Author: Samuel Stapleton I let myself in through the airlock and dropped down to the kitchen. She was on the couch. “Hey,” she said without looking up. The stream mumbled quietly into the background of the cramped sitting area. I plopped down next to her, but not too ...

Author: Dmitri Christopher The tapping starts up again, rousing Walter from unquiet sleep. He flattens himself against the door and peers through the peephole; here they come, creeping down the hallway. Some roll on thin wheels spliced between their toes. Most creep on ...

Author: Josie Gowler I take my time putting on all the rings that the King gave me; they form an effective but innocuous-looking knuckleduster. The autobot buzzes around my head, brushing my hair until it gleams the stunning reddish-brown that – I’m sure – helped King Ivar ...

Author: David C. Nutt “I’m begging you, don’t flip the quantum motor drive switch.” “Oh, I’ve flipped it hundreds of thousands of times, not flipped it just as many. The result is the same- I wind up back here, locked in, and we eventually have variants of this ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I hadn’t visited it for many years. It’s like anything I suppose, the more time rolls forward the more things get left behind. But this place was special and I never should have left it alone for as long as I did. My grandfather was a ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Words fall like hawks. I know someone is going to die. As the Cantor finishes his brief condemnation, I see her move like a broken mannequin; a ballerina of sudden and grace. There’s a falsetto gurgle that bubbles into a dying sigh. She’s ...

Author: Jeremy Marks “People of Earth, we have come bearing a divine message: Your God is tired. He is announcing his retirement.” A traditional flying saucer had landed in the badlands of the continental United States. The saucer broadcast its message on a frequency ...

Author: Harrison Abbott They slapped on the door. Their saliva lashed the glass, and their wings pounded on. But they couldn’t get to us; the glass was too strong. We’d already beaten them. I had the box with me. Our species was saved. Marcy was crying below me, like a ...

Author: David K Scholes I didn’t recognize any of the positions in the job search booth. Terra-forming Engineer, Change Field Manipulator, Short Tele-Shunt Engineer, Long Distance Teleportation Engineer, Unified Mind Sustainer, Alternate Reality Coordinator, ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher He stood by the running stream, knees trembling, still panting, tears stinging his eyes, exhausted, wounded and numb with shock. And although the simple clear water was marvelous it wasn’t distracting enough. The weapon he held in his hand was stained ...

Author: Glenn Leung This high up in the exosphere, sound is not a concept that exists. Even so, Savan could hear the clash of the fighters below as he projects an impression of the battle in his mind's eye. This was his anchor into sanity. Savan had never done a job in ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The craft shudders as it nears the centre of the universe and a plume of ice sheers from its skin, sparkling out and dissipating into the nothing. This place where all matter and, subsequently, all life had bawled into existence. The ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Unearthly music accompanies their shifting ranks through the trees. I watch as they somersault over bushes and vault between branches before landing to resume their rhythmic approach. Their movements pull the low mist into fantastical ...

Author: David C. Nutt If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. The Warmech Chieftains, their battle captains, corps commanders, generals, the entire human Warmech Collective leadership, backs bent in the fields harvesting what looked like ...

Author: Samuel Stapleton My brain was working faster than my eyes as I took in the flood of information through my augment hud at my desk. I quickly began realizing that whoever this person was, they were completely serious. I spent maybe twenty minutes having meltdown ...

Author: David B Anderson “And so you’re back from outer space.” She pulled him into her arms and hugged him tightly. Her former boyfriend smiled but didn’t say a word. “I knew you would return. People said you were crazy. Flying in a new spacecraft on a discount ticket is ...

Author: Timothy Goss We are sitting awaiting the bus. It’s hot and we sweat beneath the binary dance of our stars stripping great swaths of burning energy from their brethren. The Bus Station is busier than usual, more and more use its cool shaded concrete floors and walls ...

Author: Thomas Fitzgerald McCarthy Exo-zoologist Dr. Khadga Bhandari died clutching the datapad containing her final Special Analysis, surrounded by dozens of mourning colleagues. It was only in the final weeks of her one-hundred and twenty-four-year existence that she had ...