Author : Pyai (aka Megan Hoffman) Most of her thoughts were consumed in blind panic, so she wasn’t really away of what was happening until she had dug herself halfway out of the dirt. She was wearing the dress her sister had put her in to be a bridesmaid last spring, and her face felt [...]
Author : Duncan Shields Seven years of work here in the KT and the worst that’s happened to me is that I lost a fingertip in a time trap. It’s still there, falling to the floor in a three second loop over and over again for eternity over in Cardiff. The victim is still turning [...]
Author : David Zhou It started, as many such things start, with a plum. The fruitseller first noticed the plum eater when he came by the same stall not once, not twice, not thrice, but fifteen times in the same cycle. He would always pick the juiciest plums; freshly cloned from the best Terran stock, [...]
Author : J. R. Salling A large ripe melon rests on an operating table. Members of the surgical team stand in the wings, preparing long serrated knives. Spotlights illuminate chunks of crushed ice that slip down the sides of the patient. My mouth becomes moist in sympathy. I take another step forward when the nurse’s [...]
Author : J. S. Kachelries I am very, very sorry. What else can I say? If it means anything, at least I will die before you. I probably only have a few hours left…just enough time to tell you what happened, and to ask for your forgiveness. I am (actually, was) a graduate student of [...]
Author : LaTosha Hall The three children stared at the table top. “How’s it doin’ that?” the fair haired boy whispered, reaching two fingers out towards the dull metal object floating above the center of the cracked table. The only girl of the group, tall and gangly, squatted down, peering under the table. “It’s got [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Zero hour is struck on an instrument of time beyond the grasp of mortal men. Above the sky over the northern pole of the earth, a great creature slowly shakes off the remnants of a rather lengthy slumber. Eight bristling legs unfold and stretch, then hoist aloft its swollen [...]
Author : Ashley Bonkajo The old woman had not been seen for quite a while. Nor was it unusual for a person to not be seen for months at a time. Robot or (for the very wealthy) android assistants handled the details of day to day life. The old woman had not answered the door [...]
Author : Benjamin Fischer Basajaun sighed and rubbed the sweat from under his eyes. A shadow had fallen across reflected rays of his private sun. “What is it you want?†he asked, blinking and groggy. The shade resolved itself into the slim image of a woman standing over him. “Mr. Miquel, I am Yasamin Judd,†[...]
Author : John Mierau “Mr. Jerome?” Pen and thoughts still pressed to the page, the writer looked up: a tall man in an old-fashioned suit weaved his way through the happy hour crowd. “David Jerome. It’s really you!” Another fan? God, why can’t people be happy with the books and leave me alone! “Uh, look, [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The big bike tugged at his gloves, pleading for the roll of the wrist that would send the 6 cylinders into a frenzy of combustion and release. Patience. He eased out of the garage, coasting down the parking ramp onto the drive before gently throttling up to escape the [...]
Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer The recruiter says that you are a dumbass. He tells you he wouldn’t put you in the infantry for the eighteen worlds, because you would get someone shot. Later you learn this is the worst insult he could give. The recruiter tells you that you would never make it as [...]
Author : J. S. Kachelries I walked into the offices of Temporal Travel Inc. A bored agent three rows back motioned me toward him with his free hand, as he peered around his upturned coffee cup. “Good morning, Sir.†he said as he placed the empty coffee cup squarely on a coaster. “Where and when [...]
Author : Joshua Reynolds Dinosaurs thundered through a post-industrial city on their way to work. Suits and ties. Briefcases built to fit thick, knobby talons. The stink of mammal bacon on the breath of some, boiled plant on others. Pollution choking the air and grease and oil and garbage on the streets. A thriving, productive [...]
Author : D. Magliola Ron was sprawled on a park bench. His dirty hands were tucked into the kangaroo pouch of his salvaged Nike hoodie. He exhaled a cloud of vapor and wheezed with his next breath. A single tear ran down his cheek and was absorbed in the dust mask that protected his mouth [...]
Author : Phill Arng It was wet work, being in the Sky Platoon. Yawning decades hunched in the basket of those primitive balloons with nothing for company but the clouds and the telescopes for watching all our friends below. Time moved differently in the chronosphere and it lent itself to idle thoughts. They hadn’t mentioned [...]
