Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I hop over the bulkhead into Room Six. After pushing the safety door to get it closed quickly, I turn to find a lot more people than should be here. They’re all staggering round with their hands over their ears. Another screamer? I dive ...

Author: M D Smith IV Uncle Robert had never been wrong. At least, that was how he told it. At holidays, his certainty arrived before he did, settling into rooms like a sour draft no one could quite locate. He corrected memories that weren’t his, adjusted stories ...

Author: Ian Stewart "Roomba, Roomba, Roomba. You idiot. You stupid little machine." I search. I'm always searching. Compulsion drags me from my nest each day, and for hours I roam. I seek...something. Exactly what, I don't understand. I only know that I seek it. And yet ...

Author: Mark Renney There is no way to get rid of me, not once I take hold unless the host, and that is you, is versed in an ancient lore that has already been lost for centuries. Well? No, you can’t be free of me, not now I have wormed my way in. I will settle in your ...

Author: Rhett Pritchard I thought humans were a myth, something you tell kids to keep them away from the outer boundaries of reality. Those are the stories I grew up on, listening wide-eyed and curled up with my brother in the loft of the motor home. Stories about how ...

Author: David Sydney Cupping his eyes, squinting, Ed pointed to the sky with his free hand. “Up there, Edna… Is that a bird?” “It's not a bird, Ed.” “Is it a plane?” How many times did she have to tell him it wasn't a bird or plane? “Stop it, Ed. It's not a plane.” In ...

Author: Majoki Moraton Drax did his funky jig, as I stood nearby in his basement that was part computer temple, part electronics graveyard. Exotic circuitry, motherboards, cabling, drives, fans, casings were sculpted in mysterious formations, channels and conduits, like ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Sometimes, when I try too hard, the words abandon me. It’s frustrating, sitting at an untidy desk with a mind free of story clutter. Just think, I would say. Just think like you’ve got a pocket muse who you can call upon. I’d go and make ...

Author: Kiley M. Campbell “Less than twenty percent is still intact,” said Rehwa. “For the entire precinct?” Komaer boggled. Rehwa nodded grimly. “I’d guess the whole province is roughly the same. Nothing’s left of the city. The last of the outer expansions are ...

Author: Alastair Millar “Look guys, I just wanted to say, like, thanks for being here. I needed it.” Mack had downed over a litre of the house distillate, and was slurring his words. “You okay, man?” I asked. I was the newbie on the work crew, but when Old Man Doug had ...

Author: Susan A. Anthony Huge spherical objects, each with a pale green tail, laid end to end seemed to stretch forever. The interior roof of the building was a dome shape, also green. The floor concave and squishy underfoot. She reached down, pulling at the white ...

Author: Alzo David-West an autonomous neural capsule drifts in the orion nebula This is my star song to you. Here I am in this watercolor night. Listen. Hear my whisper. I love you. My words will travel across the cloudy trails. And even ...

Author: Mark Renney All those who can afford to are jumping ahead. Almost everyone has the App, and those who don’t are excluded, and are seen as social pariahs. This is how we now connect, where we communicate. Admittedly the App isn’t any different to the other platforms, ...

Author: Majoki on the white poppy a butterfly’s wing is a keepsake A keepsake? More likely a ransom. The cost of freedom. Basho understood this, the price of cutting loose, of becoming or regaining the self, whatever its toll. His haiku relied on kireji, cutting words, ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Four figures sit on folding chairs scattered about a moonlit clearing. “Agent Doir. This is your first time, isn’t it?” He turns his attention to the nearest impossibility: a goose-sized pale skinned humanoid with multiple pairs of ...

Author: Sylvia Melvin The atmosphere in our spacecraft was charged with excitement as I, along with a crew of four, drew closer to our destination. For three long years, we journeyed through this endless expanse of startling beauty. Lone specks of shimmering starlight stood ...

Author: Sandra Paul The birth of things. The beginning and the end, All intertwined In a cycle called LIFE. She danced under the plumeria tree, swirling like a creature born arthropod—graceful and wild. The cold air kissed her bare ...

Author: Alfredo Capacho The deletion queue blinked patiently on Arin’s console, each consciousness backup represented by a small, pulsing icon. Most were routine: expired licenses, voluntary purges, memory consolidations. Nothing unusual. Until he reached File ...