“The fact remains, ladies and gentlemen, we have to meet the Geert price,†Fawzia Chiranov said. “We ought to do better than the Geert price, but due to the nature of our company, we’ll probably get by merely with meeting them. But I will tell you this, we lose this bid, we lose the planet.†[...]
In the February, 2006 issue of Popular Science Magazine, on page 88, in the midst of the “FYI” section, you will find the question “What’s worth reading on the Web?” The answer is as follows: Imagine a web site that posts a brand-new, original piece of fiction every day, a story short enough to read [...]
The locksmith knelt down to examine the mangled keyhole in Exetor’s office door. He turned his head and raised a brow at the man seated behind the desk, who was typing with twelve fingers and paying little attention to the tradesman. “So uh, how did this happen?†A grumble came from the broad-shouldered man at [...]
Tomasine Acero folded her hands on her desk, and then opened them in a manner that she hoped would suggest both an understanding on her part and an acceptance of the inevitability of fate. “You have to understand their point of view,” she said. “They are trying to sell a house. You are saying that [...]
We know its flimsy façade, we know it’s a broken promise waiting. They said that if we kept working, someday we could make enough to send our kids to college, never mind the dying, the slaughter in the world. Remember the holocaust, they said, but forget the horror of today. Love the planet, but buy [...]
Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on Io, I thought I would sail about a little and see the most distant reaches of space. Despite the limitations of technology, the endlessness that spread before our ship pulled [...]
Turnstyle aimed carefully, took into account the drift from the barely oscillating fan, and hit his brother Alphonse in the back of the head with a cigarette butt. “Quit that,” Ingram said. Watching this is why she never liked being at Turnstyle’s place, but it beat staying at school. “Why? He ain’t gonna notice. Fucking [...]
“Space-faring monkies with a mirror fetish?†“Yup. In The Day Ambrosia Paled by Kinstev Ramod, chapter six.†“Damn. Okay, uhh… how about ice cream that turns your teeth green and carries a rare strand of the bubonic plague? Unleashed on a modern colony?†“As a government experiment: Fire Warden by Jack Strapley. As a mad [...]
After a while, you forget that it’s summer. Months and weeks become meaningless numbers on the monitor’s clock, and you don’t bother asking anyone what they are doing on the weekend. You know. They’re typing. You know. You wait for the end of the shift and walk to the bar, seven blocks of August rain. [...]
Here in the Quiet Dark, a raygun can be your dearest friend. It warms to your touch, responds to your requests, and clears your way. It is the best partner one can expect to have in the Quiet Dark. I’ve had Lizzette here for longer than most of my friends. Certainly longer than my living [...]
“I’m sorry, will you repeat that?†Admiral Bunka was squinting to hear, even though his very nervous ensign was right beside him. “We, uh, are at full stop sir. There’s nothing left.†The young man was sweating and the two continued to look out the viewfinder towards…well, nothing. The whole crew was there, staring out [...]
To the farmers the two monks looked like the comedy/ tragedy masks that adorned the theater in town. The older monk was bald, and smiled beatifically, as if every cold breeze was a kiss. The younger monk had a mop of black greasy hair and he frowned, looking again and again at his wet boots. [...]
“Can we say that on television?†Mool asked. He narrowed his eye at the monitor and raised a turquoise tentacle to his mouth as his other three appendages worked the digital controls. “Mistep? Sure. It’s been clear for a decade.†“But what about the Xedrin colony? We got an eight percent pull there last season.†[...]
If you had asked Tyrone’s father why he kept horses, why he rode them with his three boys down Carnaby Street to South End and back, and why he never seemed to use a car, he would remove his Red Sox ballcap, run his hand over his coarse dreadlocks and proceeded to lecture you on [...]
It was two hundred miles to the temperate equator, across the frozen tundra of the planet Dera. At the start of the trip, in front of the mangled ship, the colonists had cursed the planet, cursed their dead pilot, cursed the persecution of the government that forced them from the center worlds and cursed the [...]
“Simply put, I do not, under any circumstances, want your filthy fingers near me.†Alison was near hysteria by the time Timmy called her. Both had been having a relationship for three years now and it was always the man who made things awkward. Nothing killed a relationship more than wanting to meet the person [...]
