Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer The Sisters of Light arrived for my mother when I was eleven years old. Their robes flashed like light in a storm, shifting and unexpected. My mother welcomed them into our home. She knew why they were there but she acted like it was just a social call, smiling like [...]
Author : Viktor Kuprin October 30, 1961 – Five aircraft rose into the arctic sky from the Olyena airbase, headed northeast over the Barents Sea, towards the frozen wastes of Novaya Zemlya Island. The largest plane, a roaring turboprop Bear bomber, carried Vanya. The most beautiful, a silvery Tupolev-16 loaded with cameras and recording devices, [...]
Author : Lirael “What’s your name?” “Butterfly. Butterfly Phoenix.” “Well, that’s a stupid name.” Butterfly heard that a lot. Being only five years old, she took the insults rather well. She never even thought to change her name. She loved it. Her mother told her that her Daddy, a famous airship pilot, had given it [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer I’m surprised you decided to come out here. No, no – I’m happy you did, just surprised. Your drink ok? Good. You must find me fascinating, kind of the poster boy for post war re-creation. I’m not the only one you know, there are a lot more soldiers just [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Cody Starr, the seventy-fifth Director of The Venusian Terraforming Program, removed his foot-gear and waded into the warm Venusian Ocean on the western shore of New America. The sun very slowly inched its way above the western horizon to begin the long Venusian day (equal to 243 Earth days). [...]
Author : Simon Petrie There’d been big changes at Dave’s workplace. Dave, 43, had been offered retirement, but he’d opted to stay employed in the burgeoning industry that he, as a roboticist, had helped initiate. The society-wide introduction of working robots (more pedantically ICs, ‘intelligent constructs’) had been the past century’s dream, finally brought to [...]
Author : Grady Hendrix There’s that clanking, again. There’s that ratcheting, sound. There’s that grinding of gears and that whining of servos. He’s gotten used to the way his guest bedroom sounds like a robot factory, ever since Grife Marauder showed up. “Jim, you gotta take me in, man,†Grife’d said. Grife was an old [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer That’s the thing about silicates. They get cancer from radiation, just like us, except their tumors are jewels. The silicate in front of me here has a head full of diamonds. He’s looking up at me with his prism eyes. When the sun shines through the hospital window, the [...]
Odds are if you’re reading this message, then you’re already subscribed to our RSS feed. If you’re a Mac user, and running OSX 10.4 or later, then you can download our Widget from Apple and view the most recent 10 stories from Dashboard too. There’s a slider on the back that lets you manage how [...]
Author : James Smith Sarah’s eyes went dim for a second, and I figured she was getting mail. She squinted with one eye and said, “That’s weird. I just… got… headmail from my… from Richard.” “What’s he say?” “‘Wanna get dinner? Wear the red dress.’” “Are you serious?” “This is crazy…” The waitress walked by, [...]
Author : Sam Clough aka “Hrekka”, Staff Writer Kana took a deep breath and brought the butt of her father’s rifle to her shoulder. She tilted her head, both eyes open and focused beyond the length of the barrel. The iron foresight that perched at the end of the weapon had been cast as a [...]
Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer “How is the Krugar adjusting to his second childhood?” The Krugar’s mother motioned to the reporter to sit. “We don’t call him The Krugar here, in his will, he requested that we call him Uill, as he was called in his first childhood.” The Krugar’s mother looked like a fairy [...]
Author : Andrew Bolt “Why is there no Zeus, Vale? Why am I the only one?†Dee sits on a pile of aquamarine thermal pillows. Cushions of air, tinted and pressurized, hold her aloft, warming her blood and chlorophyll and making her glow red and green like Christmas. “C’mon, Dee. You know this one. You [...]
Author : Chris McCormick When we finally made contact it wasn’t in the way that everyone expected. It wasn’t like Star Trek, or Sagan, or Alien. It should have been kind of obvious, looking at an atlas of the universe that there were so many of us. Tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny points of life [...]
Author : Joshua Reynolds “Can I has cheeseburger?” the cat whined plaintively. It’s voice was an electronic squeal that grated on Jim’s nerves. Jim swatted the cat on the butt and pushed it off of the desk. “No.” “Plz?” it mewled up at him, eyes unblinking. Jim shook his head. “I said no.” “OMG.” the [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Captain Goff sat at the head of the conference table. “Well, we find ourselves in a rather precarious situation. The Capellians have seized our ship, as well as the flagship of the Rana. They claim that our war with the Rana has violated their sovereign space. We have been [...]
