Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s an expectant pause as the screen fills with blurry grey patterns. Martin gently places a finger on the forearm of the dishevelled man to his left. Thumbs stop flicking across the screen of a smartphone. Bleary eyes lift to briefly ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher “You’re just a goddamn computer!” And you are an annoying human being. “Yeah, but you don’t get to tell me what to do. Who the hell do you think you are – my mother?” I am sure if your mother were here in this facility instead of living the ...

Author: Luke Saldanha I feel a rattling and distant heat; the final storm is brewing. Yet I lie here in the grass, full of optimism. *** Enthralled, I gazed at the sky. Auntie taught me the constellations and planets as a child; I loved to stargaze and had done so ...

Author: Jack Tevreden Notes from the field: The tank commander, Bullfrog, washed down military-issue amphetamines with cold coffee carefully rationed from his thermos. Skirmishes along the Bolotene fields on the Eastern Front of this unfolding armageddon had left him ...

Author: Eli Rubin "Daddy?" He hadn't called me Daddy for years. "What's up, kiddo?" "Remember when you said I could turn off my age restrictions?" He kept bringing it up; he knew by now what I'd say. "That's something that has to be your choice, kiddo." "I did ...

Author: Ken Carlson The light turned red. The red Jeep didn’t give Paul a moment and beeped twice. He looked in the rearview mirror and gently applied some gas. He drove slowly around the town. That was the point of Saturdays. Take your time and don’t rush around like ...

Author: Roger Ley Crash Dummy by Roger Ley It would be a long flight, I hoped that the window seat on my left would stay empty, but no such luck. A young woman took it. I checked her over as she moved past me, I mean, you can’t help it, and they do the same to us. Women, ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer A woman sits on a filthy blanket, her clothes in a neatly folded pile at her side. Her head rests atop her knees and she embraces them, pulling them into the oily smear at her breasts. Her head lops to the side and her eyes track the ...

Author: Rollin T. Gentry Cybernetic, supersonic, leaving Earth and atmosphere behind, he watched the newsfeeds, somewhat embarrassed. They hailed him as the greatest piece of technology in recorded history. "Long Ranger 1" was engraved on his hull. The talking heads, a ...

Author: Russell Bert Waters “Push” comes on by Matchbox 20, you reach to turn it up but it is already increasing volume. You remember how you turned it up last time it played, so now it happens automatically. You walk to the cupboard as sadness washes over you again. ...

Author: Phil Manning She had watched him grow. Grow beneath her hands. Each circuit and wire placed and soldered with finesse and care. There was a team, of course, and they each had their part to play, to add to his growth and development, but she felt a different ...

Author: Timothy Goss Washed up, lifeless, the thing was battered and scarred by the ocean. Seagulls pecked and pulled at the meat squawking and cawing. Things had nibbled its extremities and something big had taken its lower half. No appendages were obvious, but there were ...

Author: Alex Z. Salinas It was the 4:30 p.m. moon, clear as a piece of holy bread on a bright blue carpet, that led him—thinking on it much later, “led” was the only word he could come up with—to kneel down and scoop baseball field dirt into his palm. He then pulled out a ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer “How long have you been here?” “Well, it’s hard to say with any degree of certainty but, maybe, ten or fifteen minutes” “Do you know when you were born?” “Well, again, it’s hard to say but sixteen, maybe, seventeen minutes ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room goes dark when the streetlight across the road goes off. I feel her tense, then relax: rising maturity overcoming instinctive fear. When I first came here, she would hug me tight for the time between the light going out and her ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher This was bizarre. He hovered over the planet and examined it. During the last check of this planet, there were more than eight million different species. Most were instinctual but others were fairly intelligent residents. Some of those species ...

Author: Kent Rosenberger Everything was about to pay off for Riley. All of the years of planning, preparing, researching, waiting and traveling had all brought him to this particular spot on this particular day at this particular time. At any moment now the elusive Irish ...

Author: Thomas Tilton “What is the time, sir?” asked the robot, Julian. “Let's see.” I consulted my timepiece. As a gag, I wore a small sundial for a watch. “Well, as soon as we see the sun, I'll let you know.” “I see,” said Julian. “And when will that be, ...