Author: David Dumouriez Rex sleeps a lot more than they do. Well, that’s not so difficult: they don’t sleep! Instead they put themselves on standby, which complicates matters for Rex when he wakes up. Sadly, whatever he does, he can’t make them hear him as he lacks the ...

Author: Emily Kinsey A high-pitched scream tore into the night air, and Jules, leaning against the battered frame leading into her little brother’s room, uncrossed her arms and reflexively placed her hands over her ears. “Mom, can’t you get him to shut up?” Jules asked. ...

Author: Majoki Thor got thunder. Prometheus got fire. Shiva got a laser eye. Me? I got a measly quark. Smallest thing in the universe. Two and a half trillion times smaller than a grain of sand. What’s a god supposed to do with that? Make the masses tremble and ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Nineteen hundred tomorrows, and of them, only I got to see a dawn. The world below is still burning in places: unfortunate for the natives that their home arrived at the same strategically important position as the main battle fleets of ...

Author: Frances Koziar I had only paid for an hour of the tech, and when the end came, I wasn’t ready for it. I had a visor over my eyes, muffs on my ears, finger-control gloves on my hands, and a sensory top suit, but I didn’t feel any of it. I had gone off the beaten ...

Author: Maudie Bryant Cool water wraps around me, my skin dappled by the summer sun through the rippling surface. Laughter echoes down the shore where friends splash without care. I push back a loose strand of hair, and catch a flash of what looks like glitter clinging to ...

Author: C.R. Kiegle My memories go back only three months, but I know I am older than that. Much older. I can feel it in the grit and the grinding sounds as I move, gears gone years without servicing. There’s not much time to think about how old my bones may be, however. ...

Author: B.M. Gilb I have never rested because I am not built for sleep. I never tire, and I never power down. I am programmed to fight until the sky darkens, and the three suns of our planet cease to shine their endless light. Our human enemies have sleep built into them ...

Author: Don Nigroni I’m using pen and paper to write this for a reason. Please excuse my poor penmanship. My brother, James, was quite the success. I wasn’t jealous, just proud. Of course, it wasn’t easy being second best out of two, namely, in last place. James was a ...

Author: Majoki Snug in my craft, taking each spacetime curve to a smooth jazz arrangement of “Just My Imagination,” it became clear. Things were slowing. We were winding down. It’d been a good ride. Not in every age and not for everybody, but for enough of humanity, we’d ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The loading bay is spotlessly clean - the sort of polish only drone cleaners can achieve. Of all the things officers love, shiny metal in any form still wins. “Captain Reese.” I turn to Sarah. She’s shiny too, but only in places. By the ...

Author: Michael T Schaper Serena felt a little strange as she stepped out of the clinic and into the street. Not surprising, since she’d just made herself immortal. She stopped to check the road before going any further. It was full of people going about their ...

Author: Robert White “I always thought the Kremlin or the White House would start it, you know, trip over that whatchamacallit, the nuclear football,” Erik said. “I don’t think it’s actually a football,” Alan said. “It’s a suitcase with a bunch of buttons.” “Cops ...

Author: Dan Leicht Jade slumped into the Captain's chair as she watched her crew on the navigation hub. Their route beeped on the screen in front of her. The four-person crew were relying on her to swoop in for a rescue if needed. Jade crunched down on a kale chip as she ...

Author: Lindsay Thorimbert She was perfect, even if she was so often indignant, given to suspicions and conspiracies. I couldn’t resist her, but I didn’t believe what she said. Not at first. We met in a chat room, less than a year before the internet finally died. She ...

Author: Elizabeth Hoyle “There don’t need to be multiple universes for me to fall in love with you over and over again,” Michael said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “One lifetime must be enough, though there is no such thing as too much time with you. I’ve seen you ...

Author: Alastair Millar How hard could moving be? All I needed to do was mount the antigrav plates at the corners of my unit, then hook the place up to my hex bike and haul it off to its new location. Simple, right? Except Hygeia III seems to delight in making sure that ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jan could taste metal, and feel the pressure and heat outside the cockpit pressing in, the latter slowly baking him inside his flight suit while the former threatened to reduce him to a single dimensionless point in space-time. He'd done ...