Taurin Tales

By J Alan Erwine

Taurin Tales is a shared world anthology featuring some of the top names in small press science fiction. The Taurins were created by science fiction writer, editor, and game designer J Alan Erwine. Once he had created them, he invited some of his favorite writers to play in the universe, and further flesh out these new aliens. Thus was born Taurin Tales.
The stories in this collection cover a large aspect of Taurin life...grand space adventures, small character studies, the tackling of difficult social issues, the past and the future of the Taurins.
Included in this collection, you’ll find David Lee Summers, D. Moonfire, Ian Brazee-Cannon, Tyree Campbell, Anna Paradox, Laura Givens, and Rick Novy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nomadic Delirium Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311685940

J Alan Erwine

J Erwine was born Oct. 15, 1969 in Akron, Ohio. Early in his life he was exposed to science, and specifically astronomy. From there on, J's passion turned to science fiction, a passion that's never died. Due to family issues, J eventually found himself in Denver, Colorado, where he still lives (well, right outside now.) From the time he could put subject and predicate together on paper, J has been writing stories. None of those early stories exist anymore (thankfully), but that passion for writing has never waned. After several years of rejection, the story Trek for Life was eventually sold to ProMart Writing Lab editor James Baker. It wasn't Asimov's, but it was a start. Since that time J has sold more than forty short stories to various small press publishers. In addition ProMart also published a short story collection of J's entitled Lowering One's Self Before Fate, and other stories, which is still available. ProMart also published a novel from J entitled The Opium of the People, which sold a few copies before going out of print. The relevance of the novel after the events of September 11th caused J to self-publish the novel, as he felt the story had a lot to say in the new reality we now find ourselves living in. Now, this same book has been re-released by Nomadic Delirium Press. Eventually J would become an editor with ProMart. Then, after the untimely death of ProMart editor James Baker, J would move on to ProMart's successor Sam's Dot Publishing. J also spends most of his time working as a freelance writer and editor. J's novel was voted a top ten finisher in the 2003 annual Preditors & Editors contest, and his short story The Galton Principle won a ProMart contest for best story over 5,000 words. In addition, a number of his stories have been voted "best of" in various issue of The Martian Wave and The Fifth DI… and have been included in Wondrous Web Worlds Vols. 2, 3, 4, and 6. In 2009, the Ephemeris Role Playing Game was released. J is the co-creator of this game, and has written numerous supplements for the game. J has now sold three novels and four short story collections, all of which are still available from various sources, including Smashwords. J currently lives with his amazing wife, three wonderful children, three cats, and a very quiet turtle.

Book preview

TAURIN TALES

Edited by J Alan Erwine

Published by Nomadic Delirium Press at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Taurin Tales is a publication of Nomadic Delirium Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including physical copying or recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without expressed written consent of the author and/or artists.

The stories in Taurin Tales are works of science fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

Cover illustration: Vitruvian Taurin copyright 2014 by Laura Givens

Cover design by Laura Givens

First printing October 2014

Nomadic Delirium Press

Aurora, Colorado

http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com

Contents

Introduction

The Taurins

The Taurin Homeworld

Hiding in Plain Sight by David Lee Summers

Something Alien by D. Moonfire

A Peaceful Evening by Ian Brazee-Cannon

Fade to Green by Tyree Campbell

Blindspot by Anna Paradox

Surf’s Up by Laura Givens

Sorting Through the Rubble by Ian Brazee-Cannon

Across the White by Rick Novy

The Iphis Crisis by Tyree Campbell

Bios

Introduction

Many, many, many years ago I read a book called Murasaki that was edited by Robert Silverberg. It was a shared world anthology, and after reading it, I knew I wanted to be a part of something like this. I played with the idea for many years, but I never had the time to actually put anything together, until my absolutely amazing wife, Rebecca, asked me to quit my real job so that I could stay home with the kids, and spend the rest of my time writing, editing, and doing game design. Who would pass up that kind of an opportunity? So, I immediately jumped at it.

Once I was away from the stresses of a real job, I put together a list of authors I would want to include in the anthology. Some of them said yes, and others said no, but I put together a list that would work for me, and a few of the writers on that list gave me some other names. Once we had the core group of authors together, I created a private Facebook group where we could throw ideas around. I had already created a very brief description of the Taurins, their history, and their world (these are included immediately after this introduction), and then we went about creating the rest of the world…at least what these authors would need to create their stories.

The collection you’re now reading contains those stories. Some of the stories are set in the time frame that I outlined, others are set in the past, and one is set in what could be the past or the future. With very little information to start with, these authors came up with some truly great stories that I hope you will enjoy. Some cover huge sociological issues, others look at the Taurins exploration of space, and still others are wonderful character pieces. Hopefully there is something here for everyone.

I would also like to point out that this collection is just the start. Early in 2015, we will open up to submissions for Taurin Tales 2, and this will give everyone a chance to write in this world that we’ve created.

