Author: Glen Steele Singed, silvery cold blasting beyond unfathomable hollowness. “Wherever are you? I’ve tempered your pseudosphere fittingly, no? Have you distress? Are your wishes dispersed in this impeccably formulated blob? Or are you hither begging yet again? I ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks On Varish, blue belonged to the sky alone. The seas were dun-colored dunes rippling across the basins. Hills of beige and taupe rose from hectares of an ocher fescue, fading to a wan grey in winter. For more than half the year, only the sky ...

Author: Majoki It wasn’t long after I’d begun my USGS project near a little southern town that I began hearing threats and warnings about The Shady. “Don’t be messing near The Shady after dark.” “Behave or I’ll chase your sassy mouth out to The Shady.” “You don’t ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’s so quiet. Even after blasting clouds of dust out through the skylight and dormer window using drone downdraft, it’s like something muffles sound. The noises of removers outside and below, the clanging as Chan works on the decrepit old ...

Author: Bob DeRosa The aliens landed and spoke to humanity in a language we all could understand. They had the power to conquer us in a day, take all of our natural resources, and leave before the sun brightened the blackness of night. But there was a unique word in their ...

Author: Aubrey Williams “I don’t want this to happen again, going on around and around.” “What do you mean?” The first man drank his coffee, squinting in the sun of a Parisian winter. His hat wasn’t shading him from the rays. “It keeps happening in my dream: you ...

Author: James Rhodes I first met Veronica Charlemagne in a gin bar on Callisto. Man, she was something else. Veronica sat cross-legged on her stool. She dressed like a lawyer and posed like a model. Even her wine glass seemed in awe of her. Veronica was one of about ...

Author: Morrow Brady It's not the data that makes me itch, it's all that processing. The giant pods clung to the cliff face like parasitic barnacles. A colossal aura of power bathed them in a milky blue mist; static so thick it made my metal skin hum. Within my core, ...

Author: Juliet Wilson I've been on alien watch my whole life. Patrolling the forest, my eyes and ears always alert. Climbing the crumbling watchtowers to scan the horizon for strange lights or UFOs. I've been here long enough to recognise the shrieks of magpies, the shining ...

Author: Majoki “But, the GPGP is our fault!” Ferelga stammered. “You can’t just shrug your shoulders.” “Can. Did. Doing it again,” the pro-pro replied with a wildly exaggerated shrug. Ferelga Kierk’s fists balled. She wanted to hit something. Hit the pro-pro. Vent all ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The display switches to show a wide-winged silhouette, head on, dawn breaking behind it. Instructor Nicholls taps the side of the lectern. “Now for a bonus feature. Not giving prizes for this, unless someone can identify the dragon.” A ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “The results of these tests will increase our knowledge and understanding of this world,” Xe11 announced to his assistant. “Yes, but these creatures are so gullible,” N2wit worried. “I feel sorry for—” “Feel?” “I’m programmed to emulate ...

Author: Alexander Paige “Christ! Will somebody please go and get Stalin out of that damn Colosseum before one of the lions eats him?” Pete might as well have been shouting at the ceiling fan. As he looked up from his array of screens and scanned searching eyes around the ...

Author: David Dumouriez Daniel opened his eyes and blinked. At first, he thought that this was the answer to the great mystery, and he didn’t know whether to feel disappointed at the sheer mundanity of it or simply relieved that he’d turned off the unbearable noise in his ...

Author: Alastair Millar “They can’t do this!”, fumed the Officer Commanding. The arrival of the memo from Staff HQ had interrupted the usual morning routine of carefully reviewing the battlefield monitoring reports. It was always better to form an independent judgement ...

Author: Rick Tobin Professor Gerard faced his second warning message from HR with a controlled fury. Decades of honors and accolades meant nothing after he refused to bend his knee to the anvil will of a new science department director. Now past fifty, he was ridiculed by ...

Author: Majoki “Farther? We’re at the ass end of the system!” “Farther.” Galihl slapped the navigation console. “Why? What’s the point? There’s no gateway beyond. We risk getting stranded between galaxies.” “Farther.” Being a seasoned pilot, Galihl could see ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Someone scorched words into the blacktop of this car park. Don’t know what all of them mean, don’t know what they used, but it went deep and left the surfaces glassy. Cease, ye chariots End thy noxious vapours Quiet thy steely ...