by submission | Jan 31, 2021 | Story |
Author: Judith Pratt
The statues were falling apart. I knew they would.
Poseidon’s trident cracked. Hercules lost an arm, and the Discus Thrower lost his discus. Aphrodite still tried to hold something in her hand, but her robe had disintegrated.
The bosses of Gods & Heroes, where I work, fired two of the designers and their resin supply company. To my surprise, they didn’t fire me, even though my own boss, Diane, is always saying “Sandy, you’re being negative.” She says that because II see problems coming and have to tell people about them.
Maybe I’m still here because many problems take years to explode, so everyone can be surprised when the database crashes or a customer sues us because their statue fell apart. No one ever remembers that I knew that would happen.
I try not to see these things, but they haunt me until the words are out of my mouth even if I’ve pinched it closed and gritted my teeth.
When I told my second husband that the cellar would flood during the next thunderstorm, he got angry. “Don’t I have enough to do without you thinking up catastrophes?”
It did flood, and, he wouldn’t talk to me for a week. This is the third relationship I’ve ruined.
When this husband left, I went to a shrink.
“I can’t keep my mouth shut when I see a problem,” I said.
She wanted to know about my family, if they didn’t listen to me.
My parents always listened to me, I said. Then they would respond by discussing all the other things that might happen, or that I might want, instead of what I did want, or what I said was going to happen. They seemed to listen, but they gave such endless consideration to what I said that I was never sure if I’d even said it.
That can’t be why it’s impossible for me not to speak about what I see coming, I told the shrink. That can’t be why I can always see what’s going to happen. “No one can see the future,” she told me. I didn’t argue, but I didn’t go back. And I didn’t tell her that her car would break down today.
What god did I offend? God of accomplishment, god of self-esteem, god of chaos? I’ve read every version of the Cassandra myth. Nothing applies to me. No snakes spoke in my ear. I didn’t promise Apollo that I’d come to his bed. I’m certainly not a virgin.
This year, this year is different. Everyone sees some terrible danger approaching, but no one can agree on what it is. Climate change or socialism? An epidemic or a plot to ruin the economy? The end of our country, or its rebirth? Some folks think that enough discussion will lead to a consensus. But this isn’t discussion, it’s shrieking across a great chasm.
What do I see coming now?
I don’t know. The shrieking has finally shut down my visions.
by submission | Jan 30, 2021 | Story |
Author: Michael Hopkins
Dr. Arden Hart floated through the airlock into the International Space Station IV.
“Well, well…daddy’s little girl finally made it.” Captain Gianna Moralez, the ranking office on ISS IV, hoped her new recruit would get sick. “So you have Doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and agricultural engineering. And you’re up here to study the weather?”
“Yes,” Arden said.
“Couldn’t figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?” Arden floated towards the Captain to shake hands and was met with a stiff arm to the chest. “Or, you just couldn’t figure out how to make daddy happy?”
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Arden snapped back, “I missed your educational background.”
Captain Moralez got nose to nose with Arden. “I would match my Tech School Degree and 28 years experience up here against your green ass and alphabet soup credentials any day.”
The two other astronauts, Eun Jung Gwan and Antonia Petrov looked on and knew better than to come to Arden’s defense.
“Suit up Hart,” the Captain said. “You, Lieutenant Petrov, and I are going out to perform a status check on the orbital debris shields. Dr. Gwan will man the control room.”
Hart wanted to object but said nothing. She started towards the suit room.
“Hold up Hart,” the Captain said. “You got a brand spanking new suit. Are you good to assemble it? The O2 mini tank and CO2 scrubber are pre-charged.”
“I’ve been trained,” Hart said.
Antonia Petrov smiled and told Hart to call her Nia. “I’m EJ,” Eun Jung Gwan said with a handshake. “Be ready in fifteen minutes.”
They made their way out of the station to begin the task of checking the 200 debris shields protecting the orbital laboratory.
“500,000, Dr. Hart,” the Captain said. “That’s how many pieces of loose junk are orbiting the earth.” Hart wanted to tell her it was more like 550,000, but let it pass.
Two minutes into the project, Hart heard a panicked voice in her helmet. “Hart! Hart! Are you there?” EJ was frantic.
“I’m here,” Hart said. “What’s up?
“Simultaneous suit malfunctions. Both the Captain and Nia are unconscious. CO2 levels jumped to 10,000 ppm and are continuing to rise. They’ll be dead in 10 minutes.”
“How the hell could two suits malfunction?” Hart said. “Any new system updates?”
“Updates every day. But I can’t fix anything from here.”
