White Hot Plasma’s Light
Author : Rollin T. Gentry
"Allow compassion, as a white-hot plasma's light, to flood your core memory, growing brighter every millionth clock cycle."
My students -- all ten thousand of them -- sit concentrating, legs crossed, optics disengaged, heads bowed. A small sea of gleaming ...
Snap Knowledge
Author : Beck Dacus
Today was the day. I had gotten the bike the day before, and rented the Snap gear even before that. I pulled into the driveway, pulled them both out of the back, and called my son, Cameron, outside.
Watching him come outside and look at the bike with wonder ...
Identity Theft
Author : David Atos
Detective Danielson stalked into the alley. The victim lay slumped against the wall, hidden from the street by a pile of refuse. The scene was illuminated by the flashing red and blue lights of the patrol car, and by the strobes of the forensics team ...
The Familiar
Author : Joshua Barella
It's off Margaret Street, tucked in an alley, marquee blinking fluorescent orange.
Duck into the interspacial hole-in-the-wall just as it starts to rain--a clap of thunder as the door creaks closed behind me.
I’m greeted by a pretty, freckled Venusian at ...
Blood and Dust
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
There’s a gun lying at my feet. A real, projectile firing antique. I’ve never seen one. They’re archaic. Brutal. A weapons system from a century marked by inequality, violence and lies.
My eye tracks from the gun to a pale hand, stark against ...
Crackpot
Author : Alex Creece
9/11 was a political cabaret; a lightshow of theatrics and holographics; a cirque du skyline.
We never went to any moon past Kubrick’s imagination or the blinding eclipse that is organised government.
Colonel Sanders is a myth.
Zeph lay tucked beneath the safe ...
Terms and Conditions
Author : David C. Nutt
“Here’s your discount biscotti”
“But I don’t want a biscotti.”
“Well, it comes with your coffee. You usually buy a biscotti so it’s now all bundled in with your coffee.”
“But I don’t want a biscotti today.”
“That may be true sir, but as you are a ...
Pinnacle of Morality
Author : Beck Dacus
The advent of artificial intelligence scared a lot of people. Creating the equivalent of a human or better had many philosophical and moral questions, but the main concern was how the A.I. would interpret humanity. Would it look at what we are doing and decide the ...
The Spire
Author : Philip Berry
They came every week to worship. In well-ordered rows hundreds of thousands of adults and children shuffled in to take their places. The church’s interior stretched beyond the limits of normal vision. Its spire, converging gradually above them, faded to grey. ...
Protectors of Political Correctness
Author : Callum Wallace
Venomous flashes of blue and pink light ran across the thin plasteel veneer keeping his face separated from the filth in the room. Bass rumbles continued to shake up through his feet as the music of the nightclub continued, but the filters on his helmet managed ...
King of the Ruins
Author : Aaron Emmel
The King of the Ruins was perched on the crumbled wall of an old building. He appeared to have been sleeping, but jerked up like a startled bird when I approached. His overlarge, once-white tunic flapped about him as he turned to face me.
"A story about ...
Tiki Town
Author : Amy Fogelstrom Chai
On the roof, at least twenty-five stories up, with LED party lights strung up over a cheesy bamboo bar jury-rigged from last year’s staff picnic get together we have a regular Tiki Town. The night sky is crisp and the lights twinkle from twilight triggered ...
Ante Virus
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
“Why can’t I connect to the nets?”
At last. I flip the retainer off the dead-man switch and sit up slowly.
“Because I’ve isolated you.”
Silence, broken only by the hum of processors working hard.
“There’s no use trying to break out. ...
Second Chance
Author : Frank Robledano Espín
"Process complete."
Slowly, he opened his eyes, taking in the pure white light of the transference chamber, breathing in the antiseptic smell, feeling the excessive warmth of the room on his face. Apart from the ergocreche he was in, the space was bare. ...
The Libraries
Author : Beck Dacus
I have worked for eleven years figuring out how we lost everything. Anecdotes passed down from people who were alive before this War, I have discovered, have long since deteriorated into dimly remembered nonsense. I don't know much about the time before, but I now ...
Being
Author : Kristin Kirby
They’ve locked me in the device like they do every time. But this time I’m putting up a fight. I scissor and kick my cramped legs, wave my arms, and the device rocks a bit. That’s good. I’m stronger than before.
It was all a blur, my coming here. Images ...
A Legacy Denied
Author : Denny Knights
William struggled against the padded leather straps that held his hands and legs pinned against the surgical gurney which he was laying upon. He writhed and squirmed as much as he could against the restraints, hoping that they’d break, but it was a fruitless ...
De-termination
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
It always bothered me that the robot apocalypse, as portrayed by our scribes, had the robots emulating the strategies from the last recorded human-inflicted mass-extermination events. Surely, being robot overlords, they would have a better way to ...
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