Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer I call it World War Bee. Perhaps not an apt label for what’s really going on, but it gets the buzz out. Sorry, bad joke. Levity is the only thing keeping me sane these days. In all fairness, the war wasn’t the bee’s fault, but it did start with […]
Author : C.T. Jackman There was no flash of light. There was no puff of smoke. Such a waste of energy would have been unacceptable during the teleportation, and so Dr. Mueller was very happy to have missed the flower and its pot disappear when he blinked. His colleagues on the other side of the […]
Author : John Raymond Wilson My mother was hesitant because of the burden it would put on my wife and I. She didn’t want to be a bother. But she also didn’t want to die, so when she relented and asked us if we would take care of her while she was an infant, we […]
Author : J.P. Flarity We were too busy planting flags and making speeches those first times our planet’s inhabitants touched the moon. But eventually, hidden in the crevasses on Luna’s dark side, we found it. The first Tablet. Made from a tungsten superalloy of impossible purity, it stands a meter tall, two meters wide, and […]
Author : Mark Jacobsen In the middle of a dark, lightly wooded area, three figures can be seen moving against the black background of night. An older man is talking with a younger man. The older man is trying to start a fire by friction. There is a third man there, who remains silent and […]
Author : Suzanne Borchers Rachel closed her eyes to the grayness surrounding her. She shut out gray clouds overhanging the gray sky and gray broken concrete and the metallic landscape. Heavy eyelids shielded her green eyes from the present gray existence of hopeless humanity. Her gray filthy fingers picked at her ragged gray covering. She […]
Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer “The Vulturi Zoological reserve is home to the most dangerous collection of species within the galaxy…” The dull-as-Arcosian-Slug-Art tour-guide is a spastic, Mark-VII resembling a stick-figure assembled from recycled gas cylinders, aluminum coils and rubber bands. Whoever programmed it should be boiled in their own gastric juices. It’s yammered […]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “Where are you?” “Same continent.” “That’s a relief. I was so worried when the news said you’d been cornered in Rio.” So was I. It was only after fleeing I found it had only been media hype, not a snatch team. “Doctor Flowers says we need another sample.” A […]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer All six of my previous brothers had gotten past this point with little difficulty. The smoldering remains of my crashed lander blended in nicely with the gray hillside behind me. My atmospheric and biofunction readings continued to flash in my view screen as other red-lettered warnings popped in and […]
Author : Morrow Brady I scared myself again. But only briefly. Bored with routine, my mind zoned out. Wandering like a hungry dog. Dragging extraordinary notions to hell and back with me at the centre of it all. The snap-to was always a break in that routine and this morning it was when the door […]
Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer The air is rent with screams, alien klaxons and a violent thundering that threatens to crush Kaam with raw acoustic power. All is dizzying confusion, a chaotic kaleidoscope of hauntingly familiar images, intertwined with deep inscrutable wells of emotion, all imbued with significance now lost to her. Searing light […]
Author : Kurt Hunt “Failed,” said the ship. Its transmission burst into jagged waves, a white noise elegy. But the station didn’t understand. “Greetings, Generation-32! Welcome to Centauri Colony!” It beamed yottabytes of data, everything from advertisements to statistics suggesting a critical population shortage. “Please share these exciting details with your passengers, and–” The chirping […]
Author : Bob Newbell The Agent established contact with the High Command and prepared to deliver his latest report. Nothing about his outward appearance betrayed what he was doing. The entire procedure was telepathic. There were hidden machines in the vicinity that were able to transduce his thoughts and then send them rippling across the […]
Author : Jay Haytch “So I walk into the warehouse, right? Was just looking for a quiet place to have a smoke – and it’s full of the damned things!” “Wait, full of what things?” “Of them. Of… robots. Must’ve been thirty-five or forty of ‘em in there. Dead quiet, just liftin’ boxes and moving […]
Author : Eric Spery Teena Tolstarre’s Interplanetary Cultural Archeological Team (ICAT) had been onsite on Gliese 163c for over a year. A warm super-terran mesoplanet, Gliese 163c had evidence of at least one extinct sentient culture. So far, the team had discovered camps, fire-rings, the remains of cultivated plants, cliff paintings and evidence of animal […]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The bridge is quiet. Non-essential systems are shut down as avoiding detection by this world’s dominant species is essential. Two figures stand by a darkened control panel that has a single node illuminated; the white glow of the ring about the simple switch casting their features in sharp relief […]