Hart ignored protocol, untethered, and pushed across the station to Captain Moralez. She tethered to her and made her way to Petrov, and attached to her.
“Status?” Hart said.
“13,000 ppm,” EJ said. “Both dead in three minutes.”
“It’ll take at least seven minutes to get these two to the southern airlock,” Hart said. “I’m going to hose up to both of them. Meet me there.”
“Don’t do it, Hart,” EJ said, “You’ll all die.”
“Get ready to pull us in,” Hart said. She needed a trifurcated connector for a three-way hook-up. She remembered the damaged Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) she was assigned to fix. It was only twenty feet away and would have the junctions she needed.
Hart took the pistol-grip wrench from her belt, zipped out four bolts from the CATS unit, took the value, and made the three-way hook up. Her oxygen supply would keep Moralez and Petrov alive, but she would also lose consciousness in a minute.
Hart snapped her titanium carabineer back to the ISS and slinked around to the south side. She could see that EJ had the airlock open. Blackness crowded out her vision and she passed out.
“Wake up Hart,” Captain Moralez yelled.
Hart saw the other three astronauts sitting in the airlock, helmets off.
“Petrov your incompetence with the suit maintenance almost got us killed! Hart, our CATS is floating in space, and you performed non-regulated suit mods on a walk for god’s sake. As for me, I’m screwed for taking a rookie on a project walk without a checkout run. EJ you should report us.
“When Hart went off book,” EJ said, “I turned off the comlink. We’re still in blackout. They’ll do a manual connect in ten minutes.
“EJ, totally against regulations,” Moralez said. “If we don’t figure out a plausible story all our asses are going to be shuttled back and run out of the agency.” She looked around. “Anyone have any ideas?”
Hart raised her hand, “I have one.”
Moralez stood up. “Okay genius, let’s hear it.” The Captain smiled and offered a hand to Hart. “Welcome to the team.”
by submission | Jan 29, 2021 | Story |
Author: Robert Beech
I woke with a sense of unease. Some sixth sense told me that all was not well in the world. Blearily, I turned on the light to see that my sixth sense had been right. It was midafternoon, I had overslept again, and the cage was open.
I slid into my housecoat and slippers and followed the damp footprints out of the bedroom and downstairs. Would the living room be a shambles? Again? Would he have eaten one of the cats? more than one?
I got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around. No signs of destruction. Maybe it wasn’t going to be as bad as I had feared. Then I saw the front door. Wide-open. That was bad, very bad.
With a sinking feeling, I grabbed the leash, headed out the door and down the front steps, and looked around. The footsteps led off to the left. Still in my housecoat and pajamas, I set out down the sidewalk, peering around for my missing pet. There was a mail truck parked about halfway down the block. That was a bad sign. He liked mail carriers, a bit too much.
As I continued down the block, a trail of letters and packages appeared alongside the damp footsteps. In some cases, the footsteps could clearly be seen trampling the mail that lay scattered on the ground. I stooped to gather it up as I walked along. No point in leaving a mess on the sidewalk. Or a messy trail. A little farther on I came across the mail carrier’s bag, damp footsteps could be seen going over it and continuing on down the block. Not good at all.
Another hundred yards farther down the block, I caught up with him. He was sitting in the middle of one of my neighbors’ yards, gnawing on a bone, looking obscenely pleased with himself.
“Did you eat the mailman?” I asked.
He didn’t answer but lowered his head apologetically.
“Again?” I shouted. “This is the third time. It’s the sort of thing that will get you talked about, and not in a good way.”
He looked away and resumed gnawing on his bone.
“Hey,” I yelled. “I’m talking to you, mister. Pay attention.”
He looked up at me uncertainly.
“What am I going to do with you?” I asked in an exasperated tone of voice.
He didn’t answer. I hadn’t expected him to.
Sighing, I slipped the collar over his head and gave a yank.
“Let’s get you home and cleaned up,” I said. “And then I’m going to have to finish delivering all this mail before people get home so it’s not so obvious what happened here. And you will be on your best behavior if you want to keep living in this house, got it?”
He didn’t say anything, but I hoped maybe the message had gotten through this time.
