Author: James Lawrence Rhodes "There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery." - Dante Alighieri The tender and sun-reddened skin had begun to peel, large flakes revealed raw nerves. Alakai was not alone in her suffering. Her shipmates ...

Author: Mark Thomas If time travel has taught us anything it’s that inevitability is a slippery subject. My story became mathematically more likely each time I ingested a tablet, but it was never absolutely certain. Every clock puncher understands that he or she will ...

Author: Rick Tobin “Ouch! That hurts!” Clint Aurelius pulled back his tattoo needle from his thirty-something assistant wincing under his application. Clint took some deep breaths while resting his hands from arthritic agony. “No intent to harm…just tidying your ...

Author: Abigail Hughes I know you made it clear we were not supposed to talk during our “break”, but I have something I need to get off of my chest and now that it is impossible for you to automatically know what I’m feeling, I have been reduced to contacting you through ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Europa Nov. 22, 2122 [GMT] 5400 mSv The submersible hovers in the heavy sodium sea 99.8 km below the Europan crust. Steadying it snaps to grid-coordinate: K-V-6-2. “Damn. You sunk my battleship”, quips 2nd Lt. Percy Newberry in a ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a half-kilometre tourist cruiser flying between Adma and Therna. It looks tiny from this distance. Compared to them, it would be at any distance. Douglas Thenix translated the Decoran Stone, an artefact found during the excavation ...

Author: Richard M. O'Donnell, Sr. Norman reached across the Golden Bowl of Mystery and tugged Saffron’s blindfold down over the corner of her eye. “No fair peeking, you can only touch the objects inside the bowl to guess what they are.” Saffron pouted her lips. “Sulking ...

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 ...