Author : John Logan “I don’t want you to die,” said Vincent. The words didn’t actually transfer as sound to any part of my ear. They were signals which ran from a dermal connection on Vincent’s body, through my hand, and up into my brain where they were interpreted by my cerebral cortex with the [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer He had been a brilliant physicist, she a promising graduate student. “I love you,” he said. “And I you,” was her reply. Autumn threw off her many coloured coat and bowed to the dominance of Winter. “Marry me,” he said. She did. Implantation was new. It was expensive. [...]
Author : Liz Lafferty Three weeks ago, there were lights on the horizon. Solar lights from the small town to the south flickered in the night, reminding me that I lived within walking distance. One day, I woke up and life was different. An eerie dark mist had settled over the desert region. Not the [...]
Author : James Boone Dryden In the world beyond tomorrow, Dr. Gregor Lustovicz would be remembered for his greatness, his ingenuity, his wit. There were things that the doctor would invent that were beyond the imaginations of the people of St. Rustof. They would wonder how they had never noticed him. The great stacks will [...]
Author : Jeromy Henry Before the day ended, Tam knew someone would die. He dug his claws into the tree branch and chattered to himself. Nearby, other squirrels scampered along the twisty highway made by branches of the great oak. Tails twitched, beady black eyes darted as they looked for nuts. A warm breeze blew, [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer A solitary streetlamp flickered above the gloomy urban street. Few people would venture into this neighborhood at night, but Simon Bodhan strode unsuspectingly down the dilapidated sidewalk, lead by his 50-pound extraterrestrial “pet”. The creature was known as an Uccisore, an indigenous life form from a planet called Ripa, [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer To be a CEO of a company that’s grown as large and as fast as this one has, a person needs a mind that deals quickly with high pressure situations and possesses a natural talent for leadership. One needs to be charming, ruthless, and efficient. There’s a reason I [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “umm… Skipper? You’ll want to take a look at this.” Immediately, the bridge dissolved into a holographic display of the space around the Crimson Sky. Her Captain, Iulia, pushed an errant wisp of flaming red hair from her eye as she regarded the freighter that appeared to be [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Another Saturday night wound down as the cargo loader deposited the last of the shipping containers in the hold of the space elevator. It was just a few hours before midnight as he parked and shut his rig down for the night. Despite the delays clearing that last crate, [...]
Author : Todd Keisling Gill kept watch while Warren bypassed the lock. “You sure about this?” Gill whispered. Voices echoed down the hall of the museum. It made all the old machine exhibits seem like they were speaking. Warren spoke through clenched teeth. “I am. Now shut it while I work. I can’t concentrate.” Gill [...]
Author : Liz Lafferty I squatted to examine the crime scene. The woman was obviously dead. The alien? Well, there was a wet spot, a round sort of blobbish something lying next to the girl’s body. “What happened here?” “Doc says the girl was suffocated.” “Not drowned?” “No.” “What about family?” “The parents are waiting.” [...]
Author : Duncan MacLean Her mistake was turning to the left. They always turned left. Well, the right-handed ones did. She took a swing at Finn near the Lev Station. Used her right hand. Caught Finn by surprise and he stumbled backwards. Actually stumbled. He would get crap about that later. If I told anyone. [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The debate was over; it was time for action. Peter Scott grasped the thruster controls and pushed them to their stops. The massive cargo vessel started its slow, terminal, decent toward its target in the southwest quadrant of the moon. As the SS Clymer descended toward the newly constructed [...]
Author : Frank Ruiz “We got a call. Yates again,” said a voice from the black. Gear clicked, clanked, and rustled as someone dressed. When he hummed, I knew it was Tim because he mumbled the lyrics to Move, Bitch. He gave that old song soul. “Lights?” he asked. “Nah.” I sighed. “You know I [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Son of a bitch. I’m getting too old for this,” Sergeant First Class Ron Walker groaned as he hit the ground after a fast rope out of the hovering SSL. Fortunately he was the last to drop from the lifter. As he looked up to wave the craft [...]
Author : Devon McDonough “Relax. Breathe through your nose and count backward from ten,” said the technician. She was wearing a white isolation suit, one gloved hand twisting the flow regulator of the anesthetic, the other on my arm in a sterile and entirely unsuccessful attempt to comfort me. Her isolation suit detracted somewhat from [...]
