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. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer This alleyway used to be the entrance to an underground car park, now reduced to a metre-width track between piles of rubbish and makeshift dwellings. Toward the back, there are furtive movements. Out front, the only movements are the ...

Author: Amelia Brown On the first day of the transport job, I stepped off the docking bay, heard the door seal airtight behind me, and then the ship jumped. Which came as a surprise to me. I was supposed to be the one flying the ship. And I hadn’t sat down yet. Not to ...

Author: Adrian L. Cook Avian changed rapidly, seemingly at will. The cobalt blue feathers shielding her arms shifted to red, with crimson ends, the tip of each slightly darker, slightly shinier than the rest of the feather. She fanned her feathers, flexing her wings. The ...

Author: Sebastien Lacasse They washed up sometime in the middle of the night, people said. Swollen as rags with seawater and all aglow beneath milky starlight, their bodies glistened as they crawled onto the wet sand and plopped down once free of the surf. The creatures ...

Author: David Barber Your grandfather kept the luck locked away, says my father. It’s Martian, or at least it was found here. No, don't touch. The storm rocks the rover, our headlights lost in the swirling dust. We won’t be going anywhere. My father, down from Phobos. ...

Author: Scott Porter It was a harsh but beautiful land. Larry stood on the ridge overlooking Homestead Valley. All around him were the bare, fantastically weathered shapes of the Gyrating Mountains. But on the slopes below, vineyards were showing early clusters of grapes, ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer She loves him and he loves her. But here on the stagnant, barely lapping, crust edge of the great acid sea, love is something suppressed. A meaningless and functionless thing to be stuffed away as far as possible from the hearts that ache ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It really wasn’t clever. Every time that she went out, they followed her together. On Tuesday morn when she went out, she carried a huge white bag. Not unusual when going to shop, but laden enough to sag. She sallied boldly round the ...

Author: Robb White The black hole first appeared in Aaron Jesperson’s upstairs room Thursday night and seemed nothing more than a fuzzy donut, a “wobbly thing,” according to Emma, when she went in to look for him. She found him in the kitchen swearing and holding his hand ...