David Collins
I am a former software engineer writing science fiction and fantasy novels. I am attempting to write what starts as hard science fiction (but with elements like FTL). I also try to develop alien characters who are different from the usual generic pulp ones. Most of my stories include some humorous elements.
I write in a style that intentionally violates Anton Chekov’s story rules. I intentionally include false threads, and people make mistakes and wrong decisions. A gun set on a table may not be used; it may be jammed, or it may not play a part in the story until book five in a series. That way, when you read something, you may go, “Oh, a hint, the story will do this later.” It may or may not.
My stories also usually include some romantic elements but with an odd twist or strange hurdle that must be crossed. I create aliens that are hopefully unique and different. That said, a romance between a human and a “real” alien may have some physical or cultural differences that need to be dealt with.
Books
The Artifact
Benjamin, Mark, and Chloe were all set to graduate college in a few weeks.
Ben had ordered a strange object from eBay to use as cover art for a book he was writing.
It looked really cool, like a slightly charred old military artifact from 70 years ago. It was possibly part of an engine. After cleaning it up (it was found in a cow field), he placed the strange device on his dorm room desk directly over the wireless charging port. That woke it up.
Unknown to him, the disabled starship hiding on the moon could now communicate with the missing part.
The ship needed two things:
1) The missing part.
2) A crew to pass itself off as a manned ship (AIs were not supposed to control ships autonomously).
Now, after finishing college, they need to find a way to get the ship to land somewhere safe, supply it, and return the missing component, the artifact.
They suspect the most challenging part will be getting into space. They soon find that the real problem is what awaits them when they reach the alien trading center.
The Girl Who Dropped In
Daniel Baker was an engineer at Raytheon Shipboard Systems. He was getting ready to move into the small cabin he had just bought that was being renovated.
Sue Glitch was the “clueless tourist” who had literally dropped into his life.
Something (almost everything) about her story screamed “not quite right.” She claims that “We are from Zealand, the newer part.”
Just who is this strange girl who just dropped in? Or what?
The answer is out of this world…
When fate gives you the chance to drop everything and go on the adventure of a lifetime, you dive in…
Void Ripper
On Mars, Jason had stumbled across the escape pod to a 3,500-year-old derelict spacecraft. The AI for the ship then informed Jason that due to him having some traces of alien DNA, he was now the Captain of a massive alien Starship. That ‘should’ have been good news.
Except that most of the Mars and Earth government agencies had different ideas about the alien ship.
And the ships AI, having been derelict for centuries… It now has some issues…
But the real problem was that Jason’s DNA had an additional trait that shouldn’t be there… The last time anyone had one of the forbidden DNA traits, it started the war that left the ship derelict. Maybe the only way to fight the aliens… It is to become something from their nightmares…
Return Of The Old Gods
The modern gods are gone; they have been removed from power by the old gods. The old gods are back: Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Roman, Hindu, Aztec, Celtic, Japanese, Chinese, Babylonian, and many others.
The first thing they do is kill off over 1 billion people who have been judged as Evil. They also eliminate the weapons of all of the militaries, all nuclear power fuel, and waste.
Gordon Anderson was a clerk at a 7-11, and he was (as usual) late for work. That is suddenly the least of his problems.
The world is changing; everything is in turmoil. However, the most disturbing fact may be that his phone now has some new contacts listed in his address book.
The gods of old, the ones that have just judged and executed a billion people and are literally shifting continents like chess pieces. They now have him on speed dial…
The Wrong Button
Jerry Anderson was an astronaut faced with an impossible choice: die of asphyxiation in a few hours or see if the alien pod he was transporting really was an escape pod and find out if it could actually save him.
When he enters it, he finds that the controls are unreadable, lacking anything to go on, and rapidly running out of air. He presses the blinking green button.
The next thing he knows, he isn’t human anymore, and he finds himself on a seashore, next to some birds feasting on a body that looks very similar to his new body.
He is alive, but staying alive will be a challenge, and he will be able to communicate with the locals, assuming the next ones he finds don’t kill him on sight.
Carbon Copy: An alien AI Doppelgänger Story
Kaylee Green was an Illegal Alien, one that had traveled 45.7 light-years to get away from her pursuers. A race that wanted to exterminate her kind.
Not only was she an alien, but she was not entirely biological. Now, she was enjoying life as a human. She had recently graduated college and was happily living with her human boyfriend.
Then the police show up asking about a severed hand from a six-year-old cold-case investigation. They want to know why her fingerprints and DNA both match the hand.
She was trying hard not to panic. Her carefully crafted false identity was rapidly falling apart. What else could go wrong?
The answer was that unexpected visitors from the planet she fled from were about to arrive.