Long Live the King

Author : Jules Jensen Dancing white light fills the citadel through the many holes in the ceiling. Mournful wind howls through the massive chamber, rustling the ragged clothes on the corpses of men and women that cover the whole floor. One remains alive. He sits on the ...

Barking

Author : Kraig Conkin “The dogs are barking,” Hannah whispers. We scurry to the cabin window. “What are they barking at?” I ask. “Something’s coming up the path.” *** We’d been playing “Life.” We always play stupid board games when we come to the cabin. Hannah was ...

Red Eye

Author : Henry Gribbin I am a searcher. In the past I have searched for god, little green men and the spirits of my ancestors. I have come up short all three times. However, I always felt that there was something out there, something different from what I have experienced ...

Raze

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer When I came to your world, when I stumbled into your city on the edge of the desert, you paid me no mind. Your guards bullied me like any other vagabond in the streets, laughing as they tripped me, pounded their chests in fits of ...

The Lies That Bind

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The dim glow of combat lighting is broken by a single white spotlight, which goes out as our new officer scrambles through the side hatch, barely slowing from a flat sprint. I don’t blame him. There’s several varieties of lethal flying ...

An Ant’s a Centaur In His Dragon World

Author : Janet Shell Anderson I’m just a kid on my own. The question I have is, should I try to save the man who killed my Dad? It’s just after dawn; the river’s still, silver, silken, the banks, shadowy. A heron yaps. I’m sitting across from the Three Sisters rocks. ...

Future View Function

Author : David K Scholes Canberra, Australia 2095 “It’s limited to a few long term users - one hour access every month to the future view function of face book,” I was face book chatting to a group of holograms. “You get to view your friends’ 3D face book posts up to 2 ...

Sentinels

Author : Mark Renney The homeless are prevalent in the City. We pass them on the streets every day, stepping around them on the pavements. But the Men were different; they simply stood, like sentinels, on the corners or in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, almost ...

Making Amends

Author : Dylan Otto Krider After I got out of prison, I stopped by the O’Malleys place first. I passed a sicky on my way, babbling to himself, screaming about the spirits. “The spirits are upon you!” I hate sickies. Their brains rotted in space. I knocked, but no one ...

The Last Meeting of Intelligent Organisms

Author : Ljubo Popovich On the planet Yug-Yuk, a glandular toad called Opziggle effervesced into a translucent jar. On the stone pedestal twelve similar jars were arranged in a circle. “What took you so long?” asked the creature in the jar to the right, which spoke by ...

Testimony to the Commission

Author : Charles Paul Wallace Ladies and gentlemen of the Commission, I wish to explain my actions before I am sentenced. It was me who named the alien civilization the Aeolians, yes. It's a type of harp which sounds when wind blows through it. I thought it was quite ...

Elevation

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jack stood a few feet to the side of the station wagon, the door hanging open, the engine having just rattled and coughed into silence. Ahead, bathed in the yellow glow of the headlights was Celine, barefoot in the jeans and tee she'd ...

Descent

Author : Fred D. White After crossing the interstellar void for more than half a century Captain Carey, now fully awake, and his passengers, still in cryo, escapees from the toxic nightmare that Earth had become, entered orbit around Proxima Centauri-b. The human species ...

The Condition

Author : Mark Renney Thomas was having a bad day. The bugs were everywhere, he was rife with them and he was writhing. He hated this - he knew how he looked. He had seen others like it, in a high level state and unable to control themselves and quite frankly he had thought ...

Bass Ackwards

Author : David Henson I turn around, push open the door to the clinic, then spin back around and march to Check-In. “Ralf Pattersen,” I say to the guy at the desk. “That’s ‘Ralf’ with an ‘f’ and ‘Pattersen’ spelled ‘en.’ “ “Yes, Mr. Pattinson, how can I help ...

Perfect Love

Author : Amy Sutphin She was perfect in every way. Her soft blond curls framed her perfectly proportioned face and amber, almond eyes. Not a single blemish marred her perfect skin. Yes God had made her perfect above all others. Of course in her case, God was a 3D printer ...

Bear

Author : Vanessa Kittle Something was wrong. Bear sniffed the air. There was no meat where meat should be. The sky was bright but there was no meat. The flocks of watchers were not watching. His stomach hurt. He sniffed the place where the greens came to bring meat. He ...

Out, Brief Candle

Author : Jeremy Koch Little was known of Planet Bes save that it was a world of impenetrable darkness, and according to the chronometer in Simonova's exoarmor, she had already been there for six days. Six days since the crash of the *Grigory*... six days alone. *I suppose ...

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