Author: Hillary Lyon The entire planet watched the otherworldly broadcast of the gyrating bipedal creature. Seeing that when he crooned the females swooned, the males adopted his sartorial style as a mating strategy. It not only worked, it changed everything. For the first ...

Author: Majoki A banquet at the regency was not to be missed, especially for an enshrinement. Fervent loyals regaled their regent with cheers at the sight of the opened tins and unsealed pouches on the repurposed tablatures. Yes, the cybersiege had been a humiliating ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The alarm goes off again. Helen rolls over and swats at it, scoring a hit that sends it backwards off the bedside cupboard, still beeping until it hits the floor with an ominous cracking sound. She sits up. That phone’s not even a month ...

Author: GJ Welsh Sarah was like all the other estate agents, as was her fate. “Pristine, you can see she has had a bit of work done. But she has solid bones and great resale value.” Every house they saw came with a matching real estate agent, in matching skirting and ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey If there's anyone who knows more about aliens than Dreagle Fungebiskit, I'll eat my hats. He's what you'd call an authority on all the extraterrestrial beings, their habits, and motivations. And I don't say that lightly – he's only got a bunch of ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher The up-arrow light dinged off and the doors slid open as I stepped onto the elevator at my office building, early for work, as usual. There was one person in the car standing in the exact center. That was strange because this was the lowest floor and ...

Author: Mark Renney Warren’s specialty was to reshape the facts, he was a manipulator of the truth. Apart from the burning desire to be incredibly wealthy he had no interest in politics or economics and was unhindered by conscience or ethics. Perhaps this was why he was the ...

Author: Amanda Fetters You scramble against the upholstery. “What are you doing?” —Hold still. “No, really. What are you doing.” —Making a copy. Stop squirming. We could have been done by now. “A copy of what?” —Your ≹§. “My…?” —It’s not a great ...

Author: Majoki Cloudfall almost killed him. He’d arrived on Verdant during thirdcycle when the sudden burst of water and biomass knocked him off his feet and sent him sluicing down into the Well. Only the Mistery had saved him. One of the chanters saw his tell-tale ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The sun beats down mercilessly upon dunes and cliffs, turning the scene to shades of gold scattered with tan shadows. Across this starkly beautiful landscape, a series of small, sandy divots lie where the breeze has not blown them back to ...

Author: Em The sky ripped open. A giant pixel tear split the fake blue, revealing the rusted skeleton of the "Rust"—the real, ruined world. Théo Laurent leaned on his console, skin itching. In 2936, the government bought the mental labor of citizens to power the city, ...

Author: Colin Jeffrey The first time Elmer Merle realised something was wrong was when his heart stopped beating. Which surprised him, because he was clearly able to walk and talk, and check the messages on his phone without once falling down dead. "You're the ...

Author: Hillary Lyon Looking through the illuminated magnifier, Herbert soldered the finishing touches to the miniature mechanical bee. He carried it to the garden where his young son, Drew, waited. “It looks too little to accomplish anything,” his son commented. His ...

Author: Mark Renney Carter travelled to the end of the line purely by accident. After drinking with friends he had fallen asleep on the last train. He awoke in the early hours of the morning, cocooned in his overcoat. The lighting in the carriage had dropped to an energy ...

Author: Aubrey Williams You can practically hear the metal creaking, the knocking of lost air-locks and forgotten corridors, as you pass through the graveyard. It’s the Cemetery; replete with hulks, a collection of battle-blasted wrecked vehicles on the dull edge of the ...

Author: Majoki Say you run into the creature from the Black Lagoon in a Costco parking lot on a bright sunny afternoon. The creature is just sitting by a massive tangle of blackberry surrounding a brackish drainage pond. I mean, it’s still the scaly fish-faced, ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer And so they looked down as throughout the world the people gathered as written, there to stage rituals of joyous retribution under the aegis of their chosen divinities. They came in their thousands, in their tens of thousands, and with ...

Author: Alastair Millar What a time to be alive! Count Nicolas, as he’d been known for a while now, exited the flitter the way he did everything: elegantly. A casual wave, and the vehicle gullwinged closed behind him, taking itself off to a loiterzone as he walked away. ...