Special Orders
Author: Ken Carlson
“Hello and welcome to Burger King. How may I help you,” said the disembodied out of the drive-through speaker in a dark parking lot off Interstate 5, Tacoma.
The voice belonged to Chad Stearns, 16 years old, 120 pounds and already drained of hope.
He ...
Zero Gain
Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer
The great starving horde marched through space. No, they didn’t. They swarmed and, just as the hive-minded are apt to do, they toiled relentlessly, each individual an integral part of the whole.
Every last one a citizen and willing ...
Shower Time
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
In the beginning, there was a world. It wasn’t a particularly unusual or outstanding one, just another ball of rock with a hot liquid interior and a solid lump at the centre. The usual early planetary phases passed without anything of ...
Saving the Intellequestrials
Author: R. J. Erbacher
The incongruence of this bridge’s construction boggled Samm’s mind. Using her ship to cut, haul and position logs, if they could be called that, when they should be using carbon graphene girders. This planet didn’t have traditional trees but tall ...
All in the mind
Author: Glenn Leung
'Activate Neuro-Computer link.'
I concentrated on the implants in my brain as I thought those words. I immediately got a sense that I knew more than I used to, and I mentally scanned for knowledge of the ship's map. Having it in my head would not help ...
A Visit with Myself
Author: Lance J. Mushung
The man standing in my doorway was me wearing different clothes.
He smiled and extended his right hand. "Hello, Brad."
After a couple of seconds, he grabbed my hand and pumped it. "You should close your dropped jaw and invite me in."
He ...
Death Notification
Author: David C. Nutt
I saw the black limo outside our cottage. I knew why the angel of death was here. It was for my partner Andrew. He hasn’t looked well for over a week. What’s more, he’s been grumpy- as grumpy as his actual age of 337, rather than the 42 he presents ...
On the Fragility of Man and Woman
Author: Thomas Fitzgerald McCarthy
— An excerpt taken from Pioteer Gigan Trilorgh’s Anthropology on Extinct Pathologies
Two Anecdotes On the Fragility of the Human Mind
In the 24th century, a human biotech engineer designated Angeline Mateo was heralded by the Earth ...
The Girl Who Fell Up from the Earth
Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer
The ancient evil that lives and breathes and seethes beneath my grandmother’s house has nothing to do with Hell. This rotting husk is not the place that villains go when they die. It is not some construct tasked with offering context and ...
Ever Near
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
Rex Christus, I ache this morning. Forgive the profanity, Lord, but it feels like my bones loosened themselves in their joints overnight.
There’s a harsh light on the streets, as if Heaven is searching the dimmest corners of its mighty ...
Rush Hour
Author: David Updike
A shadow slid along the crowded sidewalk, and we instinctively stepped aside and opened a path for it to pass. Looking up, we saw that it was a Mini, the kind they dispatched for someone who wasn’t going to mount much of a fight. A sleek, white wafer ...
The Comet Problem
Author: Glenn Leung
The wail of sirens grew louder as I ran towards the control room. We had drilled for this at least a hundred times in the past year, and I had hoped this was yet another drill. The image on the Heads-Up Display said otherwise.
'Comet inbound for ...
The Woman Upstairs
Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer
Her name was Ruth, I think, or something like that. We didn't talk much. I used to help her when she came home from the library with her cart full of books; she liked physics, and biology, and quantum entanglement. Heady stuff, way beyond ...
Trick or Treat
Author: Ken Carlson
Maxx was puttering away with various adhesives and synthetics in the attic of his government-issued pod, one of the perks of being among the few humans on the Gliese 163 c mining colony. Encased in a series of domes and tubes, the inhabitants lived a ...
Whipping Girl
Author: R. J. Erbacher
Power reigns supreme.
“Come, Bia. Your Master summons you.”
The man who came to get her was a slob, big-bellied and slovenly. His mouth drooled as he barked his order and stared at her.
She dressed in a simple sparse tunic, her feet were ...
Man and Woman
Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer
“I love you, my dearest”, I say folding back and patting smooth the sheet that is tucked at her chin.
I look at her and trace the thick welts at my cheek and feel within them my own mother’s bottomless affection. I, too, will ...
Wyld By Nature
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
The magic came back. It went unnoticed for a while. Then a couple of bane magic covens got nasty surprises. Apprehension turned to fear as authority figures came up with increasingly implausible explanations.
‘Magewinter’ is the term ...
The Vega Gate
Author: Timothy Goss
Moulju squeezed his hand. Bernard reciprocated as best he could in his feeble condition. Moulju was thankful for the liquidity of her natural state. She wanted to cover him, become with him, aid his breathing and allow him to rest. But she knew it ...
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