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, [...]
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 [...]
Author : Jarrod Chestney-Law Sapphire, threaded with white and then a diamond studded blackness. Sapphire and white fill my vision again. They remain now. Chirps and static bursts chatter in my ears. Emerald threads begin to fill my vision, cascading down, faster and faster until a fine web blossoms across my vision, overlaying the sapphire [...]
Author : Salli Shepherd Ant, You’re not going to believe this. Unzip the folder and check out image 14, number 227. Yes, that’s a jugger you’re looking at, only ten times the regulation embryo mass. And yes, that is an illegal frontal lobe. Look at those EEG printouts. That says sentient-level brain activity, or I [...]
Author : Tom Coupland Even more of the world watched Jerome II enter the hospital room than had even watched those first interviews with Jerome. Those early interviews had set the world alight. They had watched in their thousands of millions as the gray haired scientist had described the moment he realised he had taken [...]
Author : Jamie Grefe It doesn’t take them long to do it, just eye contact. Once they do, and those eyes are locked, instant transmission — you disappear. I’m not sure if this is just the way my own programming reacts to this planet, but something has happened. I was on the shuttle to the [...]
Author : Victoria Barbosa “You want to do what?” said Alice’s mother, Irene. “That’s insane!” “Not really,” said Alice. “We always speak about time as if it were a great surprise, an uncontrollable element. I think it’s time we tamed it.” Her father smoothed his muttonchop whiskers. “Has this something to do with all this [...]
Author : Geoffrey Cashmore Regret. That was new. My life had been built into a shape where regret had no place. I only had one purpose – my entire existence leading up to it – and it wasn’t just me – I couldn’t even guess how many others were involved; working behind the scenes so [...]
Author : Maria Coello “The problem with sibes – the main problem with sibes – is that they won’t lie down when they’re dead,” Kirsten said three days ago, spitting bits of sausage across the dinner table. I ought to have told her years ago, of course, but it never seemed like the right moment. [...]
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer He awoke to the cloying smell of marijuana mixed with patchouli. His eyes fell on a poster featuring a cartoon rendering of a short bald man in yellow robes and flowing white beard. One sandaled foot was outthrust. The caption below the figure admonished the viewer to “Keep [...]
Author : Clint Wilson The herd of Separable Hybrates fed veraciously on the nutritious fungus. You had to get your fill when you could and patches like this didn’t usually strike up so abundantly this early on. The old matriarch was larger than the rest, and her feeding tubes liquefied and drew in more fungus [...]
Author : A. R. Coy A fine layer of crimson dust covered the streets and filled the transporter with a red haze. Freetown claimed to be the finest of the planet’s three cities, which only made the scene drearier. Deals were made here that were banned throughout the galaxy. Josiah and Brent, smugglers, felt right [...]
Author : Jeremy Herman Did you know coal can be reduced to liquid? With enough heat and pressure it’s possible. The government discovered this once they ran out of oil but they still needed to power their war machines. Right now Coleman felt like one of those dull pieces of rock. He felt like the [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The office was tidy and the boss sat smiling behind the desk as he finished pouring a second glass of malt whiskey. The smell almost made John drool. Andy looked up with a beaming smile. “Come in John. Take a seat. This is informal so you can take the [...]
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Our breasts are sore and our balls itch. We feel like half of our food goes towards our tumours now. The black accordion beside our bed makes our four lungs work, squeezing long and then flat, our only sense of passing time when the lights are off. All of [...]
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Day 1. Our transport ship just crash landed on Piscium III. It was a miracle that twenty-four of us survived. The subspace transceiver still works, but C&C said it would probably be eight months before a rescue ship could get this deep behind enemy lines. Day 2. We buried [...]
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Ambassador Shaylin steepled his fingers and pursed his lips in a half smile. “Now Envoy Tsak-tuk, you must appreciate the cost of transporting your exports to other planets, we’re happy to facilitate trade, but we’re simply unable to be any more charitable than we are at present.” Across the [...]
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Telemada Centre is pretty on a New Year evening. The displays in the shop fronts are outshone by the Christmas lights. I watched on live AV as Veleria Diesel turned them on. Seemed right that her fight for the rights of the poor was finally getting recognised. The transparent [...]
Author : Kevin Ware It was only because of the eighty years that the first probe had been studied that the true meaning of the next was clear. The teams of muttering specialists who had travelled to Alberta to examine the wreckage in exhaustive detail had wrung every last shred of information from the charred [...]
Author : Ray Gregory I could get any woman in this bar I want, but she’s the one. I mean, what a babe: blond, built, just check out those knockers! Now she’s hitting on me even harder than I’m hitting on her, like neither of us can wait. We find a corner table. The place [...]
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