Author: Majoki Of course it’s overrated. You knew it would be before you paid the outrageous charter fee, travelled almost a thousand parsecs, endured the too-pious passengers aboard, and stood before the worn and crumbling fortress of stone that pilgrims claimed began it ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The displays on the wall scroll through the major global news channels. They’re all showing mushroom clouds. Usually it’s the one nearest to their HQ. Nat leaps up, pointing to the screens. “It’s a declaration of war. Has to be!” Allie ...

Author: Damon Sweeney Jupiter, a colossus pale orange disk against the black backdrop of space, shone mellowly, its stripes standing out in faint washes of red-brown colour. Scintillating meteor trails weaved the stars together. Olman stared in awe, rigid in his bulky ...

Author: Melissa Kobrin “What do you mean, you want our child to be human?” Olivia looked guiltily into the purple eyes of the man she loved and tried to figure out how to tell him she didn’t want their baby to be like him. “Knox, I just… there’s so few humans left, and of ...

Author: Hillary Lyon Unable to sleep, Merl slipped out of his tiny apartment pod to walk the rainy streets outside; guilt gnawed away at his conscience like a ravenous rat. Before long he spotted a Holo-Halo booth across the street; one of hundreds positioned throughout the ...

Author: D.S. Burton You lay your own cremains on the metal tray where your naked body had rotted three hours before. The copper hands don’t feel the porcelain. You know the scent of old, charred metal and a faint organic flesh from the just-resealed retort is yet to filter ...

Author: Keith Parker “A pint of FORGET, please.” The bartender, sporting suspenders and a bow tie, polished a silver tap and pretended not to hear me. I placed my fedora on the bar and repeated my order. Behind him, chrome pipes threaded through glass vats. COURAGE ...

Author: Majoki “Of course they’re ghosts,” Hedspetch said as Jakarious leaned closer to the control panel. “You sure?” Hedspetch swiveled from his console of gauges, buttons, and switches. A status light flashed from green to yellow to red and then back to green. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The warning roared from every speaker across the world. Unfortunately, the words were incomprehensible. Most people just looked at their devices in surprise or up at the nearest speaker in shock, muttered about invasive advertising getting ...

Author: Amanda Todisco There used to be a birch tree in the backyard. I peeled its skin and pretended the white curls of bark were movie tickets printed for me by an invisible teller, for an invisible movie I would watch with my invisible friends. The toe of my sneaker ...

Author: David Thien “Still raining outside.” Wayne shut the blinds near the door. “Papa, is this the longest it’s ever rained?” “Longest I can remember. Somebody must be mad up above.” Wayne picked up his daughter and hugged her tight. Caroline was still thin, but ...

Author: Meghashri Dalvi Radha was surprised when John did not respond. Her robot assistant never hesitated when she asked to fetch data, do cleaning, or take notes. But today, she found him sitting on the floor with eyes closed. His cool metal hands rested loosely on his ...

Author: Alzo David-West The Radical Machine Rightsists had implemented their ban on all vessels of the United Interstellar Territories. Any unauthorized craft in RMR space was summarily disintegrated into particles. Amid the crisis, the UIT faced a dilemma. A ...

Author: Majoki “Mommy, there’s a man in the tree!” Simeon heard the young girl’s surprise thirty feet below him. He looked down and saw the child near the trunk. “See him? Can I climb up there? Give me a boost, Mommy.” A woman in a floral dress joined the young girl. ...

Author: Stephen R. Smith, Staff Writer Doctor Jezup closed the door and pulled out a chair from the table across from what he jokingly referred to a ‘The Vessel D’Jour’, a pale, featureless humanoid figure in a coverall. The Vessel sat still, hands neatly folded in its ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Colonel Elton Smith arrives slightly dishevelled after navigating the crowd of spectators and making his way through milling groups of uniformed services. He heaves a sigh of relief on seeing Chief Amanda Edwards standing by the emergency ...

Author: Andy Rutrough He was being stupid, he knew. He had climbed beyond the petroglyphs—figures etched in the sheer rock two hundred feet from any ledge. Now, fifty feet above them, he reached for the nearest in a system of cracks that ran from here to the base of the ...

Author: James Mack On the night her mother vanished, Mara followed the path through the bog with a lantern and a lie clenched in her chest. The lie was this: that nothing important had changed. The lantern's light stuttered with each step, like it wasn't sure it wanted to ...