Author : Beck Dacus Six feet from the cave entrance, we all turned on our flashlights and moved toward the mouth. The only way to get down was a steep flight of natural rock stairs, giving us footholds while also threatening to impale us. The only way I could tell that I ...

Author : Priya Chand, Featured Writer Red lights flapped in an artificial breeze. For the observer whose data banks were lacking, most of the lamps were identical: a big round input, and an output sized *just so*, coming together to penetrate and un-penetrate, over and over ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “I’ll bring your drinks over in a moment, but the steak sandwich will be about ten minutes.” With a flick of her auburn hair, Teria moves away, navigating the tables, chairs and customers with an unconscious grace. She works fourteen ...

Author : Rollin T. Gentry Jay poked his head through the open doorway and glanced around. Standard fare: coffee pot in the back, whiteboard up front, A-is-for-Apple, Z-is-for-Zebra signs all over the walls. If not for the small poster on the outside of the door, he might ...

Author : Casey Cooke All robots had been programmed to fear the ocean. A few level fours, who had also been programmed with risk-taking protocols, would walk right to the edge of it. But even they, eventually, would succumb and back away. Level sixes - caregivers to infants ...

Author : Beck Dacus “VEYAN! COME LOOK AT THIS!” I looked up from my bio-sweep and bolted to the sound of Carlos’ voice, knowing that the rest of the team would follow me. After rounding a few corners of the empty city, I came upon the intern and followed his gaze to the ...

Author : Grace Franzen In 1721 Mary Margaret Thornton is sitting in the shallows of the river when the dairy farmer’s son finds her. He rises often this early, on the breath of dawn, specifically of a purpose to find her before anyone else does. When he sees her in the ...

Author : Alicia Cerra Waters Don’t they understand that we have no room for them here? Think about it. We are on the only blue planet in a galaxy of gas giants and colossal boulders caught in orbit, most of which are about to be swallowed up by their swollen, burning suns. ...

Author : David Maskill Look below: gravitational lensing but with added sugar. Ocean currents were rendered hazy and golden. The whole planet was swathed in caramelised whorls of cloud turned syrup. Even the stars twinkled a little too excitedly. “Have you been ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer I’m reading his thermo-image through the door before he knocks: average human temperature distribution, no suspicious cool patches. Something chilly in his hand. Tucking the Sternig pulse pistol into the back of my trousers, I open the ...

Author : Samuel Stapleton I stared at our instructor, unsure if I’d heard him correctly. “You want me to what?” He sighed and stepped back. “Everyone here believes that any human that loses contact with Interface3 would suffer irreversible neurological and physical ...

Author : R. S. Alexander v1: Derek Taylor was sipping coffee in a Los Angeles restaurant when a recruiter from XygmaCorp walked past his table, accidentally brushing against his shoulder. 57,143 down votes Top-rated comment: “Wait, this is happening in a world with ...

Author : Rab Ferguson Here at the end, there’s the last of everything. The last boiling kettle, the last ringing of guitar strings, the last letting go of hands. This is the last writing. It’s hard to know what to say. I could make something from the end of us. Draw some ...

Author : David Henson "So, the Missus qualifies for a full body refresh, but you don't," Georgie says solemnly, looking first at Beverly then Michael. "Too much HoverGolf, not enough volunteer work?" "Something like that," Michael says. "I should've changed my ways when they first ...

Author : Peter Merani I like to watch it all go dark. To see if the world knows from up here how the evening folds in half. I used to think each individual sunset was its own glorious diamond. I would run to the top of the hill with Chawa as the sun flared up and flickered vibrant magentas ...

Author : Bob Newbell Dalynn sighed as the space elevator approached Depot #4 of the Ring Around The World. He had had some trepidation from the moment he'd stepped onto the elevator in Pontianak, Indonesia. He'd been invited to come to high lunar orbit by his friend, ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Papa Six, touchdown.” Inside the wall, the grounds are laid out formally, in concentric rings. Each ring of growth is separated from the next by a ring of lawn. Big trees, then little trees with flowers on, then brambles and ...

Author : Desmond White It was maybe the smell – the stench of it – which wafted from its corridor invisibly, or on a bad morning very visible, a blushing mist. The cloying reek, like a bouquet of rich, rotting flowers, congealed on windshields and the grease on fingertips ...