J Alan Erwine

August 27th, 2014

The Taurins

The Taurins are six limbed creatures with greyish-green skin that resembles that of a lizard, although they have a layer of fur on their back that can range through most colors. The Taurins back limbs are four toed and act completely as feet. Their middle limbs have digits that have one joint each. They normally use these limbs for walking, but they can use them to carry items if they need to, although these limbs tend to have the dexterity of a one year old human child. The Taurins front limbs have four digits, each of which has four joints, giving them outstanding dexterity.

Taurins have five eyes. They have two on the front of their heads that give them stereoscopic vision. They also have one eye on each side of their head, and one on the back of their head. Their front eyes are able to see into the near-infrared, but their other eyes are completely color blind, and they can only see about 100 yards before things become too blurry for them. The Taurins have two ears that are actually set in their head, instead of protruding like human ears. Their range of hearing is about 20% greater on each extreme than a human’s hearing. Taurins have sensory glands that cover their body that give them a sense of smell, but it’s only about half as good as a humans. Their mouth has three layers of razor sharp teeth, and although the Taurins are omnivorous, they prefer a carnivore’s diet.

The Taurins wear clothing that covers the majority of their bodies. The clothing is usually worn for comfort and ease of use, but there are times when the Taurins like to dress up.

From a technological standpoint, the Taurins are slightly ahead of Humanity. They have interplanetary travel, but they don’t yet have interstellar travel. So far they’ve colonized their home planet’s two largest moons, and although they’ve explored the third moon, they’ve found it to be too small to colonize. They also have limited research colonies on the two planets closest to their homeworld.

There are three major nations on their planet, nations that manage to cooperate, but only about as well as the US does with China or Russia. Although there are racial differences among the different Taurins, there is actually very little racism, although there is a group of Taurins that have light green fur on their backs that have been exploited as slaves for centuries, and although slavery no longer exists, these Taurins are often looked down upon by the other Taurins.

The Taurin Homeworld

The Taurin homeworld orbits a star known on Earth as HD37124. This is a star in the constellation Taurus. The star is a G4V star.

Some important data about the planet (as compared to Earth):

Mass: 1.5

Radius: 1.2

Density: .87

Gravity: 1.04

Orbital Period: 321.43 days

Distance from HD37124: .9 AU

Axial tilt: 19.7°

The Taurin planet, Lenthor, is the second planet in a system of six. There are four terrestrial planets close to the star and two super massive gas giants (2X Jupiter’s mass & 3X Jupiter’s Mass) in the outer part of the solar system. There is no asteroid belt to speak of, but there is a super large cluster of asteroids that sits at the L5 point between the star and the inner gas giant. The solar system does have an Oort Cloud at the edge of the system.

Hiding in Plain Sight

By David Lee Summers

Commander Zelith'ra climbed through space station Qanda Five's central hub to the observation and command center. As she reached the top, she heard the quiet murmurings and gentle laughs that accompanied normal conversation. Periodic pings and chirps sounded as controls and relays were activated—business as usual in the station's nerve center. She pushed herself free of the ladder and floated to the windows facing the Taurin home world, Lenthor. Despite all her years in the space service, she never tired of seeing the blue-green world speckled with drifting white clouds. The space station drifted over Vespina, her home country, but only the oceans, rivers and mountains gave any clue to the location of national boundaries.

While admiring Lenthor with her two forward eyes, she took in the activity at the consoles around her with the other three. The windows facing Lenthor's sun were polarized, keeping the light at a comfortable level. As she surmised, all activity appeared routine. The space station Qanda Five contained labs and small-scale, zero gravity manufacturing facilities for several corporations. It also served as a communications relay station and weather monitor. Above the command center's windows hung plaques from municipalities grateful for the station's service spotting dangerous storms in time to get most of the population to safety. Just short of fifty years old, Qanda Five was not the most prestigious space command, but Zelth'ra was proud of the outpost nonetheless.

Commander, a young technician looked up from his computer screen. I've just picked up something on the scanners, approaching fast.

The digits of Zelith'ra's middle limbs wiggled as she tried to remember the tech's name. If there were gravity and she stood on the deck, it would have looked like she tapped her forefoot. Is it the shuttle we're expecting from Zhamador? She referred to Lenthor's largest nation and Vespina's trading partner—at least for the time being.

The tech checked his computer. All five eyes blinked at once. No, it's too small and it's in a weird elliptical orbit, not rising from the planet.

Check with ground control. Do they have the object on their sensors? She snapped her fingers. Mera'tas was the young Taurin's name—a promising young technician.

While Mera'tas called in the query, another tech beckoned the commander. The shuttle was approaching from dirtside. Zelith'ra looked at the two screens simultaneously. Although the shuttle and the object were on similar trajectories, it was clear they were in different orbital planes—and although they expected the shuttle to dock, it was clear the smaller object would approach far closer than was comfortable.

***

Daran'iq, co-pilot of the space shuttle Naram, thought Qanda Five looked like a long, thin insect. The banks of solar panels, extending out to the side were like wings or even legs. Excited chatter on her headset yanked Daran'iq from her reverie. She bared her sharp teeth as she struggled to understand the fast words in the unfamiliar Vespinan language. Why couldn't they just speak Zhamadoran?

As she listened, she gathered a technician on the station had contacted Ground Control, requesting information about some strange object. Daran'iq tapped