Time to get into the Christmas spirit and welcome the holiday season with twelve short stories based on keywords we associate with this time of year.

Daniel is a shy, caring young man who struggles to fit in with the turmoil of life around him. His one escape is his gift for music. A chance encounter with a beautiful music talent scout leads him to launch his career in the music industry, but on his terms, singing about the positive things that inspire him. After some moderate success, his agent tries to convince him to vamp his music up and imitate the music world. Daniel refuses and finds himself losing support. In frustration Daniel comes up with a plan to test the world of music and the public's perception of fame. He invents an alter-ego, an aggressive rock icon who challenges the world with his coarse, dynamic music. Wearing a mask during all performances, this new star finds unexpected fame and notoriety, placing Daniel in an uncomfortable position of maintaining the deception and playing two singers whose songs and ideologies are diametrically opposed.

When events take a sudden bizarre turn, Daniel is forced to confront his demons and choose which of his two music stars will live and who will die. But deception and fame have a heavy price, and the world tends to destroy the things it loves. In the end none of those caught up in the events could foresee the tragic events that happen.

“When the kids had killed the man, I had to break up the band.”- David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust)

To all appearances the launching of Enterprise IX, the first rocket to Mars, seemed perfectly normal.  Everyone in the country was watching the countdown on television.

But behind the scenes, two and a half hours before blastoff, a strange and horrifying drama was being played out.  A NASA director was warning the three astronauts that their spaceship was faulty.  He told them they must fake the trip through computer magic.  This way they could convince the President the mission had succeeded. Failure would mean the end of the space program.

Nothing would stop these maniacs.  Not the truth. Not reality.  Especially not the astronauts, who became reluctant conspirators.  For them, a special fate had been arranged.....

Star Trek TOS/ Capricorn OneX-OVER FANFIC by Paul Robison.  All rights reserved.