The Gold Watch

While prospecting a creek in the Cariboo Mountains near Barkerville in 1866, Pete comes across the corpse of a murdered man clutching a gold watch in his hand. Pete decides to return the watch to Sylvia, the name engraved on the back, but the owner of the watch, even though he is dead, has vengeance in mind, and a job for Pete. This story first appeared in Crimson Online Magazine #13, 2000.She lay abandoned, moored to the south end of Luna Farside, left for scrap. Captain Dak Smith saw in her something special, an opportunity to burn for the far horizon as an independent, free from the gloms that hold known space in thrall – but he had to get her running first. Armed with a standard-issue captain's eyebrow and an infectious grin, Captain Smith and his hand-picked crew embark on an adventure through deep space filled with scoundrels, pirates, and some incredibly unfortunate peace-loving rocks that happened to be at the wrong place, at the worst time.