Author : Philip Berry We had been on Tenlek III half a year before Yolande struck through. The thin metalloid crust gave way to the sharp end of her hammer, and momentum carried it, her arm, and her shoulder through the ship's degraded shell. Yolande fell forward, off balance, and the ...

Author : E.S. Wynn One ferrous meteor. That's all it took to end it all. That little world– they put up a hell of a fight, far more than any of us expected. When we arrived in-system, they were too busy organizing tribes in massive attempts to wipe each other out to notice us. Hell, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...