Author: Thomas Tilton The gentry signaled me by dilating the pupil of its lidless right eye. Time to work. I hoped my task would not be too demeaning. I promptly headed over to the gentry's floating throne/toilet and inquired as to its needs. I could feel the ...

Author: A. Zachary Spery Seth was awakened. He felt oddly compelled to fix something. The computer began streaming information to him. Seconds ago, the sensors had recorded an unexpected collision. The colony ship was off course and tumbling. The Semi-sapient Emergency ...

Author: Elaine Thomas The warm sun felt good on the old man’s skin. He stood on the balcony, gazing down into the garden. “A beautiful day,” he thought, “a good day to die.” He examined his hands, gripping the railing, wrinkled, marked with spots of age ...

Author: Shaked Koplewitz The orders were clear: As tempting as it was, we were not to let the psychics process the alien message. Instead, we were to send it through to an old-fashioned linguistics team, who’d work with pen and paper to decipher what they could of ...

Author: Moriah Geer-Hardwick “I wanted this to mean something.” He looks back at me over his shoulder. “What are you talking about?” I start to reach for him, see his body tense, stop cold. “This!” He swings a hand out over the city beneath us. It’s a black heap of metal ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer “Do you know what happens when you stare into television static?”, he asks. “You start to see patterns, forms that join and fuse and start to make sense of the chaos. The flickering separates like pulled away meat, not completely, just ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Your lights are too bright.” The fresh-faced lady looks nonplussed. The bearded man behind her taps something into the rig on his wrist and the brightness cuts by half. He gives me a thumbs-up. I nod. The suited man who looks so out of ...

Author: Elizabeth Hoyle “Do you remember me?” The machine they were strapped to was hot. “No. Do you?” “No.” They were silent for a long moment. “What are we going to do?” The woman could not remember why they were here. “Well, they said they have a machine that can ...

Author: Timothy Goss The aroma was delightful. The sweetness of a caramelising crust and the tender white meat contained therein. Tao remembered honey glazed ham; his mother would buy it from the Supramarket, before pollination was protected. That’s it, he thought, turning ...

Author: Ian Hill “Alright, lads; go pick some sick.” Firs and the others went out under the risen portcullis, backs humped with bloodstained baskets and heads low beneath burlap hoods. The sand of the round was a dazzling white, streaked in short, vibrant slashes and ...

Author: Michael Edward Sabat It must have been the sound like wind chimes. Everything is so dark but the ethereal music plays in my head so clearly. “Thom…” I hear her voice. I know that voice. “Thom, can you hear me?” the voice clearer this time. Light slowly ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Ten kilometers out we dropped to below a hundred meters, sea-skimming and churning the water behind us as we split the night. We made landfall and proceeded to fly nap-of-the-earth inland down the mouth of what once would have been a raging ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer “Do you want to go on an adventure?”, asks Lee. “To where?”, answers Lindsay. “Up and into the universe.” “In that?” “Yes, in that. It’s an M2-F2 Star Hopper.” “Don’t you have anything better to do than hop around the stars? ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Jesus came strolling through the corn, two women in winged armour following behind. He had a hemisphere of light flickering about his head and nothing caught on his robes as he walked barefoot across our yard to stand in front of my ...

Author: Alzo David-West My name is VC-60. I am a mechanical intelligence. The two letters in my name stand for “Virtual Cognition.” The two numbers mean I am the sixtieth-generation model. My makers were not mechanical intelligences. They were men and women. They were ...

Author: Moriah Geer-Hardwick With a single, well-practiced motion, Ernst flicks a cigarette up from the pack and brings it up to his mouth. The filter barely touches his lips, but as he swipes the pack away, it remains behind, dangling precariously. His other hand comes up, ...

Author: Ian Hill We came to the dead planet, left our vessel in orbit, and used an old mining lighter to reach the surface. The gray, withered husk of a world was even bleaker than it looked from above. It was a dry place, all wind-scoured and slaggy, porous, rolling—or ...

Author: Suzanne Borchers *This is Romey, Outpost 324, District 19, Outerlands. #Homebase here. Go ahead, Romey. *Thank the Stars! I’ve been transmitting for weeks with no answer. #Homebase here. Go ahead, Romey. *Catastrophe! #Standard procedures must be followed. What ...