Dark Everlasting
Author : Kate Runnels The monkey tattoo stared at Zim. Forever frozen as it climbed a tiny branch. All it did was stare at him. No, that wasn’t quite right. It had started something else. It questioned him. -Why am I here?- Zim had gotten the tattoo long ago. Too long…
read moreAccess Tunnel AR-34728-NUL
Author : Olivia Black, Staff Writer The entrance to the tunnel was much less circumspect than we expected. Had to have walked past it at least three times before we found it. I wasn’t sure how Birdie even knew about this place, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. It was…
read moreKill Frenzy
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer “So when’s your kill frenzy?” asked the giant, barbed Tark beside me. His name was Jant. We were both assigned to navigation in the starship. It was our first day. He had hundreds of holes in the back of his uniform to accommodate…
read moreFire in the Night
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Getting used to sleeping while your body moves is the hardest thing about exoskeletal operations. Right now, I’m tail-end Charlie in a forty-man column accompanying a trio of Big Dogs lugging the payloads for tonight’s test. Above us,…
read moreComing Soon
Author : David Henson I notice the message in the sky as I’m going into Eat-A-Lot mart — COMING SOON. I figure it’s a vapor-trail promo, but when I come out, the words are still there. By the time I get home, not a single letter has frizzed. Looking more closely, I…
read moreMine Was A Good Life
Author : Russell Bert Waters …fireworks exploding, the smell of sulphur… …sliding off the road on a slushy day… …first kiss, soft, lights of the city in the distance… …fighting, bloody nose, principal blocked by a crowd of kids… …nervous job interviews, too…
read moreThe Death of a Strong Woman
Author : Adam Fout Her hut is digitized light. They are coming for her. Her prayers to the netGODS continue. But there will be no deliverance. She has heard the whispers. She has seen the dissention. Her daughter screamed at her this morning. “Go.” “Go!” “You must…
read moreEnvision a New You
Author : Olivia Black, Staff Writer The clinic is smaller than Joan expected. The surgical lighting and immaculate white surfaces make the space feel less claustrophobic, but it doesn’t do much to settle her nerves. Truth be told, she’s not entirely sure what she’s…
read moreKaroshi
Author : Philip Berry I am not formally sentient, but I do feel. In the beginning each encounter added to my knowledge of people. My dark hours were spent arranging those observations and filtering the inferences. After one month I had modelled the behaviour of my…
read moreTerra Cocta
Author : Dez Thomas Instinctively I closed my eyes: I didn’t want to record my death. My heart pounded in my chest. I landed with a thud on the surface, expecting the scorching heat of the baked earth to surge through me. My legs buckled and I felt the unforgiving…
read moreAbout Time
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The laboratory is filled with the sound of slow drops landing. The smell alone is enough to drive three officers back. Seeing the mess does for the next five. Officer number nine moves his torch in slow arcs, picking only edges and…
read moreNumber Seventy-Two
Author : Victoria Benstead-Hume We made it to twenty-eight weeks before my neighbour reported me. Twenty-nine and the doctor classed it tainted. As if that mattered. Lace curtains lend a sheen of respectable domesticity to the surgery sat on the edge of the dead-zone….
read moreNext Stop Vegas
Author : Jack Strange Funny, I never saw myself going into showbiz. I started out as a lawyer, would you believe? It was a good living. I was paid well and saved up a good-sized pension pot. But not good enough, as it happens. Because when I realised I was coming to…
read moreAlien Exchange
Author : David C. Nutt “What do you mean you’re not an alien?” “Just that. I am not an alien. I am a herald from another dimension- another plane of existence-“ “Not from these parts, not a human, yup, you’re an alien.” “No. I am not an extraterrestrial, well I am…
read moreSaturday’s Forecast:
Author : Thomas Desrochers I read a lot of science fiction as a kid, and I think I made the mistake of believing that the futures I was reading about were like weather forecasts of what was to come. It’s an easy mistake to make – look at the weather forecast and see…
read moreThe Wife
Author : Claudia Silva “How do you want your eggs today, dear?” He entered the kitchen with a big smile, happy to start the day. “I’m in the mood for some scrambled eggs, a little bit of tomato, onion. Maybe some mushrooms,” he replied. “I’m sorry,” she said with a…
read moreThe Fantastic Journey of Mr. Green Thumb
Author : Ronald Guell Day 5482: Here’s the problem with traveling at light speed. There’s no point in looking out of the window. You can’t see anything. It’s just a vast endless flat black. Trucking at 99.99999999% the speed of light, there are no stars visible to…
read moreLosses
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The woman on screen is stern of countenance, yet there’s mischief glinting in her eyes. It makes her even more beautiful. “Who is she?” “Melpomene Drenaly.” “Why I am seeing the face of an inhabitant of the planet,” he pauses to query…
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