Author : James SW Paris They came from outside the solar system, in a ship the size of Mars. We thought it was something natural, then it performed a braking maneuver around Uranus, and the planet’s twenty-seven moons slid out of its way, returning to their normal orbits ...

Author : Suzanne Borchers Wind ground sand into her eyes, nose, and lips. Her unprotected ears caught crystals of silica within their folds. Her eyes burned. She wanted to pick at the stubborn particles with her fingers but forced herself to wait. It would be pointless. She ...

Author : Matthieu C. R. Cartron The planetary nation of Ozda was illiterate—in English and in many other far away languages that is. It was practical to learn the languages of nearby planets, but beyond that it made little sense. A waste of time, actually. Without a ...

Author : Morrow Brady I grew a heart on my intestine to prove my wife wrong. ”You're wasting money Eric. You'll only get cancer” Kara frowned, as I tossed the stem cell unit into the shopping trolley. I knew the risks of growing your own organs, but my mid-life aches and ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer He stands near three metres tall and his smell precedes him. It envelops all who dare approach the being renowned for murderous piracy on a scale never before seen. The wiry lad he towers over is, nigh-impossibly, even filthier. Both are ...

Author : Irene Montaner “And have a nice day,” said the cashier, as he handed me the brown paper bag with my purchases inside. “You too.” I smiled back at the young boy in front of me. Probably no older than twenty and enjoying the thrills of his first job. “No, I ...

Author : Russell Bert Waters Kyle staggered a bit, the bank line in front of him morphed into a field, then a grassy patch of hill, then back to the line. The man ahead of him shot him a suspicious glance, then looked back ahead as though no one existed. Kyle’s ...

Author : Henry Peter Gribbin In the far corner of a basement laundry room of an apartment building a portal to another dimension was located. One of the tenants, a young redhead with bright green eyes by the name of Maureen, had a strong feeling that something wasn’t quite ...

Author : Craig Finlay It seemed fine, to place it there. You were on the weekly trip to the greenhouse with Mom and Dad and Stella holding your hand the whole way as you skipped 10 meters at a time through the light gravity of the inner ring. It was warmer there, drawing ...

Author : Josh Thompson A planet full of gods is not a nice place. Ancient humans knew this and their legends were full of betrayal and conflict and suffering. If anything, the inhuman powers of the gods brought out what was most human in them. That was the ultimate lesson ...

Author : M. Irene Hill A whisking wind stirred up a cauldron of crows that congregated amongst the remains of the centuries-old pagan temple. Accompanying the wind, a young woman of tempestuous temperament and flaming hair. Unconcerned by the rumbling heavens, Akasha ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The Amour Club is light on love and heavy on by-the-minute. It’s popular with non-johns as the full-time privacy mode prevents surveillance and squashes infobuzz down to a whisper of priority feeds. I usually enjoy being anywhere that ...

Author : Kate Haas Alice sat on the railing of Aunt Nat’s fishing pier. It was crowded today. She watched a seagull glide overhead as she picked at her sunburned knees. Alice closed her eyes. The air smelled like saltwater and cheese steaks. Aunt Nat must have started ...

Author : Philip Berry Every child remembers their first visit to the field. They follow the teacher over the low rise that was a burial mound for the first settlers, and down a glass ramp into the excavated field where ranks of men and women stand staring forward. Each is ...

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Walter was led through the facility flanked by four men in combat armor carrying guns. He'd walked these corridors for nearly a decade, but this was all very new to him. At his lab, the soldiers stopped, ushered him inside and turned ...

Author : Suzanne Borchers “Ivan, what the hell is that!” Roger pointed at the creature roosting on the rafter. “It’s a chicken, of course.” Ivan reached up and smoothed one of its orange feathers. “We’ve been doing this dig for how many months on this barren forsaken ...

Author : Iain Macleod "Spare change please, pal?" The couple walked on, oblivious to him. This used to happen in the old days too but for different reasons. Harry had been on the street for almost forty years, ever since the oil price crashed in the mid 2010s. He lost his ...

Author : Jonathan DeCoteau “Stupid quotes are only tweets in disguise.” --unknown (but most likely someone who’s been unfriended) Riley saw the invasive little bug flapping its electronic wings all about him as he stood at the urinal. Riley grabbed the tiny ...