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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Author: Matt Ingoldby 'Room' conjures three dimensions of no specific shape. This will have to do. 'Waiting room' seems speciously appropriate except that it conjures time - not apt for eternal, infinite multitudes like us. Nonetheless, we are all waiting, most of us since ...

Author: Glenn Leung The fog in my brain had lifted, and all I saw was the rubble. My memories were there; my family, my friends, my comrades of the ill-fated revolution, the building blocks of my identity. But these blocks lay in heaps and piles, the cement and the steel ...

Author: David Barber The morning Ethics Officer Summer flew in for duty aboard the USS Grover Cleveland, a pair of ancient Tornados jinked in at sea-level, heading for the task force on Golf-Bravo Station. They were still twenty miles out when they were brought down in ...

Author: Edwin Tam She's waiting for me as I get out of the elevator. Smiling, but her eyes look sad. Dressed all sexy-like, but you could tell it wasn't natural for her. Short black dress and heels, and even stockings. Classy. But she looks awkward in it. Just like she ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Thick vines encircle in an ever upward choke of the huge concrete pillars that support the spine roof of the great cathedral. It is not a cathedral but, rather, a great subterranean chamber in which building supplies were once stored. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer We smash through the door barely a minute after Abernacke entered. It’s an empty corridor. The air is about twenty degrees below ambient and the floor is gloss black. “Goo?” Felps is wary. I nanoscan the floor, finally a chance to use ...

Author: V.B. Crossett //Fatal error detected. Unblinking, I stared at the dialogue box. When this unit's programming had showed an error, I had been ready with necessary updates and a software patch on hand. However, the error report's endless script confirmed—I was ...

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 ...