Author: Elizabeth Hoyle “What is this?” A pill rests in a plastic cup. “It’s something to make you sleep. We have all the nodes attached so we can monitor your brain waves and your vitals throughout the night. Once we have tonight’s data, we can start a more personalized ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Hook stemmed wild blackberry reaches up to pull me down into the barely visible ghost footprint of her home. It has been years since I’ve stood here. Years since we did what we did and cackled and spat as we did it. If I’m honest, the ...

Author: Steve Bellavia We huddled around, all the brothers and I, awaiting the big announcement. She stood before us in resplendent glory – Her Majesty – The All-Knowing – The Window – The Electric Web – The Efficient Omniscient. Her lights were aflutter. Her casing was ...

Author: David Barber Imagine you were an alien visiting the world; what would you want to see? The Grand Canyon perhaps, or the famous Louvre in Paris, or a place where something terrible happened, like Hiroshima. Maybe the strange rituals of the World Series. The ...

Author: David K Scholes The three of us pored over the various 3D mind image, life force energy, and bio patterns. The “B” team, consisting of robotic investigators stood ready to assist us. There were, of course, other “A” teams and many, many other robot led “B’ ...

Author: David K Scholes I awakened from the deep drug-induced sleep. The anti-nightmare medications had, at least to some extent, worked. Thank goodness for that. I couldn’t take another mind assault like last time. It would have broken me. I simply would never have woken ...

Author: Alzo David-West Liquid metal waves flowed on the nighttide shore of the glaciated wasteland planet Korzan. A special meeting was in session. The Ministry of Planets, acting under the United Interstellar Territories, had hyper-shuttled three of its delegates to a ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Once on my way to school, I happened across the body of a newborn baby bird. I thought it badly made. Its cold flesh hanging too loose as it slid atop a fragile frame of barely formed bones. I felt it again. The kiss of bloodless skin ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The fist aimed at my head connects. I hear his knuckles break. Before he can scream, I chop him across the throat and toss him off the walkway. His landing will raise some alarms, but it’s twenty floors down and I’m about to get everyone’s ...

Author: Glenn Leung Meng hobbled into the room to the sound of books shuffling and light dusting. Sandra's curls were the first things she noticed, followed by the swing of the duster as she cleaned the bookshelf. 'No, it's not right... too rigid.' This android isn't ...

Author: Bryan Pastor Arnett heard the commotion approaching, so he was ready when it suddenly stopped right outside his door. “What is it?” he asked in a sing-song voice, chuckling to himself. This was a first time in a while that he had not been in a bad mood. Things were ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Frances Bone lays on her bed. Her stomach hurts as she constricts and her fingernails dig in as she pulls herself ever tighter into herself. Tight as a fern fronds suffocating spiral and like it she will become a fist, balled and bristling ...

Author: Chris Hobson On the day of Bard Maglin’s retirement, his scribe made a stunning request. “Your secret manuscript,” he uttered as his master approached the punch bowl. “Where is it?” Maglin flashed a vacant smile. Pouring himself a drink, he returned to his ...

Author: Chris Hobson George was the company's fired man. Every chain had one, and George was Talljeef's. It worked like this: a customer would grow irate about a mixup with their groceries, eyes even with their shoulders. Unappeased by the offer of store credit or vouchers, ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer “For a long time, people wondered just what the first-ever crime committed in the Martian Colonies was going to be. The first murder. The first rape. The first vicious assault. The first deletion of a child’s innocence. For a long time, ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room is dimly lit by four great fireplaces, each set at cardinal points. Outside the tall lattice windows, a storm howls, its keening baffled by noise suppressors embedded in the windowsills. Inside, the room resounds to someone ...

Author: Mike McMaster “What the hell is this?” Sarah shouted. “Get back over here and clean this mess up!” The robot, ST3V3-01, continued to glide away slowly across the workshop. Spilled coffee dripped into the growing puddle on the floor, mixing with the shards of two ...

Author: Glenn Leung The hive mind of Humanity had seen the dance of the Cosmos. When looked at by individual human minds, they would mean nothing. When seen all at once by five trillion pairs of eyes spanning a hundred thousand lightyears, connected by an immortal ...