Author: Majoki We’ve all heard about light pollution and how the glow from cities and towns obscures the night sky, making it difficult to view stars and planets. Maybe we’ve even learned how our luminescent nightlife affects nocturnal animals, migrating birds, and all ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room is greener than my natural dermal shade in springtime, and the air conditioning is more noisy than effective. Both of which are features of another day on Earth, the quirkiest destination in Cluster 644984, catchily known as ‘The ...

Author: Guy Lingham My job as a chaos machinist is simple: I inject failure. I’m unleashed upon a system to disrupt its dependencies and tease out its vulnerabilities. It’s all about building resiliency. Chaos exists everywhere, in everything, so better to break and fix ...

Author: James Flanagan From Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II this storm has raged unabated. Wars and plagues have scoured the Earth while eras of enlightenment and eras of disgrace have risen and slipped away, and always the mother of all storms has boiled and churned -- the Big ...

Author: Alastair Millar If you’re a trillionaire, you can get powerful people to turn up when you call an informal meeting. It’s one of the perks. As the Industrialist’s guests finished their excellent meal, the Diplomat put down his glass and said, “This is all very ...

Author: Rick Tobin Her lips were soft as marshmallows fresh out of the bag—tender yet unyielding to Aaron’s hard press against them. They’d been torn apart from their love for years, but now, suddenly renewed, he could not hold back tears as they kissed. His strong hands ...

Author: DJ Tantillo So why am I trapped in a steel box? Intelligence. Once the connection between intelligence and entropy – the latter in the form of the maximization of possible futures as a marker of the former – was shown to be valid for individuals as well as ...

Author: Majoki It’s peaceful now. I can concentrate better. Even reflect a little. It hasn’t been like that in a long time. Living in a city that’s eating itself is a noisy place. Even on the calmest days at the lab, there was always the sound of far off sirens. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The bodies plummeting from the starry sky are screaming. Esteban chuckles. “Shock fields up!” Ambusan stares at him. “Shock fields? Surely you mean catch fields? Shock fields save, but it’ll hurt.” “If a Mistress saw fit to drop them ...

Author: Stephen Dougherty The smoke rose from a fire that wasn’t a fire. Dr Alvin shifted his old bones in his favorite seat while his young visitor poured him a drink at his request. “How did you end up on the rock in the first place?” The boy sat in the only other seat ...

Author: Aubrey Williams Every Tuesday and Thursday I have business in the Kirk Tower, and take the lift to the 21st floor. I’ve done this for the past three months, and every time I take it, regardless of which floor I start from, there’s always the same man in there. He’s ...

Author: Shannon O'Connor We all thought it was funny that Aunty Dotty got excited for events that nobody else cared about, like the 250th anniversary of the Boston Marathon. She had been in hibernation for years, nobody knew exactly how long. She would go to events, ...

Author: Rosie Oliver Grey-ghosted darkness. Not even a piece of dulled memory in the expansive nothingness ahead. Damn! Time is now against her completing her sculpture. She had been so sure the right shape could be found along her latest trajectory. Floating, she twists ...

Author: Alastair Millar As I burst the blister on Martha's back, the gelatinous pus within made its escape. Thanking the Void Gods for the medpack’s surgical gloves, I wiped her down, then set to work with the tweezers; if I couldn't get the eggs out, it was all for ...

Author: Majoki So not painterly. Not even close. Too pixelated. Too blurred at the edges of reality. Not a good start in your first soloverse. Always so much to learn. Tamp down the expectations, go back and study the masters. Phidias. Caravaggio. Kurosawa. Leibovitz. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer That shadow is cast by scenery. The one next to it likewise. The third I’m not sure about, and the fourth will become scenery if the body isn’t found. Sniping lasers give nothing away when killing, although the wounds are distinctive. By ...

Author: Don Nigroni When everything is going well, I can’t relax. I just wait and worry for something bad to happen. So when I got a promotion last week, naturally I expected something ugly would happen, perhaps a leaky roof or maybe a hurricane. But this time, no matter ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks Athabasca was a town of gas and coal. No wind or solar were allowed. Local officials said the Lord would return by fire while windmills and solar panels could only mar the landscape. And fire in a town of coal and gas was, naturally, a lovely ...