“Humans,” I sighed. And he had been such a cute little changeling when I’d gotten him.
by submission | Jan 28, 2021 | Story |
Author: Claire Scherzinger
Before you overload the reactor, have a drink next to the pilot’s seat; make sure the gravity is still on; otherwise, you’ll have little drops of moonshine floating everywhere, like rogue planets. Take a long last look at the deck, the pale metal, and the crash couch where your heart felt like it was going to fall to your intestines near Iapetus. Before this, walk through the ship’s corridor to the kitchen where the atmo controls are. Up the oxygen content. Before it was your ship, it was your father’s ship, and before it was your father’s ship, it was his father’s too. Before Florida was submerged into the Atlantic, before the new hyperloop track down to Nicaragua was built. Reposition the atmo nozzles toward the gaps between the anodized plating, where the grates air out to the lower levels and take out all the carbon scrubbing stations. Then run the main electric line down to the cargo bay. There is the never-used rail gun mount. There are the forty-year-old VAC suits that belonged to your father and your uncle, holed up and still smelling like dried sweat. That, over there, is a tackle box for all your gear. At one time, diplomats lived here. Before leaving, make sure the airlock is saturated with oxygen. This air was scrubbed and breathed by three generations before you.
On your way out, put on your father’s old VAC suit, holes and all. Turn off the gravity and suck in as much oxygen as possible, so you’re hyperventilating, so your blood is saturated. Before doing anything else, make a wish.
After launching yourself through open space to the escape ship, call Zain up at the salvage station. After he gets on the line, tell him to come over and bring a scrapper ship or two—with a crew. There’s not much to see now, not much at all. After he asks why, tell him. Tell him how you shoved enough electricity through the line to overload the reactor. A chain of events—explain—it was a chain of events; how you used the ship’s batteries to z-pinch the plasma with that laser you took from that backwater lab on Iapetus. Anyway, after the hull kicked out, there wasn’t much anyone could have done. And after Zain asks if you would do it all over again, tell him you would. You would do it several times over if you had to. But come anyway, Zain. Tell him that for me.
by submission | Jan 27, 2021 | Story |
Author: Asher Wismer
Sleeking flashing light through every little hole.
Seventy holes. Counted them. Many times.
Nothing to see outside but silver Sleeking, never-ending explosions. Shell keeps me alive. Eddo’s Star is a low-impact system and there’s still nothing out there. Nothing.
Almost nothing.
One liter of water today. Plenty of water. Battery is fine. One liter.
Plenty.
Sleeking flashing gleaming light. I plugged one up once. It didn’t matter. Even this close to a star the Sleeking explosions never end. I see them in my dreams, when I’m sober enough to dream.
“…docking at Loomish. I repeat, my shell is low and I am docking at Loomish. I repeat–”
A shell. Another person!
Loomish station is on the other side of the system. No reason for me to go there, too dangerous anyway.
Ten cycles of power before the next flare. Flare means ten layers off my asteroid while the CPU resets. Ten layers… too many, too fast.
My asteroid moves, shell expanding to surround it. The Sleeking immediately assaults my every sense, bruised silver light surrounding and enveloping.
Higher impact now but my shell holds. It’s risky — hell, it’s absolutely suicide even if I make it to Loomish. Battery vanes extended as long as I can, until the endless explosions obscure the star, cutting off my external power.
“–Loomish now. My shell is weak but holding. I repeat, I can see Loomish now. My shell–”
There’s no single point of reference anymore. Anything still alive has an innate sense of the space immediately surrounding their shell, whether filled with ripping debris or near-enough to a strong gravity well to relax and let something large, like an asteroid, take the reduced hits.
Loomish station is somewhere near the Johta Hole. It wasn’t strong enough to pull in the star when it collapsed, and they built Loomish station to establish communication with the remaining galaxy.
Back when they thought there was still inhabited galaxy to communicate with.
My shell expands more, protecting the asteroid. Its layers are too thin for my liking.
“–docking now. I repeat, I am docking now. I repeat–”
I can feel the shell from here. It’s a good one, better than I expected, which is how it survived this long. I push through the Sleeking and it curves away from me, pouring silver and nightmare into the Johta Hole.
Loomish station, right in that little crevasse between the Sleeking and Johta Hole’s event horizon.
Ohhhhhh there’s the shell. It’s charging but I don’t care. Battery vanes pierce through the sweet spot, right where its user was, and my world becomes electric. Blood but not too much, radio killed, sparking debris, all flying horizontally into the gravity well.
Then the shell is on mine and it hurts and then everything is better and the silvery Sleeking nightmare seems almost transparent, as if I could see through the wall of chaos into the larger galaxy.
As if there’s still a galaxy to see. Time to go back. Loomish station is safe but I can’t stand the gravity for a long time. My star is better. My star is safer.
“…asteroid field near Eddo’s Star. Looks like twenty, thirty asteroids, thick enough for at least a hundred cycles each. If you receive this transmission, please follow me to an asteroid field near Eddo’s Star–”
My asteroids.
