was a huge crash and explosion on the mountain side. He discovered a wreaked craft and a barely alive survivor. He dragged the survivor back to his cabin and nursed him back to health. The old man, it turns out, is an alien ambassador. He tells Harry that agents will be coming for him soon, for he was on his way back to space from his latest rounds of meetings and talks. It would take a few days for them to locate his downed ship, but they would. The agents take him away and Harry is told to keep quiet. But the old man insist on spending time with Harry. They regale each other with tales from their lives and their world. It is from this talks that Harry writes his fiction. On the evening of the Nebula award ceremony, Harry tells the old man that he feels he hasn't earned the award. The old man tells him to go and get, because Harry has paid for the stories by trading them for his own. The ambassador points out that he's learned more about humans and Earth from Harry than from the stuffy diplomats and secret agents he normally deals with.

"Trading Rocks"
Kate Tompkins
Issue #92 June 4 1999
Natasha is assistant to the Trade Negotiator of Earth. When a gift is delivered from the Ballomeloni, whom her boss is trying to get a trade agreement with, it gets stuck with her. It turns out to be a life-sized statue of Elvis which plays single lines from his songs, mixed with Ballomeloni phrases. She puzzles over it for several days when it slowly dawns on her that it's more than a weird gift, it's a teaching machine. She tells her boss that it's meant to teach them how to use Ballomeloni phrases. Her boss is an Important Person doing Important Things and can't be bothered with such nonsense, so Natasha better take care of it herself. So Natasha learns the Ballomeloni phrases. When her and her boss meet the Ballomeloni negotiator, Natasha greets him with the phrases. In the Ballomeloni culture, underlings are second class citizens and don't take part in Important Things. So naturally, the Ballomeloni is pleased that the Earth Negotiator enjoyed the gift and learned the phrases. Natasha looks forward to her new job as chief negotiator and thinks that trading rocks.

"The Asking and the Vow"
Frank Tuttle
Issue #93 June 11 1999
Another delightful fantasy tale from Frank Tuttle about two characters who became very popular with the readers of SpaceWays Weekly, Mallara and Burn. Mallara is a sorceress in the employment of the Empire and Burn is a shimmer, a people who have no bodies, but loud booming voices. They are sent to a village to investigate rumours that a troll is standing in the town square. Mallara has her doubts as trolls have not been seen in this area since the war between humans and trolls. But when she arrives, sure enough, there it stands. It tells her that her people once made a vow to the trolls, and the time collect has come. Mallara has no idea what was vowed, but agrees to uphold it. The troll magically sweeps her into another dimension. He explains that the trolls were put in the world to care for the living things. All was well until humans showed up. The war was brutal, killing many on both sides and finally the trolls retreated. But they had forced the humans to agree to providing them with a new world to care for one day. That day was now. The trolls have found a new world but lack the magic to get to it. Mallara uses her magic and her powerful staff to open a gateway for them and the trolls leave, to start a new life in a new world.

"XYZ News Tonight"
Matthew Abts
Issue #94 June 18 1999
A humorous look at television journalism. Follow two trendy anchor people on a trendy news show as they bring us the story of two alien races locked in a deadly battle. How much does the reporting of news affect the outcome? Tune in to XYZ News Tonight at eleven for video.

"Eruak and the Strangers"
Jonathan Fesmire
Issue #95 June 25 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
A mage becomes entangled in a struggle between two people are very feline in nature. The woman is fleeing the man, who is trying to force her into marriage, against all of the laws of their people.

