Author: Irene Montaner I was never good at holding my breath underwater. So the moment the doors closed I knew I only had seconds left to live. Seconds left to think of Luna, alone in that escape pod. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. I used to play that game on hot ...

Author: David Barber “Hi, granddad. It’s Tom." His granddad’s puzzled gaze flicked between the brothers. “Look, Corbin’s here. We’ve come to see you.” “Christ,” muttered Corbin. “Probably keep them under the spell all day. Total immersion software is the new...” Tom didn't know ...

Author: Tim Ulrich The doors opened and the small throng Joel was standing with, moved to board the lift. They shuffled into the car, jostling against each other as they settled into an impromptu formation for the brief, but cramped, journey up to the Centerline ...

Author: Lance J. Mushung I stepped onto the yellow and black transfer disk mounted on the gray deck of Delia Akeley and began bouncing like a child expecting candy. I'd be home in moments. Mickie, the A.I. half of the crew, said through the speaker mounted on the ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Cat toys. They have an aisle for cat toys. Of all the gaudy alleys in all the supermarkets and I find myself boxed into the last seconds of existence surrounded by fake mice and pom-poms. I fucking hate cats. I can hear Mrs Graves ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I open my eyes to behold a slit of blue between tenements that descend from lofty, sunlit heights to the sordid mess of which I am a larger part. Lining that strip of clear sky are the blurry, baroque patterns made by fire escapes and ...

Author: Rick Tobin Rotting mangoes proffer disgusting flavors like burning spittle rising into a renovator’s mouth when alien wraiths hiss, rising from charred ruins fallen untold millennia before humanity’s existence. Dearth Crenshaw stood his ground as a maniacal, ...

Author: Suzanne Borchers The back rows of mourners had risen to pay their respects and shuffled toward the old man lying in the casket. The front rows consisting of family and their close friends squirmed a bit waiting for the line to proceed past. Soft musical selections ...

Author: Christopher Lee Buckner The End of All Things Good Alice-8000, a fancy name that meant nothing beyond the fact it made the android seem more advanced than it really was led the Johnson’s into their new room. Speaking in an upbeat voice, Alice stated to the husband and wife, “And ...

Author: David Henson The God Locator, no bigger than a TV remote, projected a hologram of the world with veins of light indicating the presence of God. The projection could be small as a grapefruit or big enough to fill a room. In certain areas, the light sparkled more ...

Author: Janet Shell Anderson “There ought to be bleatsmackers,” Giovanna Tatiana Romanova Baldwin says. She’s come back from nowhere, or maybe Gliese 246, a near perfect copy of Earth that circles a dim red star where she vanished in a rented Black Hole with her personal ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The senator peels from her lover and she thinks of her impending speech and she thinks of her wife and her husband. Her bid to prevent the ISTC’s proposal to travel back in time and kill an infant Hitler will fail. She laments that she is ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Is all I hear. On a world where everything uses parts of the visual spectrum humans don’t, we’d have been better off staying away. Far from its star, the eternally-twilit forests of Modbiaent XIV are protected by interstellar law and, ...

Author: David C. Nutt “Any chance I can talk you out of it?” “Nope.” Dan glanced at a small three by five card he was holding in his palm. Michael raised an eyebrow and pointed to the card with a quizzical look on his face. Dan smiled. “It’s just a motivational phrase I ...

Author : Philip Berry Jake, aged nine, was found with his hands deep in the inverted workings of a 3rd generation litter picker, behind a mineral refinery by outer orbital. He was a mile from home, and it was an hour before bed time. The ten-legged picker had been tipped ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jodi pushed open Jane's door, knocking while it was already swinging inwards and waited until it had closed behind her before speaking. "Next Tuesday at quarter past noon he'll have stopped Bob McKibbon's heart." The announcement was ...

Author: Sam Davis The wind swept down the valley, once dotted with trees but now covered in soot and ash, and rolled through the trench causing Elijah to pull his coat tighter around him. It didn’t help much, it really never did when winter set into southern Kansas. It was ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The last words my Pa said to me were: “Down where the rocks run free, and the colours run like blood.” Not the traditional deathbed wisdom for the young buck, but certainly something to stay with one. After seventeen years of prospecting, ...