Bard Welstaad is a model Uni-Fleet officer. He’s not sure what his unit is to accomplish, marching up an icy peninsula in the frozen hell of Gelada, but without his NCO, Gordon Farrell, he knows he could not keep the unit together fighting off Snow Wasps and the savage deadly cold. Not until tragedy strikes does he admit the big sergeant means much more to him than simply being his right hand man.<br><br>Gordon Farrell idolizes his captain, who represents everything he reveres. The threat of imminent death finally forces him to admit the strength of his feelings as he fights to save Bard’s life. With death stalking at their heels, they can only hope to live long enough to share more than a single incredible night. Fate seems to conspire against them at every turn. Still they cling to the frail hope that somehow their love will find a way.

Fire on Ice

He was not quite sure where he’d go once he mustered out. The fleet had been his home for all his adult life. His childhood had been spent in savage, raw poverty on a ragtag world where rebellious Celts had been shipped, a bit like the penal Australia of long ago Terran infamy. There was nothing for him there. He decided it didn’t matter. Any place he could find an isolated corner to crawl into, a remote nook where he could hang out and just exist for the rest of his allotted time would be all right.


Chapter 13