Dirk Beretta was a character I invented some years ago in a writing example for a web forum, but somehow he just seemed to stick. I liked the idea of the tough, but not terribly smart, ex-space marine who had been inducted in some wacky religion by a crazy cult leader, fighting space weasels.

A version of this story was originally published under a pen-name. When I first released it I thought I should keep the funny SF stories separate to the more serious stories I’ve been writing under this name, but I later decided I should really keep them all together. So I’ve tweaked and edited the original versions and I’m re-releasing them under my name.