Author: Bob Freeman You're riding on a carousel. The horsey rises and falls as the carousel spins. Look! A brass ring! Grab it. Good for you! You've succeeded at the "grab the brass ring" level. There's another carousel spinning counterclockwise, half-a meter above ...

Author: Don Nigroni The Time Scope is a device that can detect knowledge about the past. This knowledge can then be converted into images and sounds by the Presenter, a special super-computer. Say you want to know who the murderer is. You could use the Time Scope to ...

Author: David Barber The machine followed the edge of a shallow methane lake, picking its way between ice boulders scattered like plump cushions along the shoreline. Because it was getting near to the recovery site, the machine decided to halt for a while to upload the ...

Author: Majoki Of course I lured you in. Tempted you with Pleasure, dazzled you with Beauty, disarmed you with Peace. It’s Nature’s way. At least on my planet. Don’t fight it. Don’t struggle against it. You’ve lost. Accept it. Lean into it. Melt into me. I’m already ...

Author: Bill Cox Sirens sound behind him and it feels like the walls are closing in. Always running as fast as he can down the street, but his legs are tiring already despite the adrenalin surging through his body. A small lane leads off into darkness and if he can’t run ...

Author: Jeff Kennedy Things had changed since the last zombie apocalypse. New classes of drugs made zombies less dead, returning them to self-awareness, allowing them to operate as more or less functioning members of society. Silent, staring, and smelling delicately of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The nightlight downgrades again, becoming a dim glow. Frankie squints at it, then turns his attention back to me, pupils wide above the patched duvet cover that contains more shredded dry rubbish than actual duvet. “Tell me about the Call ...

Author: Marion Lougheed "Where are the colours?" the billionaire shifts in his seat. "I know what outer space looks like. I’ve seen the photos." I produce my most winsome spaceflight-attendant smile. "Ah, yes, well, those photos show parts of the light spectrum our eyes ...

Author: Alastair Millar The planet was a blue dewdrop, shining defiantly against the blackness of the Void. It was hard to think of it as home, after twenty years struggling to make Sicyon viable; but all their efforts had been wasted, and they’d had no choice but to ...

Author: Hillary Lyon The coronal mass eruption went unnoticed by a good many sentient creatures on the fourth planet from the sun. Engineers, though, noted communications equipment and most industrial machines continued to run without benefit of terrestrial power sources. ...

Author: Thomas Godfrey I should have just pleaded guilty. I should have just gone off to some decrepit moon somewhere and put in my ten years of hard labour or whatever it was they were going to have me doing. Breaking my back in the mines of Tormen IV, or being drafted ...

Author: Thomas Desrochers It is one of the great mysteries of the late 21st century that the land of Alaska remains as nearly untrammeled as it was a hundred years before. Though its harsh climate was well-preserved by the collapse of the Atlantic Gyre, the exodus from ...

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 ...