Author: Alastair Millar “Damnedest thing, had a fly in my quarters last night.” We were back at Marvin’s, me and the crew, kicking back after a double shift. It’s not the fanciest place in town, and not the cleanest or most reputable, but it’s solid. The kind of place they ...

Author: John Carey “I know everything seems somewhat clichéd, Master George. Rest assured, you have passed.” The little machine beeped happily. It wasn’t wrong either: a plain white room, translucent skin, and a top-down view of a corpse. All the boxes had certainly been ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey Deep in the remote Amazon jungle, Professor Reginald Cowhopper knew he was close. The host plant was there, the time of year was right, and locals had even reported sightings of pupae. Scouring the forest floor, he caught a flash of red and yellow ...

Author: Majoki Shalimayne raised the being. Carried close to her bosom everywhere she went, the being experienced all she did, all she said, all she felt. For twenty years. Then Shalimayne named it. And birthed it into the world. TINA It was hailed as an AI like no ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The distant glow on the horizon fades. On every screen, only night and stars are visible. “What now, sir?” A fat man in a too-tight uniform turns to regard the lean attendant. “We are victorious. Carry on, operator. You will be ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey As I neared the top of the hill on my morning run, I took in the glorious vista before me. Great clouds of rolling grey mist blanketed the surrounding cliff tops as flocks of hovering mice formed a wheeling layer of... Hang on. "Mice"? Mice, ...

Author: Sarah Klein The birds are gone. Last week, one small sparrow, digging in vain in the ashy ground. Sue puts up pictures of birds around the compound to join the squirrels, rabbits, and foxes tacked up. Dave says we have to go. But there is still too much food to ...

Author: Hillary Lyon Moj awoke to three white-coated beings hovering over her, murmuring amongst themselves. One leaned back to choose an elongated needle-like device from a tray of gleaming instruments. Another swabbed her arm with a moist, stinging pad. They pressed ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a crow talkin’ shit about me to the drone passing overhead on its way to Skiogar. On a good day I wouldn’t mind: bigots keep giving cybercorvids good reasons to hate us. Today’s not a good day: been raining since midnight. Nothing ...

Author: Charles M. Mwangi A hum. The judge’s head cranks forward. His neck whirs when he turns, and his blue eyes flicker. From where I’m seated inside the cage, the initials A.I. are visible on his forehead. His fingers converge into one single probe, which he uses to ...

Author: Richard Dalglish Harry walked into Jake’s Tavern, nodded to Meredith behind the bar, and perched on a barstool. He was the only customer. A distant rumble, like a truck downshifting, rippled through the cool silence inside the bar, and Harry felt the floor quiver. ...

Author: Majoki Even to a NavSys, it was apparent the crew was agitated. Increasingly so. Understandably so. When a storm-stoked supermassive black hole that spins your galaxy starts shooting “cosmic bullets” your way, it’s time to take cover. That’s what the crew was ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey When people imagine an infinite number of monkeys jammed into a containment bubble of twisted infinite spacetime, they think of screaming, chaos...flung feces. But that was just speciest bigotry. Mostly. Also, an infinite number of monkeys isn’t ...

Author: Alastair Millar “Are you sure you’re okay doing this?”. That the older man’s question was more than rhetorical was clear. “I wasn’t planning to have you on rotation for months yet, but Simon’s first walk didn’t work out: agoraphobia. He was lucky to make it back. ...

Author: Starlight When I was a kid – however long ago that was, ten years or a hundred, I wouldn’t know – when I was a kid, there was this game we did in nursery. Over, under, forward, back. The teacher would give us all a toy and have us stand in lines like little ...

Author: Brian Ball There's a pantry in the basement, or at least there was. It’s gone now. St. Mary’s, our parish, used it most when the soup kitchen was busy. One Saturday, Judy Grezlick went down to grab some rice and lost her footing. She fell to floor and rice ...

Author: Hillary Lyon The shining silver ship cruised in, causing waves of wind to unfurl across the landscape, spawning swirling towers of dust and dirt and debris from an abandoned civilization. Once the craft stabilized, the main door slid open and the four spacemen ...

Author: Mark Renney Replacements are more prevalent than flesh and blood, skin and bone, almost everyone at some point becomes part of the System. There are still a few holdouts, of course, those professing it is better to age gracefully but there isn’t anything graceful ...