Q&(A?)
Author: Alex Z. Salinas There was once a creature much like a man who lived on a planet all alone. He was carbon-based, drank water, and received nutrients from luscious plant life born from fertile soil. Because the creature was always left to his thoughts, and…
read moreA Man and Three Brothers
Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock A man and three brothers knew the secrets of the world. Thus, they began a quest to unlearn them. They sought a place to pour out their secrets, where none would ever find them. They found a cave that ran deep and walked down its throat for…
read moreTwo’s A Crowd
Author: Thomas Desrochers Effedel and Ifrit found each other in the subspace E-bands while they were still more than five thousand light-years apart. Both were on sponsored three-decade survey flights finding out just what exactly their sponsors had laid claim to, a…
read moreCustomer Service
Author: Ken Carlson “Where did you find this one?” “Does it matter?” “No, I suppose it doesn’t.” “Then stop asking!” Norris kept his mouth shut. What was the point now? He and Sheila decided this was the path to follow. That was that. Norris and Sheila stripped the…
read moreAroha
Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer An escape pod drifts. Radioactive crystals cling as hair to its skin and a man’s voice pleads out and into the void. A voice where an automated signal would suffice. Futility borne of desperation. “… fuck. Shit. Fuck” “You’ve…
read moreSeventeen Moons ’til Doomsday
Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer The young man is wearing a vantablack bodysuit that leaves only his face discernible. Matching cloak, gloves and boots are stacked next to the log he sits on. A sensor-laden facemask lies in his hand as he starts speaking. “You wanted…
read moreThe Coordinates in Time
Author: Alzo David-West Contrary to the anticipations of the ancients, the problem had not been solved after eighteen-thousand years. It was still impossible for a bioform to travel far forward into and back from distant time. Observer Jon-Rey contemplated as he…
read moreOne-hundred-ten Percent
Author: Richard M. O’Donnell, Sr. The toddler unclipped his seatbelt and floated away, gurgling and laughing as he drifted toward the… The what, Lady Maggie Durante wondered. There was no ceiling in the Vista–View space lounge. Just a sphere of glass and a grand view…
read moreHypocritical Oath
Author: Ken Carlson The pain in his side was a steady series of jabs. Alone it wasn’t enough to knock him down; no, the bill from the hospital was good for that. Six months of security work on this mining colony might just cover it if Murphy didn’t worry about food or…
read moreJourney to the Center of the Bureaucracy
Author: Thomas Desrochers Basil had never imagined he’d be a bureaucrat, but The Tower housed eighty million bureaucrats servicing a legal machine a thousand years in the making – it was inevitable. His job was simple: audit the legal codex. An automated program could…
read moreEyedentity Theft
Author: David Henson I go to the woman at the check-in of the Identity Bureau and touch the space where my right eye used to be. “I’m Roger Sanders and —” “Look at the scanner to verify.” I clear my throat and swirl my finger around in my empty eye socket. The woman…
read moreThe Red Lion
Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The man awakens and he is sitting in a tavern. His fingers trace the time beaten patina of the hard wood upon which he rests and his eyes trace the exposed beams that dance and flicker at the ceiling. The woman who sits across from…
read moreNever the Shroud for a Good Man
Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer It’s easy to spot strangers round here. They’re the ones who call the grass-banked sewer on my right a canal. “And in those days of tribulation, the faithful called unto Old Peace, but his thing was endurance without fighting, so he…
read moreChildren of All Ages
Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock “They all came to see me: the man who could age — or de-age — at will. They all thought it was a trick. When you reach one hundred years of age, the body becomes elastic, the flesh conforms to the soul. If I thought myself a ten-year-old, I…
read moreValentine
Author: J. H. Malone “Happy Valentine’s Day!” “Oh, Honey, for me? How sweet!” “Open it. Then I’ll take you out to dinner.” “Ok, just let me… What could it be?… Wow!… A CRISPR valentine…” “I taped the pills to the back. Let’s take them now and in a month, every…
read moreCrushed by love
Author: DJ Lunan Earth’s first extra-terrestrial visitor for 500 years is a peace offering and a miscalculation. Intended for a swift twenty-year journey through its own solar system in the Monfix Galaxy, the visitor that breached Earth’s atmosphere had voyaged for…
read moreAddendum to Fermi’s Paradox
Author: David C. Nutt “Wally, do remember what they used to call us back in fourth grade?” Wally bobbed his head up and down “Uh-huh, sure do. You were Adrian the alien and I was Wally the werewolf.” Adrian chuckled. “I was a bit strange back then, before I learned to…
read moreThe Building Blocks
Author: Malcolm Carvalho The algorithm has just been published. I move my fingers over the cylinder in the centre of the room. A tube runs into it. I verify the cylinder’s valve can easily control the flow and pressure of the hydrogen atom stream coming into the…
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