Challenge 966

Minor Mysteries

In Nemo West’s The Lost Wreck of the Spero:
1. Do you think the story could be expanded into a novel or series of novels?
2. For what audience do you think this work and, possibly related works, would be best intended?
In Maurice Humphrey’s Out of the Darkness of Space:
1. Does Major Weller volunteer for a solitary three-year tour of duty as keeper of the outpost or is he assigned to it?
2. Derring is said to look like “a small [...] orangutan.” Are we ever told what Myla looks like?
In Jeffrey Greene’s The Compatible:
1. Why does Koeppen go to visit Amir? Is the meeting voluntary or required?
2. How does one become a Black Card holder?
In Chris Yodice’s A Good Deal:
1. How does the Devil — a.k.a. Mr. Rodman — profit from the “deal” with Michael Albene? Is his part in the bargain ever specified or is it obvious how Michael has “sold his soul”?
2. What hint indicates that Mr. Rodman is ageless?
3. Does Michael’s wife, Mary, know or suspect what her husband has done?