Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Dominating the center of “The War Room” was a large horseshoe-shaped mahogany conference table. At the head of the table sat the President of The United Earth, and his Joint Chiefs of Staff. Along the two sides of the conference table sat the Cabinet Members, Ministers, and Regional Governors. [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer She left me for a space trucker. I wasn’t even mad. Hell, I understood. The thing about space truckers is that they drive space trucks. They go from place to place. They come in to port, drop some stuff off and then, and this is the important part, they [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Nathan hated fighting with Claire. It was inevitable; they’d been awake and otherwise alone with the ship, tending to its needs, granting their minds a temporary reprieve from the long sleep. If you spent a few months alone with only your partner hurtling through deep space, you’d find things [...]
Author : Shannon Peil The Daughter looked sullenly around the council, at the hopeful eyes of politicians, bureaucrats, magistrates, and men of wealth, and their chosen suitors, knelt before her. She nodded to the back of the room, and they began to filter out slowly, risking glances over their shoulders at the four boys on [...]
Author : Steven Odhner I’m weightless, then suddenly formless like the universe before God spoke to it. I’m behind my desk, staring at a black screen. There are three bananas on the desk and no peels in the trash, so it’s probably a Wednesday morning. The desk is one at SureTech and I’m wearing a [...]
Author : William Tracy She loved the Coin-Operated Boy. None of the men in her life would really love her. Yes, they were strong, and handsome, and promised wealth and luxury. They were also full of hate, and lies. The Coin-Operated Boy was none of these things. He was quiet, and had an almost effeminate [...]
Author : Rob Burton He lifts the stained snow to his visor. Tiny mechanisms sample the stuff and, after sterilizing it (though that was hardly necessary at such low temperatures), sprays it as an aerosol into his nose and mouth. A tiny readout in his visor confirms his suspicions. ‘Waste dump’, he informs the others [...]
Author : Debbie Mac Rory “I’m gonna take it” “I don’t think you should…” “What? It’s just lying here, it’s not like it belongs to anyone” “You don’t know that” “You mean one of these boulders is suddenly going to come to life and chastise me for taking its petrified little baby rock?” “Well, no, [...]
Author : Peter Pincosy Steel floats overhead, encased in concrete, wrapped in duct and wires, our own inorganic trees. Coughing bloat from the towers pushes out heat into the sky, lays labor on the air. In the cracks fly screaming machines their tops reflect varied colors. Shuttle to a corner, stop, take the light at [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Three aliens floated a few dozen meters beyond the ship’s forward observation viewport. They were formless blobs approximately two meter in diameter. The center creature was glowing a faint orange-red, with numerous concentric yellow circles forming and disappearing every few seconds. The two outside creatures displayed counter rotating fluorescent [...]
Author : E.S Wynn “The 882 looks cool.” Cylea glanced up, grinned. “How much for the 882?” The old man gave her a quick glance, eyes wary over spectacles that stood out like antique flair garnered from a bygone age. His reply came solidly. “I can’t sell you the 882.” “Why not?” She cocked her [...]
Author : Andrew Pang The global media sighed at NASA’s attempt to laugh off trillions of dollars worth of international effort. Its called The L.O.F.T. [Lot of Floating Trash]. The Japanese first encountered it in 2011 at the Second Lagrange point, an area in space where gravitational forces seem checked. The Solar C probe was [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer This is the first time I’ve been awake in… I don’t know. Months? Years? The sentence they gave me was a twenty year stint in this meat locker. There’s nobody around to tell me how far in I am. The air in here is brutally stale; heavy with the [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It’s late. I’m smoking a cigarette in the ruins of a burned-down orphanage. I’m standing in what used to be a room full of cradles. The scorched floor is cluttered with little black bones and black charcoal cribs. It’s all I can do to stand there. The dome’s supports [...]
Author : J.E. Moskowitz An explanation of Manna “And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is Manna: for [...]
