Author : Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh Every morning she woke up to start a new millennium she felt dread. How far had it spread today? Terra used to be happy. She and Mars had a fantastic relationship. They had beautiful little reptilian offspring. Their attraction made them orbit synchronously and he was her world. Then he [...]
Author : S. Clough aka Hrekka She bent the corners of the cards up off the table, as if checking their values. She didn’t even see them – her focus was on Mayweather across the table. She’d memorised her cards as they were dealt, and trusted her memory implicitly. If you couldn’t trust your own [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer “Paxton – Porterhaus – Pratt.” The name was enunciated with venomous care, as though each word were an expletive of a most unpleasant nature.  The professor spoke across a desk cluttered with piles of documents, large texts and time keeping and measuring devices, to the youth lounging lazily in the [...]
Author : Frank Ruiz It’s my favorite Super oldie playing from the speakers above: “I think we’re alone now…” The lights are just right, bringing the girl out against the dark room, making the furniture behind her suggestions; a white body rising from black waters. Slick red 12 inch hydraulic heels. She’s got some new [...]
Author : David E Hoffee T. Claudius Swifford sipped arabica from the back of his vintage, metal-colored, chauffeur-driven Triton Mercedes as it swooped to meet the maglev. He briefly recalled the scone and juice he’d been served for breakfast as he perused the Singapore vids. In the tiniest moment reserved for himself, he thought, am [...]
Author : Z.D. Erickson Boyd pressed himself tightly to the crumbling brick of the library’s colonnade. As the thin layer of scaled fiber-optics bent the light of distant streetlamps around him, his mind raced. There’s an old thieves adage; The theft itself is rarely difficult. It’s getting away with the merchandise that becomes problematic. He [...]
Author : Pyai (aka Megan Hoffman) “Ms. Anderson,†the bot said as he leaned forward, his fingers steepling and making little chinking noises of metal against metal, “tell me once again why you are requesting such a drastic career change?†Lori shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I’m missing my children grow up. I can’t put [...]
Author : Rae Walker The field was nothing special, drying knee high grass and a few scrubby trees, but to Ed it looked like paradise. It pained him that the battle would tear apart these few acres, churning more land into waste, but the Smarts had reported burrowing in this location and any moment now [...]
Author : Alex Meggitt The sun forces itself past my eyelids and wakes me up every morning. I lean over and make another notch in the tree next to the bed I’ve created. There are four hundred eighty three of them. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth as I get up, and [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The sign over the cathouse door reads simply “Preacher’s”. There will be liquor up front, and women for sale out back. Pulling a stool up to the empty bar, I know I’m here for neither. “What’ll it be?” She studies the lines on my face, waiting for a reply. [...]
Author : Adam Zabell The now-empty desk stared back at Loren, equal parts accusation and despair. “So you’re really going to leave?†“I don’t see as I have a choice, Bruce.†Loren had ignored the usual protocols and devised her own names for the AI appliances scattered about her lab. Sorry, ‘the lab’, she reminded [...]
Author : Jody Hart Lehrer Jared begged his father for a bedtime story. Mr. Edgars sighed, and reached for the book that his precocious seven year old son was handing him. Jared eagerly settled on his back on his bed. “Immigrants from Another Galaxy†his father said, reading from the cover. This book was Jared’s [...]
Author : Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh She was trying to KILL him! Well, he wasn’t going to stand for that. Sure he only existed on paper but that didn’t mean he had any less of a soul nor that he did not want to live same as everyone else. He had seen her kill off too [...]
Author : Daniel Longwing The jewelry tinkled like wind-chimes as it fell over the candlesticks and crystal. Gently, Momsdroid replaced the lid to the box with slender polymer fingers. It shouldered the shopping bag and walked out into the hall. It looked first left, than right, a confused expression on its face. The hall light [...]
Author : J. S. Kachelries The spaceship was shaped like a flattened football. It had no obvious external doors or windows. Although it appeared to be metallic, we couldn’t cut it, penetrate it with X-rays, or scratch it with a diamond. The only thing we had to evaluate was an encrypted panel on the port [...]
