Alternates
Author : Bob Newbell
"Another ten billion dollars a year?!" said the Senator incredulously. "And that on top of the billions already spent annually? And for a scientific toy that only worked one time for a few minutes? And that had some kind of radiation leak or something right after ...
Scale
Author : Beck Dacus
For most the difference between being stranded on an island and being stranded on a distant planet is merely numerical. But while stranded on the planet Ergingad, I could feel it.
Probes had been there before, so it had been explored. We knew about the atmosphere, ...
Ghosts
Author : Amy Sutphin
Sargent Pedlson watched the foggy mass forming through the streets from his birds eye vantage in the radio tower. It was thinner than traditional fog, but behaved as though fluid. The ghost oozed through the streets, around the houses, creeping though any crack or ...
God must have blinked
Author : Helstrom
“Hey honey, come look at this.”
I took my bearings and found Samantha's voice, drew a bead on it and pinched space in her direction. She was far out on the edge of the universe, casually riding the expanding frontier.
“What is it?”
“Have a look. Out ...
Shutters on Main
Author : Matthew Marchitto
The rain was heavy and it blurred the faces of the crowd on Main Street. Deb stood in an alley off to the side watching the people move like a herd of cattle. Neon signs for places like Rucker’s Bar and the Harlot Peepshow glowed with muted light. A ...
What We Remember
Author : Thomas Desrochers
Tomov couldn't help but climb up to the marble altar. It was underwhelming: red shroud embroidered with a white shepherd, a single candle, an offering of roses. A quiet place, hidden from the world by the rows of towering quartz, the vast and ancient ceiling ...
Mr. Clean
Author : Rick Tobin
“C’mon, judge, you can’t be serious. That’s an old Earth name for an ancient product. There can’t possibly be trademark claims. There isn’t anything living in North America…it’s under a mile of ice.” Praxton Billings sat up straight before the judge. He rubbed his ...
The Roamer
Author : Ian Hill
Tumultuous ocean waves crashed against the ship’s vertical hull, spraying the flat deck with salt, white froth, and chunks of viscera torn from oceanic creatures by the raging storm that had passed over only a few minutes before. The vessel crested the dune-like ...
Spanners and Dust
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
They call me Wrench. It’s not particularly imaginative, but it does the job. Just like Socket, who still has a case to keep all the fiddly bits together. I like the adaptability and extra weight of a wrench, though. Socket has to be sneaky, coz if ...
Will Work For Electricity
Author : Gray Blix
[In the control room they hear what she hears in stereo and see what she sees on left and right vision monitors.]
A well-dressed man is sitting behind a desk, talking on the phone. His tag IDs him as "Technical Recruiter." She stands nervously until he gestures for ...
The Ripening of the Blue
Author : Tom Hadrava
I will lock you in the dark.
You begin as a pale blue grain of sand taken from an indigo desert. Hold on to life. It is not easy, I agree. Life keeps coming in gusts of wind, short as a sale at a bazaar stall. Soon, it will become a steady surge the colour of ...
Between This and That
Author : Timothy Goss
Mr Lipscombe finished his sandwich.
The bars to the metal cage rattled as he secured the lock. It was a necessary precaution; things were not always as they should be, he remembered especially with new blood.
The cage was constructed for maximum security and ...
Research Authorization
Author : David Atos
Professor Samuel fidgeted excitedly as the chroniton engines whined down. His movements caused showers of Cherenkov radiation in the chamber of the time machine. In his left hand was an audio recorder filled with his observations of early Macedonian pottery ...
Post Oblivion
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
“And what is the world?” The teacher asked the pupil.
The student’s joints straightened as it stood tall, nearly a millimetre, big for a ninety minute old, and it answered. “A jagged chunk of rock, roughly seventy-six kilometres long and forty-two ...
Commitment
Author : A. Katherine Black
The bulkhead door’s round window slowly split in two as Clyde’s vision skewed. He continued pushing air from his lungs. That’s it, his lungs yelled, none left, but he knew they lied like everything did eventually, so he kept on blowing. Every bit of Earth ...
Hard Case
Author : Bob Newbell
The passport control agent looks at me and sighs. "Another one," he says succinctly. His use of "one" rather than the epithet "shellhead" probably has little to do with concern that I might be offended. The woman in front of me got a "Have a nice day" from the man. ...
Behold Ragnarök
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
There is an unacknowledged transcript of the end of Twentieth Fleet. It surfaced a few years after the event that removed a small star system at the far edge of the Milky Way from existence in a flash of glorious colours and strange radiation.
We ...
Fusion
Author : Brian Olszewski
The room reeked of burnt flesh. A fluorescent green halo blinked from the ceiling; the emergency lights animated the thick vapor swirling at the lab’s center, partially occluding the operating table.
Two special-ops soldiers entered, with guns ...
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