"The Sound of Silence"
Paula Fleming
Issue #96 July 2 1999
A fantasy tale about a mage, Slitta, who feeds on the life source of dragons, thereby gaining immortality. When she drains the dragons' energy, she also drains the beautiful colors from their scales, and it takes a long time for them to come back. The human nobles of the area like to hunt and kill dragons to take their beautiful hides. To punish Slitta for poaching, humans capture her and bring her before a court. Instead of killing her, the court magically attaches bells to her so that she is unable to sneak up on dragons, then releases her. However, without being able to hunt her natural prey, Slitta finds every moment of her life wretched. She decides to kill herself. Just then, she hears a fight nearby. Investigating, she discovers that a man who was kind to her in captivity has cornered a dragon—a mother dragon with two babies—a very angry mother dragon with two frightened babies. He doesn't stand a chance, but the dragons can't hear Slitta's bells over their own racket, and she is able to slip up, drain the mother, and save the man. She suggests that he take her bells, which he does, so in the future dragons will hear him coming and avoid him. She is now free to be her natural self in her natural domain.

"Black Hole of Cyberia"
Atk. Butterfly
Issue #97 July 9 1999
Something is wrong with the network; data keeps getting lost and random garbage keeps showing up. Or is it random? When the techs delve into the problem, they discover that the data composes messages coming from another universe, and it looks like they think that the characters in computer games are people being annihilated by the humans and they are planning to send a rescue mission.

"Reflections in a Crystal Palace"
D. K. Latta
Issue #98 July 16 1999
A prince without a soul seeks refuge in a wondrous castle built of crystal during a raging storm. Soon, he discovers that it is not entirely abandoned, when he meets the Lady of the house. As he spends the night with her, he slowly realizes that she is no longer alive and her spirit is locked in place by an equally dead, but evilly possessive husband.

"Selections From the Parthenos Messages"
J. Y. T. Kennedy
Issue #99 July 23 1999
Written as the excerpts from a series of messages written by a scientist to a ship nearby. The messages describe what the research team have learned about the native intelligent species. We also slowly learn from the researcher's musings that the remainder of the team are all dead. But from what?

"Euphemism Skin"
Lawrence Schoen
Issue #100 July 30 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
Human negotiators, representatives of various countries and interests, sit in conference with an alien representing the trading interests of the races of the galactic market. The humans are hoping to be able to establish trade which will get them advanced and wondrous technology, such as being able to travel the stars. But as they listen to the alien negotiator, who speaks of each trading partner and their lack of interest, or outright objections, in trading with the human race, it starts to look grim. But in the end, he tells them that one race is willing to trade the starship technology with them. In exchange, they would like skin samples from each race of human. They plan to clone it and sell it in rolls as a confection.

"Early Morning on the Battlefield"
C. A. Mehrlein
Issue #101 August 6 1999
An interesting story which examines what life is like for a lycanthrope when he is sitting at the breakfast table with the wife and kids, trying to lead a "normal" life.

"Titanic Revisited"
Robert Vanderwoude
Issue #102 August 13 1999
A new company offers an entirely new way of taking a vacation. Their machinery can temporarily plant your consciousness into the mind of people in the past. For the first full scale run with VIP's and the news media, they decide to take a trip to the Titanic and witness its final hours. But when the ship has struck the iceberg and the recall is supposed to occur, they discover that hackers have fouled the system and they just might go down with the ship after all.

"Requiem"
Magee Gilks
Issue #103 August 20 1999
The heartbreaking tale of two childhood friends who find themselves growing up at the start of an interstellar war with a ruthless alien race. They join the naval academy together, struggle through training and are separated when they receive their assignments. Just when they are finally brought together on the same ship, they are attacked and their ship is ruined. Drifting in an escape pod, she now wavers in and out of her memories of their times together, while trying not to face the fact of his death.

"Food For The Hungry"
Robert H. Beer
Issue #104 August 27 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
A reporter follows the trail of a world celebrity, ten years after he has been forgotten, and catches up with him in an African village. When aliens contacted the human race, Andy McAffrey was our chief negotiator. What he finally had to report to the world was that the aliens had no interest in saving us, giving us technology, educating us, inviting us to join a Galactic Union or any of the nonsense that science fiction liked to dwell on. They had just stopped to meet us and find out who we were. In fact, they had nothing more than incidental contact with any other race in the galaxy. The world was furious. But the N'Ktan wanted to leave Andy with a gift and asked him what he wanted. He said that he wanted to feed the hungry. So they gave him a box. When he held the handle and someone poured dirt into the funnel in the top, a bowl inside was filled with a nutrient substance. The only problem is, it only works for him. Now he spends his days holding the handle twice a day while people pour dirt into the funnel and fill their bowls.

