Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Imagine a frontier settlement from any decent cowboy film. Then substitute troops of the Galacta Navir for every cowboy. Make the planet it sits on something beyond arid and set the humidity to nearly zero. Welcome to my world: Rumbleday; the planet under the Clervoy Orbital Refreshment Facility. A [...]
Author : Asher Wismer Jack realized he’d been shot. The pain lanced up his leg, shooting through his hip into his chest, and for a moment, he thought that another of the flying bullets had struck home. Instead, the pain receded, only a slight twinge as his armor took over and tightened around the wound, [...]
In 2006, ZeFrank launched a show called “The Show With Ze Frank.” It was one of the most strange, exciting, difficult, and amazing things he has done so far. He think’s it is time to do something similar, what with the economy in the crapper and the election coming up. If Newt can do it, [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “I’m sorry to report Mr. Jones, that your suspicions were correct,” said the private detective that I had hired to follow my wife. “Delilah has been cheating on you.” He rotated his padd so that I could see the cascading slideshow of my wife rendezvousing with a handsome man [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Lewis sprinted the last few yards across the wasteland and dove head first into the trench. He clutched his rifle tight against his chest as he lay in the dirt, chest heaving, heart pounding out of sync with the artillery barrage overhead. Move, Lewis, get up and move. A [...]
Author : Langdon Hickman There wasn’t a conscious decision to eliminate sound. At least not one that anyone could remember. One day, the world woke up to silence. No one was bothered by the sudden stark silence. It felt freeing, like a burden had been lifted. They wanted it, yearned for it. Each day was [...]
Author : Krista Bunskoek Racing down the barren street, she grinned like an escaped fugitive. She’d done it. She’d done it again! Taking away her network privileges! Ha! It only fueled her flame. With more time to plot, to create, to be on her way to feel the thrill of freedom. Freedom once more! And, [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Hadrian’s bloody Wall. Originally built to keep the Picts out when the Romans finally realized my ancestors were too surly to civilise. Since then it’s been used in books and films, every damn time to keep something nasty in the North from overrunning the lovely people in the South. [...]
Author : O. Alexander I open my eyes. They burn after another restless night, filled with nightmares. Three weeks in the jungle, playing deadly cat and mouse games with a neo-leftist demolition squad, can have that effect. I get up and walk unsteadily into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, dark fear swells within me. [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Hitler’s daughter was ruling with a penchant for experimentation. She talked of a future where Aryans were recognized by their deeds and initiative, not by the colour of their skin or hair. Controversial and beautiful, Hitler’s daughter was short with the same dark hair as her father. She administered [...]
Author : Jabez Crisp Vagner: Your name please? Niken: Niken, William, Flight Lieutenant, 10039880 Vagner: [pause] Date of birth? Niken: 29th February 1912 Vagner: And you went missing how long ago? Niken: To me, well… it has been two years. To you, sixty? Eighty? I’m given to understand we made peace in the end, such [...]
Author : Suzanne Borchers Edwin lay on his metal bed, his android body hooked into a myriad of short cables to feed his systems for the night. How long had it been since Father had touched his cold metallic arm and flooded it with warmth? How long had it been since he had seen Father? [...]
Author : B. H. Isaac My surroundings changed in an instant. The neglected display room and my parked martini glass disappeared, replaced by a frozen landscape with glacial winds tearing at my loosened tux. Fear gave me the momentary strength to free myself from the cacophonous machine and its mechanized tentacles. All remaining delight at [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Tensevn broke cover on the fourth floor landing and sprinted flat out across the entire expanse of the building, hurdling the refuse of a hundred years of vacancy to take refuge in the fire escape on the South side. Beneath and behind him he could feel and hear his [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer He walked and he calculated. The intense red sun beat down yet, as always, the suit kept things temperate. He urinated without thinking, and on he walked. He glanced at his wrist and saw that it was nearly rest time. The dry little planet was about 28,000 kilometers in [...]
