Author : Chris Daly There were two, quite different, options open to him now. The optical sensor domes sprouting from his aft projections registered six thermal spikes; a quick cross reference from his synthetic aperture radar strips confirmed the incoming ships. Pulling a polite one gee acceleration towards him, they were slipping into a rough [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Humans had always been looking for a way to legitimately kill the stupid. But where did they draw the line? An outside force had to make the choice. Humans couldn’t morally make that kind of decision. After first contact, Earth was catalogued, included in their star maps as possessing [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer The Pai-Toxh beings of the twin planet set, Andromedae 2787A and B, were nearing their migration time. The entire flock had just about finished feeding and were full of energy for their upcoming journey. Calls went out as alpha leaders stirred up the others. The creatures began to spread [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Life shouldn’t be this easy to take. Flick a switch and listen to the muted swoosh of a section spitting its atmosphere into vacuum. Of course, it’s not so easy for those losing it. The agonies of the dying beat against my mind and reduce me to retching spasms. [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The detective stood just inside the tape at the doorway to Grant’s office and surveyed the carnage. Deep maroon fluid had been spattered over most surfaces, some of it obviously while still under pressure as it had reached the ceiling several meters above his head from which it now [...]
Author : Kyle Hubbard Humans are remarkably ugly. The kylhu child had never seen a real one before, so it stared with morbid fascination at the man on the stage. The human marched back and forth on two legs, bellowing and waving his bizarre limbs in grand, sweeping gestures. He was speaking a local kylhu [...]
Author : Thomas Desrochers I found her on my way home from a party. She was sitting in the middle of the park’s square in the four shadows of the four streetlights, and she was hugging her knees to her chest as if her life depended on it while her head was tucked in behind [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The Judge yawned as he seated himself at the bench. “What are we doing here, Mike?” he asked the bailiff. “Your Honor, we are hearing the civil case of ‘Captain Taylor versus Solar System Transportation, Inc.’, a dispute over wages due for a cargo run from Earth Station Tango [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The thing about the planet Kuroshka was that it had seventeen centers all orbiting each other. It was several times the size of Jupiter but had managed to create a mantle. The centers had formed their own molten-core solar system deep under the crust. All these different cores spinning [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Alumnus I stood over him. His blood made a growing pool as it exited the wound in his back. The ounce slug of lead had gone all the way through. He looked up at me with crazed eyes. He raised his hands to me. He tried to speak, but choked [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer As they lowered into a spot outside the arena and Jeremy’s father shut the hove’s engines down he continued to give his son the pep talk. “A year enslavement. Do you even know what that means? Of course you don’t,” he answered himself. “You haven’t ever had it tough, [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “The view from here is mighty fine, it sends a shiver up my spine.” I laugh at Kara’s ditty as it arrives. Nothing but the truth, even out here. My suit keeps me spread-eagled on the side of cannon four as it thunders along with its seven brothers, sending [...]
Author : A. Zachary Spery I was looking good when I wheeled into Chaucer’s, the hottest singles bar in lower downtown. I just had my corpus bridge upgraded to a new Mitsushimi DX900q and installed prominently on the side of my Neodynamics’ engramatic coprocessor case. My high efficiency General Electronics’ sonofusion power cell glowed a [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Mark stood a few feet from the doorman and presented his ID, which was accepted with apparent derision. The heavily muscled bouncer glanced over the details of the badly forged photo card and tossed it back. “One point eight meters? No way you’re that tall. Take a hike.” Mark [...]
Author : George R. Shirer Thraewen hangs in the middle of the view-pool, pretty and pristine. Dillon and Three can see the nightside’s cities, bright constellations scattered across the Capwen Archipelago. Three strokes the Starfish’s controls and the bioship moves. Night gives way to day. The view-pool displays high clouds until Three fiddles with the [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Alumnus The sky was dark. So dark the streetlights came on at noon. A storm was on the rise. He paid the weather scant attention. The sudden cold gust barely reached him. He merely rolled his shoulders deeper into his battered leather duster and plodded on. The rain began to [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer “The satellite passes above us now.” “I know my lord. I can sense it up there too.” “How dare they… spy on us like this?” “They are unaware of us my lord, they only study the planet.” “They have their own planet. We don’t travel there, only ever sunward. [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The maintenance spacecraft pulled alongside Lunar Array II, located in selenocentric orbit approximately 500 miles above Crater Korolev on the far side of the moon. Lunar Array II was the second of six lunar satellites to be visited by the maintenance team during their fourteen day refurbishment mission. After [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Only the super-rich could afford these beachfront houses. The houses were green, fully off the energy grid using their own geothermal, wind, wave and solar energy collectors. The houses were maintained by computers that informed the fridge when it needed more milk, played back lullabies to the owner’s children [...]
Author : John E. Geoffrey It was at the time when the stars were right and a full moon stood over the desert, when a rose bloomed over the ruins of the ancient, nameless metropolis, the name of which had been banished and forgotten over the course of the millenia (but which once, a long [...]
Author : Ion Jim was excited. He gleefully danced about as the elevator slowly squeaked downward. He was thinking about the popcorn he had saved from that convenience store he found a few weeks back and how this would be the perfect opportunity to pop it. Its not like he hadn’t found other tapes before, [...]
Author : J.D. Rice “Icarus to Daedalus! We have primary stabilizer failure! Repeat, we have primary stabilizer failure! We’re losing altitude. Please advise!” The lieutenant was shouting, screaming into his microphone, trying to raise his voice over the sound of his ship as it careened off its intended arc. Their test flight was supposed to [...]
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer Agent Rockton was all on his own here in the heart of the city. He appeared no more than a shadow, creeping stealthily through twisting service alleys under the cover of the ink black night that hung perpetually above this remote rock that had at one time been a [...]
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, [...]
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. [...]
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