"The Sirens of Delta-Tau-Beta-Zero"
G. Miki Hayden
Issue #105 September 3 1999
Three scientists are sent to Delta-Tau-Beta-Zero to investigate the phenomenon known as The Sirens. Supposedly, once every so many years, a strange noise emanates in the hills. Any of the native aliens who listen to it are driven mad. Most kill themselves or die shortly after; the ones who survive are mindless idiots and revered by society. Two of the humans listen to the sound while two block their ears. The two who listened quickly become increasingly paranoid. While the one is beyond help, the one scientist, in his madness, discovers that the "sirens" are an animal. Eventually, he finds his way through the madness and discovers a new purpose in life.

"The Man Who Talked To Water"
James Keenan
Issue #106 September 10 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
Michael has an unusual encounter while water skiing one weekend. He is dragged under the water, but finds himself suspended with an air bubble around his head. He learns that day that water, all water on the planet, is a huge sentience. It has become concerned with damage it has been detecting on its surface for some time. Michael comes to realize that water is referring to the testing of nuclear weapons. When Michael explains what the explosions are and what their purpose is, water decides that it must eliminate the human race. Now Michael must find a way to convince water to let his people live.

"The Golden One"
K. S. Rankin
Issue #107 September 17 1999
A man enjoying a retreat in the desert comes upon an unusual creature. It appears mostly as a golden lizard, but is also able to appear as a woman. It is a creature of power and magic and has selected the man to help her. She is going to have a child and the child will need to be raised in safety and love, and this is the task that she sets upon him.

"Watchman of the Sands"
Thomas Claburn
Issue #108 September 24 1999
Once again we join Sarah (Issue #87 "Splendour In The Desert") as she continues her journey to the Oracle. This time, she is caught in the desert by blood-thirsty raiders. When she takes refuge in a tower, she finds that the raiders are not her only problem; she becomes caught in a struggle involving the goddess of water and the god of the sun and fire. In the end, with her skill and wit for negotiation, she manages to appease the various gods and escape with her life intact.

"Ships Before Dawn"
Justin Stanchfield
Issue #109 October 1 1999
Time travel is a tool for the three men at the end of history who control the world. They struggle to overcome one another by sending agents back in time to conduct assassinations in an attempt to alter history in their favour. One assassin meets another in one of the way stations where their pods are recharged, and he tries to convince her to change her mission directives. Not to the benefit of the men in charge, but perhaps to the benefit of those who are ruled.

"My Tongue is the Pen of the Reddy Riter"
Gene-Michael Higney
Issue #110 October 8 1999
A worrisome story about government suppressing education in order to dumb down the masses and make them more manageable. Even more worrisome considering that some areas in the U.S. have decided that teaching spelling and grammar should be stopped as it interferes with a child's creativity. But is that their real reason?

"Will Fight Evil For Food"
Atk. Butterfly
Issue #111 October 15 1999
It's terrible what a detective has to do to earn a living. Especially since aliens with super powers have moved onto the planet and taken up crime fighting. So now he finds himself climbing a tree, trying to retrieve a rich woman's missing prize cat.

"The Lowest of the Low"
Alyson Cresswell Moorcock
Issue #112 October 22 1999
A young woman flees her cruel master by stowing away upon a starship. Once discovered, the captain keeps her on as a junior crew member. But the woman finds herself still on the bottom of the ladder as a belligerent crew member starts to boss and bully her, now that there is someone lower than himself. While sitting on a planet, she is standing watch one night when the local inhabitants steal her away. But she manages to establish a kind of telepathic communications with them. Once she is able to report back to the captain, she finds that she will no longer be the lowest of the low.