Author : Michael Varian Daly Dawn’s light angled off the blank brick walls of the narrow alley. The air shimmered, then expanded like a large soap bubble and softly popped. Iyo stood there for a moment to orientate herself. She glanced up and around. No windows. Bioforms reading only insects and the odd rodent. “Clear,†[...]
Author : J. S. Kachelries The Gossamer Comet hung motionless 10 meters beyond the Folkestone Colony’s outermost habitation “wheel.†The Gossamer Comet was a one-man “human-powered†spacecraft that was about to attempt to win the last unclaimed Kremer Prize, a £100,000 award for the first person to “fly†unaided, in less than twelve hours, between [...]
Author : B.York, Staff Writer Tommy Texas was born in Sienna where his ma and his pa taught him to thank others for the luxuries they had. They thanked Peter for the ability to cook; they thanked Kimberly for the ride into town, and they thanked their grandpa Jeremiah for the television shows they watched [...]
Author : Kathy Kachelries, Staff Writer It was a no-call assignment, and Carson hated no-call assignments. Attempts to contact the McCaulty family through conventional mail had been unsuccessful, though he noted that the lever of the mailbox had been raised, indicating recent use. They had no telephone, of course. Carson shifted the car to manual [...]
Author : Adam Wiesen White. Sterile. No roof, no walls, no floors. No shadows. Make a sound. Hear anything? Of course not: no acoustics. You look nervous, Ben. Don’t. We’re not there yet. This is just a test. Plugged into your parietal lobe, running a line into your implant. The real deal takes way more [...]
Author : Jeremy M. Hall “Welcome to Chrono-Real Estate-Advertising. How may I help you?†“I’m here to buy from March 1, 1650 to March 30, 1650 for the entire city of Jamestown, Virgina.†“Sir, we can’t do that.†“I have a suitcase with several million dollars that says you can.†“No, sir. We cannot do [...]
Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer The old man may have looked like Santa if he smiled, but red faced and spitting he was closer to a vengeful devil than the spirit of giving. The old man cornered Uill with his sizable bulk. “You are not a poet.” He said, stepping closer. He stunk of rotted [...]
Author : Viktor Kuprin When the alien ship reached us, we were down to four hours of oxygen and nothing in our prospector ship’s food storage. It was the Tsoor who rescued us, the ones who look like walking man-of-war jellyfish. Oh, they were nice and polite enough, and they even had a Tsooriski-to-Russki translator [...]
Author : Benjamin Fischer “Have a seat, Jim,†said the General. “Is this what I think it’s about, sir?†the Colonel asked, shutting the hatch behind him. He sat down. Across from him, a LED nameplate proclaimed “Major General David Pietz USAF, Commander-in-Chief Colonial Expeditionary Force†on a broad, glass-covered aluminum desk. Behind it the [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer “I’m sorry, if I’d have realized you were coming tonight, I’d have prepared a more substantial demonstration.” The Professor addressed the Investor nervously, moving piles of notes and abandoned test equipment out of his way. “Your message stated there had been a significant development.” The Investor stood unaffected amidst [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The sound of a bugle woke me up. Damn, reveille. I hate that sound. I swore an oath to myself that I’d fix that one day. I unzip my “bunk†and float out. As I began to put on my uniform, I smiled again at the poster on the [...]
Author : Grady Hendrix “Wait!†he said. “Look at that!†“What the hell is it?†she asked, slamming on the hovercar brakes. “You’ve never seen one?†he asked. She shook her head. “You’re in for a treat,†he said, bouncing up and down with excitement. “Come on.†He scrambled out of the hovercar and onto [...]
Author : Sarah Klein “You must think yourself pretty clever, Mr. Culler,” Parkinson said, snickering. “Look at all these devices you’ve rigged up to catch an intruder. Do you notice how I’ve been able to avoid every single one without losing a drop of blood?” He cackled. Culler said nothing as he awoke from a [...]
Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer Maja’s ancestors conferred in her head before the date. “Wear a dress!” said her great grandmother. “Not that one!” cried her great grandfather “He will think you are a whore, and will offer you money for sex.” “Old man, you are behind the times.” Said Florence, Maja’s grandmother. “Dresses like [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The correctional facility did not work for me. I left the building with the need to make up for lost time. I waited exactly one day and sixteen hours before I grabbed someone and dragged him into an alley to resume work on cleaning the world like I was [...]
Align Software Inc.
Coilhouse magazine + blog
Futurismic
Spilling Ink Review
Wilcox Studios