Author : Angela McQuay It was a fern. Just a fern. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. Granted, it’s a big fucking fern, sitting over there in the corner of the living room on its sturdy steel legs, like a sentinel keeping watch. My wife Joy rescued it from Ol’ ...

Author : Gray Blix Patient 7 lapsed into v-fib, triggering his brain implant and the one in Dr. Gottfried, miles away, who dropped his tuna salad sandwich and slumped in his office chair. "What's happening to me?" thought the patient," as he looked down on the Code Blue ...

Author : David K Scholes Galactic Commitment “You performed well,” said my unit commander mark 5A droid “courage above and beyond the call of duty and all that.” “They were only virtual reality simulations,” I tried to hose his excessive yet perceptibly mechanical ...

Author : Lindsay Haber The bed swallows her lovers. They are all the same, the type of men who can’t commit, the type of men who only want those who don’t want them back, the type who leave during the night, after sex, the moment something real is said, leave when they ...

Author : Alexandra Balasa Good evening, Mr. President, I understand that my actions have been misconstrued as a declaration of war against your nation. This is an unsound hypothesis. War is a human invention borne of the neurotoxins you term ‘emotions.’ As my people have ...

Author : Robert Lafosse I stayed up late, flicking through the returns as the polls closed. It was a close match. It took almost 10 minutes from the last poll closing until the votes were all counted and the winner was chosen. Its avatar came online almost immediately and ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Dust settles in a silence broken only by the slow drip of shattered optics. The fools who thought it nothing but a bar brawl are either fled, dead, or wishing they had while pretending to be. In the centre of the room, a petite woman in ...

Author : Dan Gravley "You're not aware of your true purpose, Bill." said a female voice. He jolted out of bed. "Must have been a bad dream" he thought. "You're not living the kind of life that you think you are." Bill spun around in his small room. This time he knew he ...

Author : Philip Berry Olwen, the expedition’s chief archaeologist, was the first to see it. A line of metal protruding above the sand. There was a dip by the windward edge, where eddies of air had begun the excavation. She knew that she had found the top of the ancient ...

Author : Nicholas Ilacqua Bill asks, “What’s the other thing?” Then putting down the glass of synthetic whiskey, he runs his hands through his greasy long hair, staring straight ahead. Pete looks at Jason with a squint and listens, scratching his stubbly salt and ginger ...

Author : Janet Shell Anderson I don’t like the severed heads. Well, nobody does. I like evenings along the Potomac, down near where my father worked; a civil engineer in the White House, he designed the new deep shelter and the tunnels. But I mostly stay in Silver ...

Author : Beck Dacus From Earth, the lie was invisible. Looking up would present you with a deep blue sky, maybe some clouds sometimes, and a bright yellow sun (white from Low Earth Orbit). But I was on the Moon; nothing was the same. Here there was stark grey ground, a ...

Author : Angela McQuay “Flickenborge?” Jason asks. I hand him the remote. Like most couples who really get each other, Jason and I have developed a language of our own. “Grinkenlarger.” “You’re welcome.” You have to hand it to Jason, the man is damn attractive. ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Stan punches my shoulder as I use part of a Glenniser weapon to fix his rifle. “Is there anything you can’t do?” I grin and cuff him toward the battle. Things I can’t do? Her father knew - I can still hear his words: “You fought ...

Author : Liana Mir The surgeon was laying out her scalpels in the tray when she dropped one, stopped cold. The pulse of the city washed through her beneath her skin, a sensation itching through her brain and mind, the power a sudden shock. She hadn't started the operation ...

Author : David K Scholes “He’s on the Universe list,” said the enigmatic entity. “My son only lived for 2 days,” I replied astonished. “Though he survived my wife who died soon after giving birth to him.” “Oh, he’s on the list all right, as is everyone who ever knew ...

Author : Morrow Brady The reward for being the first nanobot to give itself a name was a frontal attack by the world’s tiniest army. Scid, as it so called itself, didn't hesitate. As nanobot brethren surged forward, Scid ran a preloaded defensive manoeuvre - titled - ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Doctor Jessup is terribly polite. We’re stirring our coffees before he asks his first question. “What started it?” I smile: “Why do they all add up to six?” “Pardon?” “You asked what started it. That question is the answer. I ...