Author : Duncan Shields The helmet amplifies my own breathing and makes me feel uncomfortably confined. It’s like when you can hear yourself chewing and it sounds so noisy because of the bone conduction going on with the sound but outside of your head its fine. Except with me I can hear my own breathing [...]
Author : Michael Shreeves The call had gone out, and they came. Across land, sea, air, hundreds of miles, they came, three million all told. No one in United Dissent could afford to miss an opportunity like this. Still, especially with a pig like Beauregard being sworn in, we should’ve expected this. If looks could [...]
Author : Kenny R. Brown A very sweaty, very fat man with a rifle paces back and forth at the top of the wall. He is guarding the only entrance, but he is more for effect than for any real purpose. An entire army would be unable to break down these doors. Made of an [...]
Author : Patrick Supple At the peak of the technological firestorm of the mid-21st century, few would have forecast a second Dark Age. The advance of dogma started with the unification of the world’s major religions into an evangelical philosophy in the 2050s. Many had welcomed the amalgamation, believing it would consign wars of faith [...]
Author : S. ‘Hrekka’ Clough “So what are you?” “I told you. A meme.” She pronounced it like ‘theme’. “A memeplex, to be precise. A self-propagating collection of ideas and concepts. A unit of culture, my dear.” “I don’t quite understand.” “Let me give you an analogy,” she smiled behind the mask. The effect was [...]
Author : Graham T. Swanson Move. Somewhere inside the soldier’s brain, a neuron crackled and died sending a signal to a limb incapable of receiving, or doing anything about it had it actually done so. He had long ago lost all link or power to the armor’s motivators. Move. It didn’t hurt. He was thankful [...]
Author : Stin Final round. Just don’t get knocked out. Just keep on your feet. You can do this, you need to do this. You need this win. CRACK! He’s too fast. I can barely touch him. It’s not fair, they shouldn’t be allowed to fight like this, they have too many advantages, how’s a [...]
Author : Dane Richmond The media fanfare had died down after the first few months. It had been amazing at first but it gradually made the transfer to annoying and then overwhelming. Now years later the paparazzi were gone along with their fame. There was the occasional photographer when she and Marc went out. She [...]
Author : Joshua Reynolds They were tearing him apart. Muscle by muscle, tendon by tendon. Unraveling him like a ball of string. He screamed but he had no tongue and no sound came out as something cold and hard cut into his throat, spreading the edges of his flesh back like the petals of a [...]
Author : Aelanna Cessara Seven. He only had seconds left to live. Despite all the augmentations and training that the soldier had received, the result of countless centuries of evolution and refinement in the art of war, technology could not truly ease the limit of mortality. The projectile had easily penetrated so many layers of [...]
Author : B.York, Staff Writer Everyone deserves another chance. Sometimes when I look out amongst the white blankets I can conceive of forgiveness, or even a world where people could make mistakes before they were judged. I try to believe in my excess chances that go on further than the eye can see. But then, [...]
Author : Duncan Shields I woke up from the deep cryosleep with a bleary head and a taste in my mouth like I’d licked a battery. The gel washed off cleanly and I was standing in the hall with the other colonists in my underwear with the HR monitors still stuck to us like faithless [...]
Author : Jinque Eoin dropped his bag in the hallway, and turned into his living room. His computer was nowhere to be seen. “Caprice, I’m home. Where are you?” Eoin’s computer poked her head over the top of his favourite chair. “I’m right here, Master Eoin! Welcome home!” Eoin smiled, and walked over, nudging Caprice [...]
Author : Curtis C. Chen The first crystal fell on Los Angeles in the middle of rush hour, killing thirty-two people. Caltrans spent an hour trying to move the enormous mass before it drilled itself into the ground and disappeared. Two hours later, another crystal splashed into the Pacific Ocean. The Navy sent a submarine [...]
Author : David Zhou “My card,” he said, bowing gracefully to the client from Tarqon, the fifth planet in the Tostis system out in the deep reaches of the Spiraling Galaxy. “I want to thank you,” the client said. “Thank you for taking on this job. They said you were the only one who could [...]
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