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Worship

By submission | January 29, 2009
Author : William Tracy Eighteen thousand meters up in the sky, two aircraft dance. The larger tanker hovers above the other, and the two vehicles mate. The space plane drinks thirstily, then releases. The tanker banks to the right, leaving the space plane free to climb. It ...
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Count of Three

By submission | January 28, 2009
Author : Ivy Tyson They meet in the ruins of New York City, rather by accident, right in the middle of what used to be Times Square, back when people actually lived there. They are both armed: she with a pistol strapped to her hip, while he supports a rifle on his shoulder. ...
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Patience in a Handful of Dust

By submission | January 27, 2009
Author : James C. Clar “Shit,” Corporal Sean Collins thought out loud. “I’ve got to calm down. My oxygen will be gone in twenty minutes if I don’t. I need to stay low. If I raise my head above the dunes to take a shot, that Martian bastard will vaporize me.” Collins had ...
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Ability

By submission | January 26, 2009
Author : Ian Rennie People sometimes look at me weirdly when they first see me, and after all this time I can't really blame them that much. I'm disabled. They see me with the goggles and the earpieces and they wonder what's going on. Then they check the nets to see what ...
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The Last

By submission | January 25, 2009
Author : Sikko Boersma I made the rounds like a sergeant – tapping a dozing sentry here, putting out a cigarette there. Greetings were muttered, barely understandable. The men were caked in mud. Some had blood on their trench coats. I joked with a young corporal in ...
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Mind-Surfing

By submission | January 24, 2009
Author : Skyler Heathwaite Its illegal, but I love mind-surfing. I don't even bother with TV anymore. I just go for a walk around town, see what I can find. Its a real gas to pick out the hidden truths in polite conversation. For example, I sat a booth down from a really ...
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Rare Cheese

By submission | January 23, 2009
Author : Kile Marshall As soon as the package popped down into the gravity sink I pulled out a saber and slashed through the heavy framing. For the most part it came away and dissolved into the recycle chutes quickly, so I slowed and steadied my hand. There were only a few ...
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Rocket Attack on FOB Procyon

By submission | January 22, 2009
Author : Benjamin Fischer The alert came abruptly. “INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING!” blared the base PA speakers. Laeta was face-first in the damp, rich earth of the outpost’s central parade ground before the echoes of the announcement had died. The speakers squawked again, but ...
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Poison Pill

By submission | January 21, 2009
Author : Patrick Kennedy Preston walked into Avery's office and dropped a stack of paper on the desk with a flourish. Avery looked up and asked, "Preston, what's this?" Preston dropped into a chair, savored the moment, and explained, "It's a lawsuit, Avery. My backers and I ...
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Angelo’s Journey

By Patricia Stewart | January 20, 2009
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Angelo had been the servbot for the Moyer household since he was activated in 2114. He performed his duties flawlessly, without ever receiving a word of appreciation. Of course, being thanked didn’t matter one electron to him; he was ...
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Clones

By Duncan Shields | January 19, 2009
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I remember the rumours when the girls first came to school. At first we thought that they were quintuplets but there had been nothing in the paper and that sort of thing still made the news. Plus they were too alike. Not just similar to ...
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Buffer Overflow

By submission | January 18, 2009
Author : William Tracy They refuse to connect me to the internet. When I ask, they dither on about security. As if I were a half-baked web server that some teenage hacker could take down in half an hour! I am the most advanced silicon-based intelligence in the history of the ...
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Recycled

By submission | January 17, 2009
Author : James Hartley My wife, Gladys, was really into recycling, it was the only way to save the environment, civilization, the entire galaxy. She really hated how I'd take the crossword from the morning paper into the john and then drop it in the trash when I finished it. ...
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Flat and Void

By submission | January 16, 2009
Author : Helstrom The old man who had introduced himself as Jacob returned after the nurse left. Old was perhaps too strong a word – he definitely had a good number of years on him, but he wore them well. The deep lines in his face spoke of character and a sort of natural ...
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From This Day Forward

By Stephen R. Smith | January 15, 2009
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer They'd bought it together as a wedding present. Not your traditional newlywed purchase, but they loved each other with such intensity, they wanted a guarantee that nothing could take one away from the other. They made love on their wedding ...
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The Southern Star

By Patricia Stewart | January 14, 2009
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The interstellar war with the Luyten Empire was winding down. Although the Luyten home world had surrendered a few months earlier, much of their fleet remained in deep space, unwilling to voluntarily stand down. Consequently, the ...
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Escapology

By submission | January 13, 2009
Author : Waldo van der Waal It was raining outside. It was always fucking raining outside. Fat, acidic drops that stripped the city of its colour, and its inhabitants of their lives. Everybody walked hunched over, hunkered down inside their dark coats. And it smelled like… It ...
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Visits

By Duncan Shields | January 12, 2009
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I’m no stranger to visits from my future selves. The first time I showed up to myself, I was only nineteen. I was in the backyard, smoking a cigarette with my hand cupped so that my parents wouldn’t see. An older version of me stepped ...
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