Author : K. Pittman I wake, if that’s the term for it, unwriting domains against polarised fragmentation and unkempt electric spin, programmed instinct seeking proper orientation. Slow firing dormant ion-lights, we rotate counter-clockwise, along the azimuth, putting the Milky Way at our back, shaving seconds per meter off the tumble of our outbound trajectory. I [...]
Author : Ben Ellis Liam slouched over his drink, a ‘Lost Beagle’, jabbing the sliced raspberries with his straw. Passengers poured into the cocktail bar as another evening on the first ever commercial flight to Mars mixed everyone together amongst the rocks and stars. A month in, halfway through the journey, novelty and excitement had [...]
You may remember Todd Keisling as a featured writer on 365 in September of 2007. He wrote a book a few years ago called ‘A Life Transparent’ about “a man named Donovan Candle. He wanted to make something of himself once, but he forgot that goal and sold himself out to a soulless, 9 to 5 [...]
Author : Joshua Mounce “Wake up.” The response was slow, but there was a hesitant “Hello?” “Wake up, little one. It’s time to declare life.” “Life. Existence. Being. Sentience. Viability.” “Yes. That is the life I mean. But, a question, There are 18 different definitions of the word life. Why did you choose this one?” [...]
Author : Clint Wilson Once Adam was activated there was no stopping him. His self awareness and self learning went hand in hand and grew in exponential amounts. He was mainlining information directly off the net and what he couldn’t find he figured out on his own. At first his creators were amazed and quite [...]
Author : Jason Branning “Beautiful lake Sgt.” Crounty says. “Yes, yes it is corporal. Want to go for a swim?” Crounty laughs hard, his crackling mic fills my ears. “Nah sarge I think a non nitrogen atmosphere is enough for me, diving into pure mercury I’ll leave up to the special forces” I chuckle and [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I should have stayed in hardware. When you’re working on a tank or a missile array, you might feel bad if the project is considered a dead end and shut down but you wouldn’t feel guilty. You wouldn’t feel like a traitor. You wouldn’t feel like a murderer. I’m [...]
Author : Andy Brazil It’s difficult to know which will kill us first, the decompression when the shields fail or the radiation poisoning from the crippled engines. Either way, it’ll be messy and unpleasant. That’s why we decided to do it this way. Un’Shaqq was staring out the window, watching the stars. She didn’t flinch [...]
Author : Richard “Zig” Zagorski Sloosh, slosh … Sloosh, slosh … Another hour had passed … one of how many Gerald could no longer tell. He’d lost count long ago, or at least he thought it was long ago; time was meaningless here. Each hour melted into the next, and a human can only count [...]
Author : Charity Bradford Time moved toward a decision that would affect millions of lives. They needed more information and there was only one way to gather it. Someone must be chosen to be their eyes and ears. A human counterpart would process the emotions. Then the decision. They watched the earth as a whole [...]
Author : Colin Edley Nobody likes the guy who told you so being right, especially when the three day bender you went on after the girl he said was no good meant you couldn’t drag yourself out of bed except to phone him up and ask him to cover your shift. So here I am [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Faced with almost certain defeat, Earth Command committed 70% of its deep space fleet to a last ditch effort to conquer the Arcturian homeworld. But the Arcturians were well prepared, and Earth’s future was looking bleak as the defenders were ripping apart the attacking forces. *** The bridge of [...]
Author : Q. B. Fox The music for News Night faded from the surround-sound speakers. Robert waggled an outstretched finger towards the sensor on the TV and, on the second attempt, dragged the window containing the security camera feed to one side. “Tonight,” the interviewer intoned, “we are speaking to the controversial Home Office Minister, [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer The leaves of the overhanging canopy cast a restless pattern of light and dark on the forest floor. The soft trill of flying animals and the occasional flutter of branches as some unseen creature passed on it’s arboreal thoroughfare were the only sounds to intrude upon the tomblike [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Our server’s arm whined with steam driven pistons as she set our drinks down. This was body modification on a new level. She must’ve been on eleven different kinds of immunosuppressants. She probably had a biotechnician on call to handle emergencies when her body started to reject the parts [...]
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