Close your traps

Author: DJ Lunan For centuries clever clever men have sought in vain to authenticate the future invention of time travel. But I have proof. Laura is a seven-foot partially invisible time traveller from 3031 zip-tied to a hairdresser’s chair in a flat above a carpet shop in ...

A Good Death

Author: Mina The prisoner was marched across Swan Bridge. It was the pride of space station Methuselah-3, a crystal bridge designed to resemble the curve of a swan’s neck. It was not actually structurally possible and was held in place by a force field. It was a world apart ...

Meeting Hakim

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer He spins round, leveling a huge pistol. The pursuers halt in disarray. A breeze whips between silent vehicles, picking up litter and dust. His enhanced eyes blaze red in the muzzle flash. A deafening report echoes as Sven backflips to ...

Bird Song

Author: Morrow Brady Meetings downtown were always a bore and as the driverless cab pulled up, I began mentally preparing for what lay ahead. I blackened the windows to stop the view of the street beggars and urban decay. They always brought me down. "Good morning Sir. ...

A Midnight Stroll

Author: Katelyn Prince The rolling hills and grassy fields glowed beneath the soft light of the full moon. The air was cool and clear, the breeze hardly noticeable as it brushed against the long grass. Stars lay scattered across the deep blue sky, twinkling and reflecting ...

The Rest

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock No one ever supposes they'll witness a miracle. Mary Ann McBlake witnessed one when she was ten years old. And then she had to live with it for the rest of her life. "Why do you deny it?" her granddaughter Cinthia asked her. "Why can't you ...

Drop

Author: Iain Macleod Drop pods are not made for comfort. They are made to launch a soldier at supersonic speed from a dropship, fly him into position and decelerate fast enough to prevent impact from killing but at the same time not so fast that the g-forces from ...

Rehab

Author: Ann Zimmerman “The treatments aren’t working,” I tell my assistant, Marcy. From the observation window, we watch our prisoner writhe on the sterile bed. Marcy increases the output and the patient screams. His tortured body begins to convulse. “Shut it down,” I ...

Randall

Author: David Henson Randall disengages from his charging port when Director Gravasin of the Institute for Research on Eternal Life enters the office. “Good morning, Director. It's early. Are you getting enough sleep?" "Don't start, Randall. Activate the Cellular Decay ...

The Reality Next Door

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer A savannah night is interrupted by the snarls of attacking lions. I hear screams, see flashes of weapons as wielders fall. They keep popping in. I’ve become adept at making sure they don’t leave. While watching, my mind returns – as usual ...

In My Image

Author: Richard Wren Grampa Leg heaved his large, square frame from the floor and trundled across the family room to where the youngster sat. Deep in concerned thought, the child twiddled his long fingers, picking at the rubbery fingertips. Ma watched from the corner of the ...

Louder Than Words

Author: Mina Captain Agnes Parker rubbed the back of her sore neck and rolled her shoulders. If anyone had told her how many tedious tasks a captain had to deal with every week… Currently, she was examining the ship supply lists as certain items kept going astray. She lived ...

Blame

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock We came to their planet to study them. But we found their understanding of the universal mechanisms to be shockingly limited. We've managed to locate only one man, thus far, among billions, who possesses any true grasp of the situation. His name ...

Afterwards

Author: Josie Gowler Since I woke up in the base hospital, there’s been a steady stream of people coming and going and being nice to me in between. The burns on my hands are being dealt with: they don’t hurt at all now. The skin just feels tight under the bandages. When ...

The Incident on Arazan

Author: Alzo David-West Tomi Mura, a specialist in inter-planetary law, sat aboard a six-person capsule en route to Planet Arazan. The magnetic-field modulator of the small hyperbolically propulsed vessel gave her the sensation of gliding gently through the depths of an ...

Official Sleep

Author: Alexander D Jones The queue was massively long. Fridays were always the busiest. Everyone would clock off early so that they could get a decent night’s sleep. Garth was probably thirty people away from the check-in point and the building’s entrance. He checked ...

Ready Teddy

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Where did your rock ‘n’ roll fable go, Ella May? Did it get lost way back amongst the evergreens, or did it get too close to the railroad tracks, and go under them drivin’ wheels? “Can I help you?” I remember when you bought the first ...

In Space, Your Meals Are Determined by Hired Cooks

Author: Alex Z. Salinas I pressed my palm against the reinforced window in my bedroom. The glass felt cool, exactly like they felt in my previous life. The difference was that on the other side of this one, there was stretched before me an infinite and ever-expanding black ...

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