"Let The Beauty Sleep"
Magee Gilks
Issue #113 October 29 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
A humorous revision of the Sleeping Beauty tale in which Prince Charming finds out that getting what you wish for is not always a good thing!

"Looking Into Paradox"
S. D. Campbell
Issue #114 November 5 1999
A woman in a research lab, investigating the nature of time, finds herself trapped within a looping paradox after some catastrophe strikes the building. Now she must unravel the puzzle and find a way to escape, for the paradox shows her the future and she finds herself dead in a collapsed part of the building.

"The Tryst of Equation"
R. S. Webb
Issue #115 November 12 1999
A wonderful story which presents a version of creation in the style of the old mythical tales. Forces of nature are personified as beings engaged in a struggle for supremacy, until the concept of mathematical order is imposed upon them.

"The Last Gospel"
G. W. Thomas
Issue #116 November 19 1999
Once, the rainbow man found a genie. And he wished for the end of war on a planet. But the genie decides that he should do a trial run to allow the rainbow man to see how his wish would affect the world. The rainbow man learns that all of the things he finds beautiful and desirable arise from the roots of the fear, enslavement and war he hopes to abolish.

"The Binky At The End Of The World"
Jay Arr Henderson
Issue #117 November 26 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
On a message board, participants were making jokes about something called binkies. I finally asked what a binky was and no one would tell me. Then one day, this story showed up in my in-box and I learned what binkies are. It is a delightful tale about the end of the world as we know it and the efforts of a little guy to put people back on track.

"The Imbalance"
Alyson Cresswell Moorcock
Issue #118 December 3 1999
A hilarious tale about a young student in a magic college who has a habit of laziness. He discovers that he can just spell his chores away and not do them. But one of the senior mages catches on to him and shows him the errors of his thinking, including the mountain of dirty laundry he must now clean by old fashioned manual labour.

"The Google-Wumpf"
D. K. Latta
Issue #119 December 10 1999
One inventor inherits a machine from another when the younger fellow suddenly dies. It is called a Google-Wumpf and he has no idea what it does. As he delves into the young man's past, trying to uncover what the Google-Wumpf does, he discovers that the fellow had created a product to compete against the popular Chia Pets. Except, his plant turns out to be dangerous to the human race. The Google-Wumpf was his next invention; a machine to hunt down the now loose plants. Now the inventor must figure out how the thing was put together, while not taking it apart, in an effort to save humanity.

"Eye In The Sky"
Atk. Butterfly
Issue #120 December 17 1999
A funny story about a genetically enhanced eagle. The eagle is engineered to a near human intelligence level so that he can work as a traffic reporter for a radio station. Things get embarrassing during an interview when the eagle suddenly discovers that there are females out there. . . .

"The Helpers"
Frank Tuttle
Issue #121 December 24 1999
Winner of The Readers' Choice Award 1999
Mallara and Burn (Issue #93 "The Asking and the Vow") are at it once again. This time, they come upon a small village overrun by curious looking homunculi who have driven out the townspeople. They discover a young boy at the centre of the problem who stumbled upon an evil staff. Once Mallara saves the boy from the evil staff, she then steers him towards the magic college, for he does have the potential to become a great sorcerer, given the proper guidance.

"Version 2.0"
Beth Bernobich
Issue #122 December 31 1999
Something is wrong with the world. Toasters are turning bread slices into blueberry bagels, refrigerators are receiving television broadcasts and things are just generally skewed. And it's getting worse. Enter into the picture a young woman who is a crack programmer, an ace in her field. She begins to study the problem and discovers the underlying algorithms of the universe, and the bug within them. After a couple of nights of hard work, she has written the universe version 2.0. She installs the routines then gingerly hits the enter key, hoping that she got everything right.

SpaceWays Weekly, ISSN 1206-8691, was a weekly publication of:

London Application Solutions Inc.
148 York Street
London, Ontario, Canada
N6A 1A9

Site developed and maintained by Rigel D. Chiokis

Made in Canada Canadian Flag