Author: John McLaughlin Semi-Finals Status Update: Seven-in-Absentia vs The Last Dragon. One hour remaining! The text crawls across Danny's white suburban bedroom ceiling--bright and blood red--and descends behind the armoire on the far wall. He ignores it and continues ...

Author: J Frank Wright Clank. Clank. Clank. The little silver pyramid hovered to the kitchen sink. Two metal arms emerged and started doing the dishes. Clank. Clank. Clank. Dan thought that something must have broken when it crashed in the ...

Author: Jamie Bainbridge-Wood One- The Ghost is Another Machine The point of this exercise is observation but I'm distracted, observing that Dwyer's return will cause some surprise. The house he has chosen sits at the top of a steep slope, between two snowy hills. The ...

Author: Alicia Cerra Waters My mother came home from work that night with the corners of her mouth turned towards her chin. She took off her yellow fluorescent vest and hardhat, which was scarred with dirt and the colorless remains of the unionist sticker she’d scratched ...

Author: Steven Watson “It’s not the end of the world.” This was how Clara consoled herself: by affirming the exact opposite. For it was the end of the world. The earth was dying, and only a small mountainous corner remained habitable. A band of several hundred humans ...

Author: Jes Sanders “This is war now.” Murfree Tain blinked his retinal feed off and scowled at the cityscape sliding beneath him. He couldn’t bear watching his company’s stock dive any further. His companion, Bill, clicked a Zendorphin dispenser that doled out one ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The moon picks out bright lines from the vegetation-shrouded hulks at the sides of the road. High above, our Night Ravens duel with watch drones. So high that any kills fall outside our ken, leaving the night undisturbed. “A long time ...

Author: Janet Shell Anderson I married for money, wasn’t much good at it. I used to hunt. Last week, driving west from Valentine on 20, I noticed the roads were empty. Not a stock truck, horse van, pickup. Not an old rez beater, though we’re pretty far south of Pine ...

Author: Palmer Caine Every hair on Dexter’s body stood erect, his pupils dilated and his ears began to twitch. Xians’ caused this reaction in humans when on the hunt, it was defensive. In memory time would slow, every sense overloaded. He’d been working the Plaza all ...

Author: Alzo David-West Allen Etter was stranded in deep space. The propulsors of his small hypercraft had exploded, and he was thrown off course. His initial hope had been to make geostationary orbit in the gravity field of the nearby artificial planetoid Beta until the ...

Author: Rick Tobin “May I speak frankly?” Preston Daniels stood before Secretariat Chrisom, ruler straight, staring at the Marscape beyond his superior’s office windows. “With care, Preston. You always have delicate propositions, often nothing to do with our mission: ...

Author: Helena Hypercube ‘Ndrea pressed herself into the blood-soaked ground and swore under her breath. She had never had a peace-brokering mission go this badly wrong before. Someone in the Central Office had severely underestimated the volatility of the situation, and ...

Author: David Henson As I take in the barren, alien landscape in orange and tan, I notice someone at the top of a steep rise not far away. I shout for help, wave one of the crutches I've fashioned from a landing strut. The figure disappears over the hill. I struggle back ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Sweating people are moving quickly down the High Street, frantically making angular edifices with cardboard boxes and spray paint. I’m working with Heather, rigging cat’s cradles of fishing line between the trees and bushes in the little ...

Author: David Barber In the darkened room, snores come from the bed. The dim figure in the doorway is noiseless on bare feet, except when its toenails, two inches long and yellow as piss, scrape the polished floorboards. There it is now, silhouetted against the embers ...

Author: Roger Ley We were all staring up at the sky, waiting for the ‘Dawn Treader’ to light up her Hawking drives and start the journey to Alpha Centauri. There were hundreds of us, all members of the design and construction team with our partners and children, partying at ...

Author: Salvatore Difalco Clanking past the barber shop, the parking bot looked ramshackle—steel alloy and green rubber, with the jaw of a hippopotamus. “They could’ve made those things more attractive,” said Varner, a Third Grade Nonpolluter, proud of his pathological ...

Author: Mina Amaya strode down the gently curving corridor, glad she had worn her sensible heels to the reception. All the corridors at the Lublina Space Station curved gently. It made you long for straight lines and sharp, right-angled corners. She was worried and hoping ...