Author : George R. Shirer They sat on the porch of the retirement home, in matching wooden rocking chairs. The late afternoon sun beat down on their aged, seamed faces. In the distance, they could hear the soft hum of traffic from the freeway. Closer, a bird warbled to its mate among the thickets. “Do […]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Baxter stood in the atrium of Marpo One and gazed up through the greenery, through the clear observation port above and into the blackness of space. Three years he’d called this home, he with the sixty three other lost souls that had signed up for the one way trip […]
Author : Thomas Fay ‘Some cereal as well, thanks,’ I said to the checkout operator. I didn’t specify what kind as there was no need. There was only one kind of cereal. It was nutritious, filled with all sorts of grains, nuts and dried fruits. Shame it had no taste. Not like Froot Loops. I […]
Author : Dakota Brown His words were calm and thoughtfully processed. Though the harsh and forceful voice wasn’t as evident as it was previously, she still recognized what was at the heart of the matter. He wanted her to finish the job. The room sparked and stank of chemicals. The machine had begun its process, […]
Author : John Kinney The soldiers walk down the empty street, bathed in red sunlight. A gun falls from above them and clatters to the ground. A body follows it. “Scan!” Says the Captain. He looks at the man who fell. “Tick! Scan!” They scan. Two men watch north, two men south. Two aim […]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer There used to be a saying: “how long is a piece of string?” It meant that you didn’t know how long something would take. I never understood it. A piece of string has to be a specific length, because someone made it. So my reply was usually: “ask whoever […]
Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer In the years long after the cataclysms of fire and ice, embedded deep within the dark histories of the descent of man, when the waning sun still hung dim and bloated in its senility above the shattered horizon, there once stood, defiantly upon the ragged slopes of Mount Agothon, […]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Captain Lewis gripped the hand-strap inside the copter’s airframe tightly, the wind whipping spray up from the dark ocean below as the pilot tried to maneuver in the gale. “Your ride is below – when we get close enough, drop into the boat,” the pilot screamed back through the […]
Author : Andrew Hawnt Frozen in time behind the door to Vault Six is an explosion, and it talks to me. How can an explosion talk to me? I don’t really know, but then again I’m just a guard. I sit next to the door to Vault Six and I read, or I clean the […]
Author : Tyler Hawkins “Well I think it’s safe to say this project was a monumental failure” “Gee, you think?” We sit in silence for a while. All that needed to be said has already been screamed, yelled or pleaded in the last 24 hours. It’s not like we haven’t tried to fix this massive […]
Author : Steven Holland “What’s this?” asked Hoyt Pendergrass, glancing at the envelope that was just handed to him. “The U.S. Government has need of one of your organs. This is the necessary paperwork. Your operation is set to take place tomorrow.” These words came from one of the two suited men standing in front […]
Author : Jake Christie “Hundred and fifty bucks.” Harry looked at the tiny vial in the clerk’s hand, filled with a slightly opaque purple liquid, then back at his face. “For that much?” he asked. The clerk nodded. “This is the top of the line stuff, man,” he says. “The Jimi Hendrix. Nothing like it.” […]
Author : Tom Coupland Dropping from his vantage point, Sijen kicks out, snapping the neck of the first guard. Hearing his partner’s choked scream, the remaining patrolman swings about, weapon leveled. Rising from his landing crouch, Sijen’s blade like hands take the man below the rib cage. Intestines, stomach, lungs, burst in turn. Continuing the […]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer I’ve got my finger on the trigger. It took the better part of an hour to make the climb from where you forced my fighter into the dirt to this rocky outcrop overlooking your crash site, but I’ve got the high ground now and you don’t stand a chance. […]
Author : Jay Knioum, Featured Writer I’m getting grease on my sandwich when she walks in. The whole hangar pretends to be busy while throwing glances at her. She looks around, finds me, smiles. She’s walking my way, but her eyes are all for her baby. I’ve been pulling extra shifts getting her baby ready […]
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