The Robot Did It
Author : Bill Diamond Suzanne wanted revenge. And, she’d convinced herself it was justified to achieve a greater good for society. To avoid jail, instead of acting rashly, she had waited and planned. She’d been fired from her job as a line cook at an upscale…
read moreFuck Bangs
Author : Kelly Sauvage Angel “So, how was transport?” Betta asked as I settled into her chair. “Speed of light, really.” I gathered and lifted my hair in a messy bundle so she could snap the nylon cape around my neck. From the moment we landed, I’d found myself warily…
read moreMessage in a Bottle
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer I look up as Anthony strides in, closing the door behind him. “You closed the door. What’s gone wrong?” He grins, then hands me a metallic tube. I turn it over. A courier tube, used for documents too precious for digital transmission….
read moreAt the End of the World
Author : Rollin T. Gentry At the end of the world, he reaches down a callused hand and grips the cold, steel leg of his cot, a small chill that takes him back to the days before the world was scorched and blistered. In the predawn, before the sun has mustered its…
read moreTrue-Mind
Author : Anthony Rove Dan shivered as he felt a fat, cold drop of sweat run from his armpit down his side. He quickly patted the side of his torso, trying to use his loosely hanging dress shirt as a makeshift paper towel. He hoped none of the council members noticed….
read moreMangel
Author : David Flynn Davis was a Flyer. But his wings had been removed surgically. This is no cliché. You know, wings of the heart, and that bullshit. Davis was surgically invested with wings when he was in his twenties, had a thirty year career delivering packages,…
read moreNo Fly
Author : Kate Runnels Tayna skidded on the crumbled mortar, concrete and residual dust, coming to a stop in a hidey hole. She then lay as still as she could within the concealing rubble of the old city. Dust coated the inside of her mouth as she fought to slow her…
read moreWe Let It
Author : V.M. Bannon They came for the treasury first. I talked to somebody who used to work there, and they said that it was like watching a timer tick down, those numbers rapidly falling down to nothing. Then the banks shut down. They told us that it was for our own…
read moreZen and the Art of Self Repair
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Mareck’s Sensei had spent countless hours sitting in front of his bonsai tree, studying it, almost communing with it, and occasionally making an almost imperceptible cut. For years, Mareck thought the old man was crazy. The sun,…
read moreMary Said
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer I hate old servers. Not ‘old’ like they peddle on the upgrade-your-old-one-now streams, but genuinely aged kit still running despite all odds. There’s a lot of it out there. Even back in the late twentieth century, corporates had no…
read morePotty Mouth
Author : Rollin T. Gentry Ever since the drone dropped Arnold off on the balcony, his language had been atrocious. He continually dropped the F-bomb, the D-bomb, and the S-bomb, not to mention both C-words and the recently coined Z-word. Mary Ann jacked the children…
read moreReady for Input
Author : Tyler Hawkins As the first warm, reassuring rays of the sun peek into the habitat, they begin to creep across a blinking computer terminal, as they’ve done countless times before. There’s a soft thump from far away, and the still air is coaxed into a whisper…
read moreExodus to K1 V
Author : Sean Wilkins On a star-laden beach near a rocky shore, wrinkled hands held, step in step toward a monolithic solar-tower. Mason felt the rounded edge of the tower, remembering the years, and was sad it had no use anymore. Alla watched the storm rolling in…
read moreMy Lucky Number’s One
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Chase peeled off her evening attire slowly, the fabric offering some resistance in the numerous places it was still actively staunching blood flow. The garments dropped haphazardly to the bathroom floor. The time for precision and…
read moreFrogging
Author : David Henson I was working in the lab late one night. My assistant Igorbot had left, but there was nothing for me to go home to since Loretta had moved out. Left alone, I’d poured myself into my work even more than usual. We were on the verge of a…
read moreOn the Wind
Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Swerve left and dive over a fence, roll once and spring through a gap in a wall, landing in what used to be a lounge, my face inches from a dead someone’s diary. As a former librarian, I can’t help it: I have to read the words neatly…
read moreAvert Your Eyes Demise
Author : Samuel Stapleton Classified Hearing AF:145-34a C3 Interviewer: Charles Witcomb “If you could go back commander, would you alter your decision?” “No.” “I’m going to note for the record that you didn’t even seem to reconsider…” “I don’t need too. If I hadn’t…
read moreVenus
Author : George R. Shirer The alien wore a red flower in her hair. It was vibrant against her pale hair. “What do you think of her?” asked Jon. “I don’t know.” Jon gave me an incredulous look. “What do you mean? You don’t know?” “Honestly. I don’t know. I mean, I’ve…
read more