Author : Ian Burke “Today†marks the end of history. Yesterday it was June 25th, 1995 AD (CE, if you prefer). “Today†can be marked in no such terms. Yesterday, “today†was the 26th of June, but “now,†none of that matters anymore. This “morning,†the Hole opened up – the Hole, which began in [...]
Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer The teacher, the senticyborg and the children sat in a circle on logs in the woods. In the beginning of the semester they had constructed their outdoor classroom as an assignment in team building. The canopy above them made patterns of yellow light on the soft grass. “Who can tell [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Cyrus curled in the corner, hugging his aching legs to his chest as though they might crawl off without him were he to let them go. White hot grains of sand glassified in his retinas, and beads of sweat scraped down his flesh, each one making it’s presence felt [...]
Author : Hannah F. The man of Saiyen was small and nervous-looking, not nearly as mystical as I expected, wandering into these ancient strongholds; like a Peasant or maybe a half-blood Noble boy, the kind that spent the days with their faces in paper. “Is that a crossbow? Fascinating,†he said hurriedly. This was a [...]
Author : Kenyon Applebee & Bridget Webb The stark woman set the blue incandescent lamp on a nearby crate and turned off her flashlight. “…Erin, would you like to sleep in a real bed again?†She wore black – military cut. The figures behind her were similarly dressed. They guarded the decaying elementary school as [...]
Author : Viktor Kuprin The priest’s pointed helmet hung at his side. His vac suit was completely black. Engineer Beketov didn’t get it. It was too strange, too … medieval. The holy man waved the crucifix over the salt package and recited a prayer. Beketov had been told the salt was for cooking a lamb [...]
Author : Eric Willey The Colony Ship New Eden moved closer to the world that was her destination as the last pilot opened the door to a murderer. “You can’t kill me. No one else to fly this crate.” He turned and walked over to his personal kitchenette, poured two cups of coffee and didn’t [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Levon regarded the timepiece in his hand carefully, balanced on an open palm as if weighing it, he frowned, then spoke. “Sixty seconds,” his words brought nods and murmurs of agreement from the small crowd gathered around him, the sounds rolling away to be swallowed by the blackness of [...]
Author : JR Blackwell, Staff Writer “I don’t want to go to the United States.” Wilkin slumped, his head falling into the cradle of his arms. His lawyer, the Silver Cyborg, as he liked to be called, put a heavy sympathetic hand on Wilkin’s shoulder. “Sorry Willi, I wish I could appeal this again, but [...]
Author : Clifford Hebner They met at the Imperial Academy, her slight and boyish, the youngest woman ever admitted, and he old, with the face and toothy grin of an ape. They were outcast, too young or old to be useful to anyone, but by the time she accepted her first commission, serving as ensign [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart March 26, 2167. It was the best of days; it was the worst of days (if you permit me to paraphrase Charles Dickens). At 8:00 EMT (Earth mean time), I accepted delivery of the Galaxy-Clipper. Although named for the nineteenth century sailing ship, it was not made to cruse Earth’s watery [...]
Author : Adam Zabell In one of those rare moments of unity, the nation sits in stunned silence at the scene laid out before them. A few short seconds from now three different wild howls of exclamation will be broadcast from two billion different voices. A third of those voices will be shrill with anger, [...]
Author : Gabrielle Kinsman The transport completed its descent and settled onto the ground. The landing gear clamped to the landing pad, like a bug latching onto a leaf. The hatch opened and people started filing out almost before it touched ground. There were scores of people; many of them were specialists, workers for the [...]
Author : Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh “This skull has been carbon dated at being 3 million years old. Yet, clearly it is the skull of a 20th century homo-sapiens. You’ve been trained for the last five years because of the discovery of THIS skull.†Cartwright listened to the director of The Program as he spoke solemnly. [...]
Author : S.Clough You’ve heard of the Unequivocal, right? Okay, then. I’ll assume you’ve been living under a rock since before you were born. The Unequivocal was the very first flagship of the Earth fleet. One of the early-pattern destroyers: It was lost in its fourth year of service, holding off a half-dozen Beamer ships [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer “Man – this is awesome!” John was in a state of constant verbal barrage, his voice unnaturally loud above the diner chatter as he overcompensated for the music playing in his head. “I’m telling you, these Koreans know how to make implants.” Scott sat across the table, sucking absently [...]
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