Author: Hillary Lyon The beaded curtains sounded like the patter of soft rain as they closed behind Georgina. She navigated the dimly lit room, taking the only seat at the small round table situated in the middle. In the LED candlelight, a crystal ball gleamed in the center ...

Author: Skye Sweven Sand slips through my fingers. The sky is dusty gray, with a mix of amaranthine glow reminding me that it is dawn. This time of the morning is quiet. Stars, too, must feel this way, as they lose their glitter on the clouds and begin to fade away into ...

Author: Arkapravo Bhaumik Meera was a superhero minus the cape, the streaky lightning, and the fan-following. Right from her childhood, she could listen-in to the thoughts of other people. Unfortunately, her superpowers were a curse and her own social skills were never ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Into the gaping maw of death we strode. Legion stacked upon legion, a tidal deluge of unstoppable military might. Battle chants booming from mass-produced lungs as we called out to and pulled down our gods and we swallowed whole the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I can see the lights of the screens up in the control room as I cross the silent studio. Nothing will be happening down here for another year. Up there, nobody goes home until their replacement is onsite and up to speed. Kelly once ...

Author: Desmond White We were all playing Birdu Vanilla, rumored to be the latest lightbug of Hayashi. The game was a free download on his blog but was posted after his arrest and extradition from the Philippines. The file was up for two hours before someone, probably ...

Author: Glenn Leung We decided to go on foot, so we left 'Yes Sir' Dave guarding the Rover with orders to keep the engines warm. The regiment of monoliths stood at attention as we walked towards them, piercing the alien sky like blunt yet deadly spears. Streaks of blue, ...

Author: David C. Nutt The Chair of the Classics Department made her way through the corridor of the ship to the command section. Along the way the bodies confirmed the Captain had been correct in his assessment: mutiny. She knew what would come next. Execution of the loyal ...

Author: Malcolm Carvalho Bhumi’s idly slurping her milkshake. She has a playful air about her. Okay, I’ve only met her an hour ago, but this feels great. I have a simple rule when it comes to dating. Get her to acknowledge three common things between us and it’s a good ...

Author: Josie Gowler My exoskeleton is in an uncooperative mood again. It doesn’t stop my daily march out of the camp and round the city, it just makes it more difficult. I’ve already lurched to two appointments today: first psych (boring) and then meditation ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The lover of cats does not so much love the little sycophant balls of fur as he craves their affection. Anything, any trace of attention directed toward the frost of his cold and achingly lonely existence. Even as they pander to him solely ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The breeze from the windows is lethargic, like everything else in the oppressive heat and humidity. Tutor Phenedras shakes his head in resignation and puts down the cane he’s been using to point out the finer points of ‘Machiavellian ...

Author: Chidumebi Ikechi Njoku-Browne "I want to change my afterlife!", screamed Jeanette McCormick at the floating hologram in front of her. It was a hologram of a Renaissance-era Cherub, wearing an anachronistic late 20th-century full male business attire which looked out ...

Author: Stephen Duffin Bracken poked my eyes as I crouched low in the undergrowth. An armed guard walked past, fiddling with his rifle. Intruders were shot dead. I'd zapped past barbed wire fences using a rusty teleportation-belt strapped to my waist. Three loose ...

Author: Thomas Mills Muscles ache to the point of insensibility. Crucified on a wrought iron framework, I wait. There. Listen. There it is again. In the distance….thunder? Or my imagination. Twenty-three other souls hear it. Infectious fear spreads among us. Lashed without ...

Author: David Barber The child has learned a lot of things. It knows about the food machines and how to trick them; it knows where a tap drips water to drink, and it learned early on about light and dark. It learned the lights in the ceilings get tired too, but ...

Author: DJ Lunan “I supply water just like my ancestors did”, discloses Chinza in quiet but precise home-world English. Mkoe’s always returns to this sole recording of Chinza, even though he’d died of cholera on Earth over one hundred years before her birth on Neptune. ...

Author: David C. Nutt I don’t remember dying, and I don’t remember much of my living, but I do remember here and now. I am a human brain, once a human named Doug… (or was it Mike?) Anyway, brain in android bi-pedal human form body, resurrected for research and experimental ...