Author: Lisa Jade Why is this cell always so damn cold? Of course, the guards don't call it a cell. Officially, it's a 'holding chamber'- a secure room where I can wait for something – anything - to happen. I huddle into the thin, grey jacket they gave me, breathing ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Fū-jiin sat cross-legged on a mat before a low table, on which rested a bonsai tree nearly half a meter across its canopy, and nearly a quarter of that tall. He rotated the tree barely a degree at a time on its mag-lev base, pausing at each ...

Author: David C. Nutt Michael had been hunting this last psychic for the Company for the past seven years. All the others were dead, and while dispatching the powerful, and arrogant psychics was dangerous, it was easy to find them. They usually wound up as warlords on ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer No all-powerful deity would ever admit to this wretched rock being of its hand. What God would lay claim to its deformities and corruptions. To its cancers, to the ripe budding evil that blooms within our cells and the tumours we’ve named: ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer My orbit is not done. I cannot accept this. A few hours drifting have forced me to admit my stupidity. All the times I cleared up after him, excusing his selfishness as something special, like he shouldn’t have to act decently toward other ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer "Manhattan?" the man asks, pulling out the chair across from her before pausing, "May I?" as an apparent afterthought. He sits down without waiting for an answer and waves towards the waiter. "Two more of these", gesturing to her drink on ...

Author: Andrew Dunn Some would call it a sin, that one man would blindly follow another without question. If it’s a sin like they say, christen it loyalty and all of us that followed Rory Holloman vagabonds sailing far beyond virtue’s bounds. Rory captained the Scarlett. ...

Author: Joshua Alexander Disaster. Hacklett wheezes in my grip. His face is slicked with sweat, his eyes ringed and dark. He's dying. Our research on the station has been for nothing. One containment breach and it's all gone to hell. I drag Dr. Hacklett along the ...

Author: John F Keane ‘Envision a world,’ said the guide, ‘where photography was discovered much later than it was. Imagine no ancient discovery of light-sensitive chemicals, no early Greek photographers like Hilo of Tarsus. Imagine, if you can, a world where photography ...

Author: Elaine Thomas Somewhere, in a forest, lightning strikes a tree. Elsewhere, in a cabin, a man tosses a log onto the fire. Startled, the man jumps backward, then laughs at himself. He knows any slight moisture left in wood as it cures can emit a high-pitched ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I killed something inside myself last week. It had been slowly killing me for years so, I have to say, it came as somewhat a relief. I’d been contemplating it for some time. But the gumption to actually follow through wasn’t easy, you ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer [Translation (from original German) of key document removed from Treasure Hunter site during Operation Rush North (9/16).] OMITTED: Kriegsmarine document reference, location codes, et al. Purpose of record: Confidential interview ...

Author: David Henson The days were all the same like links on a chain. I had to break free. Then came a flash in the middle of another toss-and-turn night. I got to the window in time to see a beam of light retracting into the sky. In the yard was a shape — glowing white, ...

Author: Phoebe Wagner The saplings haven’t grown. This is expected. We are prepped on day one—you will not see progress. Expect none. For this reason, the deployments are for three years. The generational weight was too much for the initial ten-year rotations. We brag and ...

Author: Kevlin Henney The first sun set behind the mountains before she turned to look across the plain to the darker sky opposite. A new star had appeared on the horizon. Rising in counterpoint to the evening suns, it scored a white trail across the sky, dividing the world ...

Author: Caius Finswith “The trick is you can’t look right at them: not like you ever could,” my partner said. It was my latest job on Parrhesia 9 and it was all about the exotics. Transporting everything from radioactive waste to actual grass-fed beef, I’d seen just ...

Author: J. P. Roquard Dirk blinked in the bright activity of the bridge. Weapons, comms, dispatch, engineering, even the navigation and FTL stations were active. They were not all needed, but nobody wanted to miss the action. A brilliant planetrise unfolded above them all: ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer A man stands behind a woman as she stands with a pint in her hand and stares at a wall. It’s an old wall, an ancient wall and he cocks his head as he watches. Inhaling, the man ponders as he carefully erects his words and he saddens. ...