Author : David Henson Ellen watches as the machine, bigger than Harold, starts vibrating, its red and blue lights blinking slowly. Gradually the vibration becomes a loud grinding sound and the lights a purple blur. When everything stops, Harold swings open the large door, ...

Author : Jules Jensen The world is dangerous. “Yes, I know this.” No, you don’t. People will kill you for water, for food, for anything you have that is even slightly better than what they have. They don’t care about your past, your present, your future. They don’t ...

Author : Leanne A. Styles The Guardian: I watch with sadness as Anna tugs her brush through her damp hair, yanking unsympathetically when she hits a tangle. She never used to be so angry and uncaring. She was fun and full of joy ‒ infectiously so. For twenty-five ...

Author : Philip Berry Carl insisted that he travel alone. The invitation was sent to him, the wording made it clear that they were interested in his ideas, and the fact that he was only fifteen made no difference. His ideas were mature, that was all that ...

Author : David Atos You look like a worm to me. No, please, don’t be offended. That’s the best way I can describe it to you. To your poor mind, trapped only able to see three dimensions, while you zip along on a fourth. Four simple dimensions, it’s so limiting. A ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Abomination!” “You’re very rude.” I rotate my right forearm through a rapid one-eighty. There is a ‘snap’. “And dead.” Bamid rises from cover: “Weren’t you supposed to capture him?” I smile: “He was a veteran of Tobruk. His feedback-scarred ...

Author : Elora Powell Just an ordinary day. Woke up. Had breakfast. Went to work. Came home and made coffee. Sat down in front of the TV. Some old movie was on. Black and white. About a mad scientist and his wife. “Lance! You have to stop the experiment. He’s been in ...

Author : Matthew Harrison Susan led Tommy by the hand into the kindergarten forecourt, past the big red climbing frame. “No, not yet,” she said, dragging him back. “Wait until the break.” “You know,” she said to Marjory, who was likewise preoccupied with her son, “I ...

Author : Tiasha J. Garcia "This was not how I imagined this going." The words drifted into the pristine silence, disturbing nothing and no one. “I--I thought there’d be more time.” The two grotesquely bloated figures slumped over the bolted-down commissary tables ...

Author : Joseph Lyons I put my mother in a home a few months ago when her Alzheimer’s became too much for me to deal with. Now here I stood with early-onset, refusing to go the same route. The doctor nodded. He knew why I’d signed up. My job was simple. Travel forward, ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer He’s at the door ag- BANG! Loud. Never try and creep up on a paranoid woman with pre-menstrual hypervigilance and a pistol. I usually spend three days screaming at random people for doing things so trivial they didn’t know they were ...

Author : Philip Berry "Just see what you can do with it Tak, if you'd be so good. No great urgency." muttered Johnson, Alec Tak's immediate superior in the Office of Colonies (First Wave). The buff folder landed on Alec's desk with a slap and lay there like an unclaimed ...

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer My eyes were the first to go. They'd been deteriorating since my mid thirties, and after a bacterial infection in my early forties I couldn't focus on anything anymore. I had coverage, so I had them replaced. I remember the change ...

Author : David Henson Ro and Ju are holding hands on a platform under a busy leviway when a sparrow lands nearby. Ro releases Ju's hand, draws his DeathRay, and fires. The sparrow glows brightly, then disappears. "Nice shot," Ju says. Ro steps back and shoots her in the ...

Author : Joseph Lyons A few years ago I was lucky enough to land a reasonably well paid job. Like most well paid jobs in this system it meant not great work in a not great place. It was a mining facility on an uncomfortably hot but habitable planet. We were encouraged to ...

Author : Jules Jensen He looked like the most average business man in the world. He even carried a briefcase in one hand. I wondered if he packed away a pitchfork or angel wings or horns or a halo in that thing. These days, no one could tell if they were selling their soul ...

Author : D.J. Rozell Liam’s eyes wandered down the conference table of potential investors calibrating what level of formality would be perceived as both confident and competent. “OK, so there are many dating apps available. Some of them even make money. However, they all ...

Author : Suzanne Borchers The black button seemed to sneer from its instrument panel at the two technicians facing each other with their hands resting on either side of it. They were the only two humans left on the warship. Neither had tasted battle with the aliens. They ...