Search Worlds Without End

The aliens were smarter, tougher and meaner. All they were missing was a star drive. When an Earth ship enters a star system that should have been devoid of life, the crew discovers millions of aliens living in small space habitats. And if these strange creatures manage to steal Earth's faster-than-light drive technology, they will make Machiavelli look like a kindergartner.

Andy Westin, the new security guard at Black Oak Mall, has no idea that the mall is built on a gateway between Elfland and Earth and that a long-standing conflict may threaten innocent shoppers.

This novella originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 2000. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July 1994. There are no other known publications available at this time.

Q: How does a shanghaied computer geek conquer all the forces of Darkness and win the love of the most beautiful witch in the world?

A: By transforming himself from a demon programmer into a programmer of demons!

It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivered was master hacker Walter "Wiz" Zumwalt. The wizard who cast the spell was dead and nobody-- not the elves, not the dwarves, not even the dragons--could figure out what the shanghaied computer nerd was good for.

But spells are a lot like computer programs, and, in spite of the Wiz's unprepossessing appearance, he was going to defeat the all-powerful Black League, win the love of a beautiful red-haired witch, and prove that when it comes to spells and sorcery, nobody but nobody can beat a Silicon Valley computer geek!

What do you get when a computer geek crosses a wizard? Answer: A very angry wizard - and a computer geek in a lot of trouble. Spells are a lot like computer programs: they're both formulas, recipes for getting things done. And they both can be buggy. The spell that called master hacker "Wiz" Zumwalt to the world of the Black League was very buggy. The wizard who called him is dead, Wiz is magically in love with a red-headed witch, who despises him, and no one - not the elves, not the dwarves, not even the dragons - can figure out what this computer wiz is good for. Oh, yes. The entire Black League wants Wiz dead - he might be good for something after all - and they'll stop at nothing to get what they want.

Wiz Zumwalt and his gang of Silicon Valley hackers and otherworld wizards must stop whoever has created the adjoining universe, where magic and technology both work and whose power could destroy their own world.

After rescuing the world from the creatures of darkness and chaos by applying a few computer logistics, Programmer and Systems Analyst Extraordinaire Wiz Zumwalt finds himself in another fix when he is kidnapped by dragons.

Preparing to protect a twenty-foot dragon from the wrath of his own wife, Wiz joins forces with his eccentric companions in an adventure filled with Soviet ex-spies, a band of dwarves, zombie dragon riders, and a fluffy pink mechanical rabbit.