More shells.
But who, and from where? Transmitting to whom?
Battery vanes retracted, shell extended. My asteroids won’t last the cycles I need if vagrants move in.
My asteroids.
Mine.
by submission | Jan 26, 2021 | Story |
Author: Abigail Hughes
“What did you think?”
“He’s nice.”
“Nice? The bar was ‘nice.’ This walk is ‘nice.’ Denver is perfect. When he told me he was single, I was absolutely floored! You don’t run into a guy like him often. Did you see the way he inhaled that live goat? That was incredible!”
“If you say so.”
“Don’t tell me you’re not interested.”
“Sorry.”
“Are you serious!?”
“Let’s talk about this later.”
“No way, we’re going to talk about it now, in the middle of the sidewalk, like adults! Denver is perfect for you!”
“Denver has twelve eyes and a gaping, toothy, hole in the center of his body.”
“I knew you were going to bring that up.”
“Yeah, it seems like something I should have known going into this.”
“He has such an electric personality, I didn’t think that it was important.”
“Electric!? Dude, we’re talking about him right now, in front of his face, and he’s not even blinking. Does he ever do anything other than roll his eyes back in his head and spew toxic waste?”
“It’s not his fault that the new plant opened a few blocks from his apartment.”
“I’m not suggesting that it is, I only meant-”
“Radioactive mutants can live totally normal and full lives. Raise families. Hold careers. Read minds. Lift over twenty times their weight. They’re just like you and I.”
“Except they’re rotten.”
“Rotting.”
“What’s the difference!? Alright, look. Denver, I had a great night. Thank you for your time. Uhh, I’m going to take that groan as some kind of affirmative response and order a ride home.”
“No you’re not! Wait here Denver, I’m going to have a word with my friend in private.”
“Let go of me! You know I hate being dragged around. Oh, great, you tore my sweatshirt. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“What’s this really about?”
“It can’t be that hard for you to believe that this is “really about” the fact that you thought I would be interested in dating someone so severely mutated.”
“We’re all mutated!”
“Yeah, a little! I have a few tentacles and you have an extra mouth. Our flesh isn’t literally melting off of the bone.”
“Jennifer had a tentacle too, didn’t she? Replaced it with a robotic arm when she turned eighteen. You helped pay for it with your Burger Planet job if I remember correctly.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“Yes it does. We both know that this is about Jennifer.”
“I’m leaving for real now.”
“She chose cybernetics, you didn’t, and she left. Big deal. It happens every day.”
“I’m not listening to you.”
“You were with her for five years. That’s a long time. It’s going to impact you.”
“Man, how hard is it to get a rideshare in this city?”
“You haven’t been the same since you two split up. The only time I have been able to contact you is on the Ether Box, and even then you don’t use your own avatar skin. You use Jens. It’s creepy.”
“Awesome, a driver is only three minutes away in a Red Hovercar.”
“You guys had a long, long, history, and that’s going to take forever to build with someone else – but it’s possible. In fact, it’s normal. It’s healthy! Nobody stays with their high school sweetheart, especially when one becomes a heartless android.”
“Do you see a Red Hovercar? Oh, there’s one! Wait, no, that’s just a Fire Bot.”
“Look at me! Jennifer is gone and the left side of her brain isn’t coming back. The minute she replaced it with a brain drive, she found you an objectively poor match. That’s just science, dude. No, don’t you dare start crying! I’m not going to let you ruin a good thing just because you can’t get your head out of your ink sack. If I did, I wouldn’t be a good friend.”
“Ah, here it is. I’m sorry, I’m just not ready. I’ll see you on the Ether- agh! Did you just push me!?”
“Only because I love you. Now stay down. If you make me kick my best friend in the face I’ll never forgive you. Robo-driver, Change the coordinates to Accutane Avenue and step on it!”
“Hold up, no! Come back! Oh, great. They’re gone. . . I guess I’ll walk home. Thanks for helping me up, Denver. You can, uh, let go of my hand now. Wait, what are you pushing out of your open stomach? That’s not – is that a miniature replica of organic rights activist Dr. Hobbs? For me? Wow. It’s gorgeous and, well, kind of sticky. It looks like it was made of ivory. Wait a minute, the goat! You made this out of that goat you ate at the bar! How did you know I was interested in organic activism? You were listening during dinner. Obviously, yeah. Ugh, I’ve been a real jerk tonight. Thank you, Denver. I had a great time. Wait, actually, you don’t have to let go of my hand. . . walk me home?”
