Nathaniel Demming is a midshipman aboard the HMES Remora, the very first ship to go beyond their world's waters and out into the ether. He and the rest of the crew are ready for adventure, eager to explore the unknown and chart a new course for the rest of their world to follow. But what they find out there will change their lives, and their perspective, forever. The ether is not empty at all, but teeming with life--including vicious marauders waiting to prey upon the hapless Remora. Can Demming help his friends and fellow officers through the crises that await? Can they survive the dangers all around them? And can he convince them to transform their ship and themselves into the antithesis of everything they trained for, while still holding true to everything they believe in? Birth of the Dread Remora is the first tale of the epic Scattered Earth saga, and the first in a series of swashbuckling adventures about the space-pirate ship the Dread Remora!

The Passionate Quest

Olaf, a name handed down for centuries since the time of King Olof Skotkonung of Sweden, is given to several characters with Swedish ancestry. The discovery of a mysterious substance with properties previously untapped is passed on from one generation to another. Over time, the Olafs find out more and more about the potential for this special rock. Their research is slowed down by finding a more useful substance, gold. The gold and its value tend to overshadow everything else as the Olafs use their riches for a variety of purposes. The study of the special rock, however, continues to yield some rather surprising results. Some come with unexpected perils involving everything from government intelligence agencies to small time hoodlums. Curl up and follow the adventures of Olaf's stone!

Enoch Strone is a book-loving rustic loner who lives in a remote hand-built cabin. He works as a mechanical engineer in the industrial town of Gascester. One evening he meets a poor factory girl, Milly, who has been abandoned by her friends during a walk in the woods. On the same day he is accosted by the Reverand Martinghoe who introduces Strone to his beautiful, widowed, wealthy sister Lady Malingcourt. Strone is bewitched by her lovely singing and the seductive manners of the jaded upper class widow.