Author: Russell Bert Waters The restraints dig into my wrists as I awaken. “Have you ever truly smelled this city?” a man asks from behind. “Where am I?” I ask. I try to look around without moving. There is an aquarium full of cockroaches on a shelf nearby. “With its ...

Author: Thomas Desrochers This mess I’m in, it’s kinda my fault. You see, I was hanging down at Louie’s, yackin’ with the other breadheads in the back room, and Mack comes in with this smirk like he’s scored big. I asked him what the deal was and he took me aside and told ...

Author: Hillary Lyon Micah stood up straight, pushed back his hat and flashed his brightest smile at the tourist taking his picture. They always placed their family members on either side of him and made sure they got the heavily forested mountains in the background. Or ...

Author: E.M. McCarthy I shop here. There are better places to stop and shop, better prices, better inventory, but this place reminds me of the good old days, and they replicated the look of the old stores pretty well too. Same bright lights, same late hours, same rows of ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The Major can taste the sweat as he walks through the brothel. He likes it and he rolls it in and sucks it beneath his tongue. The door at the end of the corridor is open and a slue of framed photographs and bunched flower offerings ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I always remember the secret my great-grandfather told me: “Absinthe was never to blame, my dear. It’s what was added to the absinthe that caused problems. By accident or design, adulteration led to unexpected side effects.” There’s a ...

Author: Thomas Desrochers The most popular topic of all was always Love. That was how neuro-sims came to the forefront of entertainment, you know. Plug in and a skilled corporate smartiste can have you feeling all that nervous giddiness your stomach borrows from your ...

Author: Alex Z. Salinas There was once a creature much like a man who lived on a planet all alone. He was carbon-based, drank water, and received nutrients from luscious plant life born from fertile soil. Because the creature was always left to his thoughts, and possessed ...

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock A man and three brothers knew the secrets of the world. Thus, they began a quest to unlearn them. They sought a place to pour out their secrets, where none would ever find them. They found a cave that ran deep and walked down its throat for many ...

Author: Thomas Desrochers Effedel and Ifrit found each other in the subspace E-bands while they were still more than five thousand light-years apart. Both were on sponsored three-decade survey flights finding out just what exactly their sponsors had laid claim to, a ...

Author: Ken Carlson “Where did you find this one?” “Does it matter?” “No, I suppose it doesn’t.” “Then stop asking!” Norris kept his mouth shut. What was the point now? He and Sheila decided this was the path to follow. That was that. Norris and Sheila ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer An escape pod drifts. Radioactive crystals cling as hair to its skin and a man’s voice pleads out and into the void. A voice where an automated signal would suffice. Futility borne of desperation. “... fuck. Shit. Fuck” “You’ve ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The young man is wearing a vantablack bodysuit that leaves only his face discernible. Matching cloak, gloves and boots are stacked next to the log he sits on. A sensor-laden facemask lies in his hand as he starts speaking. “You wanted ...

Author: Alzo David-West Contrary to the anticipations of the ancients, the problem had not been solved after eighteen-thousand years. It was still impossible for a bioform to travel far forward into and back from distant time. Observer Jon-Rey contemplated as he studied ...

Author: Richard M. O'Donnell, Sr. The toddler unclipped his seatbelt and floated away, gurgling and laughing as he drifted toward the… The what, Lady Maggie Durante wondered. There was no ceiling in the Vista–View space lounge. Just a sphere of glass and a grand view of the ...

Author: Ken Carlson The pain in his side was a steady series of jabs. Alone it wasn’t enough to knock him down; no, the bill from the hospital was good for that. Six months of security work on this mining colony might just cover it if Murphy didn’t worry about food or ...

Author: Thomas Desrochers Basil had never imagined he’d be a bureaucrat, but The Tower housed eighty million bureaucrats servicing a legal machine a thousand years in the making – it was inevitable. His job was simple: audit the legal codex. An automated program could do ...

Author: David Henson I go to the woman at the check-in of the Identity Bureau and touch the space where my right eye used to be. “I’m Roger Sanders and —” “Look at the scanner to verify.” I clear my throat and swirl my finger around in my empty eye socket. The ...