Author : Helstrom Dear Lucas, By the time you read this, you will probably already have noticed that a number of your home appliances no longer function. In fact you may well have overslept as a result. I know how you are before you get your first coffee, so in case you haven’t figured it [...]
Author : Nitz She woke up from her nap damp all over. The sky was grey with clouds and the air stayed still, heating up the city. After she felt a sweat drop rolling from her chin to her breastbone she decided to take a cold shower. Refreshed by the water she dressed with white [...]
Author : Iva K. When you start your career in time traveling they tell you it’s safe. They tell you there’s only a one in thirteen billion chance of getting into “The Accident” and that fixing such a problem is usually easy. You can call it simply a collision of time fibers – the fabric [...]
Author : Andrew Hawkins … 34. Spray yourself with the scent neutraliser. 35. Move west through the woods towards the royal enclosure, being aware of your surroundings. 36. Remove knife from sheath, remember to dust thoroughly with charcoal powder in your belt pouch to prevent gleam. 37. Insert blade knife first into canvas fabric at [...]
Author : Martha Katzeff They came riding into the City. Some in cars, some in rusted tractors from another era. Some looked up at the greenhouses glinting in the sunlight. Others stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the life above. Shorter buildings allowed a full view of lush crops, sheltered from the bustle of the [...]
Author : Q. B. Fox Subject: No man is an island. From: ISowending@EarnestPeople.com Dear Robert, I know that’s not your name. They call me Jane. That’s not my name. Does that remind you of something? If you’d rather, you can call me Maria; because some things we can’t help, they happen on a completely subconscious [...]
Author : Jennifer C. Brown aka Laieanna One, two, three fireflies into the jar. Just like that, all at once. Probably some kind of pact. I check the remains. Two girls, one boy, none over eighteen. Nobody brings anything to the jar except the young. They don’t plan, they just go. Money is all I [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Alpha Doore is a Mars size planet orbiting an orange-red main sequence dwarf star called BD+56 2966 in the Constellation Cassiopeia. The oxygen and water rich world had several large continents and a flourishing ecosystem. The exploration team was near the end of its six month long mission of [...]
Author : Steven Odhner Gerald Forsythe was still too weak to move, his mind still partially asleep, but he knew the walls didn’t look how they should. Ever so slowly he was able to take in bits of information in an attempt to solve this riddle. The walls were flat. Good. They were a pale [...]
Author : Bill Owens Shift change is a slow-motion affair. Everything is. They lost the ability to move quickly a long time ago. He’s patient; no sense getting uptight, it only hurts him – they don’t care. They lost that ability too. The last spot on the line is filled again, his eyes sweep across [...]
Author : Q. B. Fox “Are you suggesting it’s alive?” Calvin was incredulous. “Of course it’s not alive,” Mary was withering. “It’s a computer program.” “Strictly speaking,” Glen interrupted, “It’s a suite of software.” They both glared at him and he fell silent again with a mumbled apology. “Then explain it to me,” Calvin snapped. [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer We lived in a tribe outside the main disc. The arm struts of the cogshield branched out above us like a gear. Where we lived was all angles. It had been this way ever since our creation. My little one was sick. I’d built him according to the proper [...]
Author : Steven Odhner Come closer to the monument, child. Do not be afraid. You have done well to make it all the way here – I know the journey from your village is hard. Your brother had to turn back the first time, and your mother arrived with an injured ankle and had to [...]
Author : Daniel Bensen Alex This has been a humbling experience. I can admit now that I was a little arrogant. I suppose I had reason to be. I was—I suppose I still am—the best mathematician on Earth. Funny. I know I should have expected this. But then, most of us believed then that mathematics [...]
Author : Michael Varian Daly Junior Lieutenant Menat Borsa, Space Force Marines, had the Third Watch on Barracks Platform 2/26 [2nd Regt/26th Batt] because, bluntly put, she was a ‘noob’, barely four months out of the Academy. And she was fine with that Tradition from ‘beyond the mists of time’. The Sisterhood was ever conscious [...]
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