It was going to be a very, very slow night. Tuesdays usually were. Throw in the hellacious thunderstorm outside, and not even a desperate alcoholic would wander in. I had just decided to close the bar up early when the mother of all lightening bolts hit just outside the window, nearly blinding me. After I [...]
Amsterdam is still dry. The whole country is. It’s hard to believe, I know. But it’s true. That’s how you can tell the tourists. Not a single Dutch person is amphibious. They don’t have to be. They’ve held back the waters, just like the little punk in the story. Stories got to come from somewhere, [...]
Commander Xylm of the Red Bastards jumped when he heard Knthens voice in his head. “Commander, please meet me in the docking bay.†Despite his powers, Knthen usually used the intercom, and there was nervous emotion in his projected voice. The use of Xylms title, Commander, made him uneasy. The Red Bastards never stood on [...]
Skitz was running as fast as an alley rat could run in the back streets of Terris 4. Even with six legs, he was having a hard time keeping ahead of the bounty hunter. His three nostrils flared and he stopped for a moment to catch some carbon dioxide before taking a glance around. When [...]
“Okay everyone, you know the drill.” Alex’s partner didn’t break pace between the doorway and the register, and she swung her gun around with the precise grace of someone who had done this far too many times. Her features were hidden behind a fuzzmask, and the sharp tips of her black hair poked from the [...]
Tomorrow, Vivek Pratap will stop smoking. He will stop smoking because it is bad for his gills, the luster of his new skin, and his sharpened teeth. The shark genes he had combined with his own were expensive; he’d hate to ruin those spent thousands with a five-dollar pack of smokes. So tomorrow, Vivek will [...]
The bottles should have lined her shelf, all shapes of the pastel rainbow, a tally of her pasts. Their numbers would be such that they overwhelmed the tiny space, and even by resorting to clever stacking methods and ingenious pyramids she would never quite be able to fit them all. The shelf was clear, of [...]
Emeeki dove off the cliff, spreading her silver wings wide to catch the current of air, flying over the Sacred ground. This would put her quite a distance from her earth locked predator, whose yellow mane she could see moving in the grass on the golden plains. The Sacred ground was a beautiful preserve and [...]
“’Scuse me, is this the sunbound dock?†Harrison started and nearly dropped the bouquet he was holding. He hadn’t heard the woman approach. “Uh… yeah, it should be.†“Thanks. Is this seat taken?†He shook his head mutely in response. Vibrant. It was the first adjective that popped into his mind, and it stayed there [...]
The road lay before me like the body of an overdosed hooker; all valleys and plains and nameless geography. My hand stroked the air from the window of the pickup as the wind smoked my cigarette and left me with ash. This could work, she’d said. We can make this work. Behind us, the dome [...]
“But why don’t you want to be Prince Charming? I just don’t understand.†Beryl worried a handkerchief nearly to the point of tearing with her plump little hands. Saske could see she was almost to the point of tears, but he wasn’t going to relent. A man had to draw the line somewhere. “I have [...]
Voices of Tomorrow, the 365 Tomorrows Podcast has gone live. It is available for direct download here: http://voicesoftomorrow.libsyn.com/ If you have iTunes, you should be able to find it in your Podcast directory. Thanks to everyone who submitted story suggestions for the Podcast; each one of them will be recorded and broadcast in Voices of [...]
The van comes for me at the usual time. I imagine myself as the driver must see me, a doll with matching parts, standing in front of buildings that are coated with red sand. I pull my coat around me but the cold wind climbs under and up my bare legs. I am wearing the [...]
The engineer stumbled into the cargo hold and dropped his bags like they were made of lead. At the moment, he couldn’t think of any place in the galaxy where he’d rather be. Not that that was a surprise. His pilot wandered into the hold wearing underwear, a bra, and a towel wrapped around her [...]
Seamus dipped the greasy piece of bread into the even greasier layer of oil in his plate. “Mm. It seems so much easier when you know your own sin, doesn’t it?†Carol hadn’t touched her food; her lust for love blinded her, but only to a point. She watched the buffoon in front of her [...]
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