Author : Tony Healey When my heart decided to start failing on me around my seventy-fifth, the doctors offered me a bio-mechanical one. They called it ‘the ox;’ so called because it apparently never wore out. I remember sitting in the consultants office, surrounded by plastic models of replacement limbs and artificial eyeballs. Dr Fenwick [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer I love making a drop. The rush as you plummet through the atmosphere, the scream of re-entry. The abrupt jolt when you hit 100m H over G and descend. The rush of cool air as you jump through the open doors and hit the deck. Just like grandpa, [...]
Author : KJ Hannah Greenberg Snazzle considered, as she queued up, among the morning roses and goldenrod, that members of the machinists’ men didn’t take warmly to her puttering about their racks and chargers. Despite the technicians’ protest to the contrary, whenever she brought Little Guy to honk among the geese and ducks, those mechanics [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer We put Jesus24K99 into his cage for our own protection. The anti-coagulants weren’t holding. He was destabilizing. He’d bleed out soon. The hole in our research was the stigmata. The actual crucifix had been uncovered in a basement vault of the Vatican. The nails from the cross had been [...]
Author : Lisa Marie Andrews “What’ll you choose?” She stood behind the boy and looked into the mirror. His cheeks were dusted with freckles; eyes darkened with indecision. “I don’t know.” He said. He’d always thought it odd that the skinless wore no clothing. They walked exposed in bright coppers, burnished golds, and tarnished silvers. [...]
Author : Phill English Special Agent Jessy McCormick knocked gently on the door of the Director’s office. He looked up from his desk, where a large holographic display was swarming with reports that he was busy gesturing into folders, signing quickly, or dumping into a bottomless recycling bin. He didn’t pause as he addressed her. [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The two Capellians had traveled over 40 light years to collect a breeding pair of humans for the University of Xenobiology, on Capella Prime. During the trip, they also diligently recorded the various transmissions emanating from Earth in order to provide their scholars with as much cultural information about [...]
Author : Jeff Kirchoff A few short keystrokes and the room sprung to life, bare, the walls black yet glowing with the subtle aura of electrical potential. Rico strolled to the center of the small space and looked at the crumpled paper clutched in his left hand with a sigh. He spoke aloud to the [...]
Author : Thomas Desrochers Whether or not something is difficult is largely a thing of perception. If you practice doing most things a lot, then they become easier. Driving, hunting, farming – they all becoming easier with practice. Living alone does not. For three thousand six hundred forty nine days I have lived my life [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Levon leaned against the shower tube, letting the jets of water assail his body from all sides. As the sweat of the previous night’s activities rinsed away, the more subtle indicators of his exertions seeped in. Both his head and kidneys ached from the soup of chemicals he’d drank, [...]
Author : Carol Reid Is there a sign over Gina’s head that reads, “Vacancy”? She imagines it in neon, that peculiar orange pink reserved for a certain class of motel– and apparently for her, a certain class of fucked up female, who had a reasonable, ordinary life before the thing began. Maybe she should blame [...]
Author : Q. B. Fox The members of Juliet Patrol, 29 Group, Royal Engineers hunkered down in a squat two-story, stone building balanced on the hillside. Lt. Harry Banford watched through the unglazed window as a UN superiority denial aircraft painted a con-trail far, far overhead. At the sound of a distance whine, Banford dropped [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It’s a reasoning process. There are seconds left. The cold leather of the chair is warming up beneath my manacled wrists. The restraints are tight on my arms. I’m wide awake and dreaming. I can’t decide if it’s a syringe or a snake that they’re drawing back out of [...]
Author : K. Pittman Sometime before midday’s full blaze, Susan threw down her skein and stopped walking. Georgia broke pace steps later and trod back, face flattened, hat shadowing her glare. “What.” “I want milk. I’m tired of water.” Susan half-turned and looked from whence they’d walked. “There’s no more milk. Those jackasses pinched our [...]
Author : Nick Gonzales “You heard they finally nailed teleportation?” “No.” “Yeah, just yesterday.” “For real?” “Fo rizzle.” I turn to look at Billiam, his eyes lit up expectantly as he leans towards me across the table. His face is twisted into his characteristic grin of childlike excitement. An off-putting grin, but not without some [...]
Author : Michael Merriam “We never had much,” she said. “The freighter was our life. Now it’s all lost, ripped apart by a neutron star.” I sat next to her. I couldn’t answer. My mind was dazzled, my eyes locked on her naked body stretched out on the bed we shared. She reached out her [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer I had heard the news only a short few minutes ago. I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. I walked out the back door onto the deck and looked up and down the beach. Like mine, all the other houses were darkened as well. Like that would [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “Dammit Joe, it’s freakin’ freezing in here,” complained Thomas Sampati as he checked the spaceship’s thermostat.” “We’re eight hours behind the Phoenix,” replied Joe. “We need to make a non-traditional course adjustment if we hope to win the race.” “’Non-traditional?’ The course goes from Vesta, around the sun, past [...]
Author : Sean Wallace “Now, we all look forward to entering the Archangel when we retire, but what about those people who go there before then? Constance Vyke reports on the people who keep Archangel running…” Constance, pretty in a thin, blonde sort of way, starts her report through a practiced smile. “Thank you Milo. [...]
Author : Eric Kimball It starts as the faintest quiver of sound, a slight singsong beat carried by the wind. The few stray notes that reach my ears instantly spring to the forefront of my consciousness. “Mother, he’s here!” “Hmm?” Mother replies flatly. The mechanical calliope is louder now, adding to the urgency in my [...]
Author : Bill Lombardi Troy sat by his bedside. Watching. Hours past and then Jon’s eyes slowly opened. “I’m thirsty.” His voice wavered, his strength beginning to ebb. Troy poured him a glass of water and stood by him holding the straw. He took several sips. Coughed. Troy wiped his chin. Soon he was asleep [...]
Author : Matthew Banks “It thinks,” said the emaciated man, blinking up at the doctor with red-rimmed eyes. The doctor looked down at him for a moment, then turned to the display mounted on the wall. The multiscan of the man’s brain was mostly normal, except for the bright blob sprouting from the left hemisphere. [...]
Author : Richard “Zig” Zagorski Amanda awoke from a deep slumber and saw that her alarm clock would be going off in ten minutes. Not pressing enough to climb out of bed to turn it off just yet, but unfortunately also too little time left to fall back asleep. However it only took a moment [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I got pretty good at morse code after a while. My co-pilot had a beak. The only way we could figure out how to communicate was if he clicked his beak at me in morse code. He was a pretty impatient dude so he did it really fast. He [...]
Author : Cesium Each clutching the other’s hand, they waited atop the Green Building. They weren’t supposed to be here. No one was. But the tallest building in Cambridge, Massachusetts would soon depart the soil on which it had stood for so long, and they couldn’t have missed the chance to be here. To watch [...]
Author : Ian Rennie When the doctor asked Lacey what he could do for her, she explained everything. She told him about growing up plain, being ignored by boys and teased by girls every day of her school life. She told him about Joey LeMartin’s hypnotic blue eyes that never swung in her direction. Then, [...]
Author : Rob Burton I sip champagne, and snatch a truffle from the waiter’s tray. A flush of excitement rushes through me as a handsome man catches my eye from across the room. A moment to politely disengage himself from his group, and he moves towards me like I am the only person in the [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Another fuckin’ night at the VFW,” Jerry Pesetski thought gloomily to himself. His arm hummed loudly as he raised the glass to his mouth. Halfway to his lips the movement stopped with a sharp grinding sound. “Damn government piece of shit,” he growled. In a drunken fit of [...]
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