Author : Phil Newton Sammy always used his polished titanium Tek-Tech Grav Boots to reach the Hundred Foot High Branch — cheater. I climbed. I climbed well. Still, grav boots were cool. I wish my parents had money. ‘Wiry’, that’s what coach called me. I should try wrestling. I needed more meat on my bones [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer She cries into my arms as they come for us. Such a simple thing, this expression of heartbreak through physical reflex. “I thought I’d lost you.” Her hand brushes my cheek and curls around my neck. So soft. The touch is like a feather landing on a still afternoon. [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It was a way of life down here to prove how far you were willing to go. The stew of Oddtown. The people that lived here knew that they’d never work in a place that required a dress code let alone a mannered way of behaving. The modifications they [...]
Author : Jason Verch It was time to put Em to sleep, but he could tell there was something on her mind. “Everything ok sweetie?” he asked. “Dad. Kay is an AI, right?” “Well sure, you know that. She is a robot with an AI built in that controls her.” “But I thought AIs were [...]
Author : Peter Andrews The unmoving city. My city. The boy is frozen now, four, maybe five, feet from the ground, cheeks pulled by inertia’s invisible fingers. It is up to me–he might never turn into viscera, his limbs and neck at deathly angles. His family might never have to mourn. This day need never [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer The Neptune was a first class luxury star liner, the finest of everything from stem to stern; from her massive chandeliers hanging from cavernous twenty meter and higher ceilings to the never-ending filigree of intricately wood-carved railings and archways. The richest of the rich gathered in her grand ballroom, [...]
We’d like to welcome Clint Wilson as a permanent member of our creative team, another solid writer and regular in the forums. Clint’s work was featured here during this past November, and while it’s not his first story here, his first as a staff writer is up today, Feb 10th. You can read about Clint [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Thank you for calling BIOMEK customer support. My name is Tammy, how may I help you today?” “Hi Tammy, I’m having a little problem with my domestic. I am a little frustrated here. I hope you can help me.” “I am sorry to hear that. I’ll do my [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “Bring us to membrane distance,” ordered Commander Richards. Yeoman Miller deftly maneuvered the UESS Kenar toward the subspace membrane separating the primary universe from the adjacent multiverse where they were currently operating. “Membrane distance, sir,” he reported. “Extend the perasensor. Put it on the main viewer.” Ensign Dexter launched [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “A is for Android, B is for Blood,” They chant so happily, without a care in the world. I love them so much, but that is exactly why I am crèche matresse. The room is huge and covered with colourful pictures of all the neo-heroes and the choices available [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It’s a unique experience to be involved in an explosive space decompression. If you survive, you never forget the sound. It’s like something turns the volume down sharply in the middle of the explosion. The screams, the shattering of glass, even the rushing wind, all suddenly has nothing to [...]
Author : Barry Reimer I remember falling. Somehow, I saw it coming seconds before it happened, but I had no way to stop it. Snap. The rope severed. The top of the towering spire of rock began to fall away. During my freefall, time became surreal. Each moment stood alone; an encapsulated eternity. The idyllic [...]
Author : Mark Ehler Lt. Bernard sat, arms crossed, in a 15,000,000 credit coffin. The nuclear battery shorted out and now, without engine power, his ship was just another object in space. Interceptor Pilot Protocol dictated that he stay with his vessel and wait for a patrol to pick him up. That might have worked [...]
Author : Chad C. Burns My gorget chafes as I sit in the dark, listening to my world hum. I can feel the distant thrum of engines, and the creak of cables. Steam and pressure hiss and burble, vacuum engines thump and click, shunting force thru the veins of the ship. Some of the other [...]
Author : John Conway Grant pushed through the crowd, ignoring the direction indicator. He longed for elbow room and privacy, luxuries of a forgotten past. But rumor had it there were still places–distant, underpopulated islands. He only dreamed of reaching their shores … until today. He shoved and nudged through the ebbing crush until he [...]
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