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 ...

Author : Beck Dacus I found the button too late. My mother was killed 36 years before I found it, when I was twelve. Some psychopath piece of shit cornered her at the pharmacy and stabbed her in the stomach, taking away the medication she was getting for my sister’s ...

Author : Thomas Desrochers It was the most alien scene Naobi had ever witnessed, a deep fissure in the cultural settling tank of Paris that the light never touched. It had been an enormous theater once, but the seats had been replaced with a jungle of private booths on ...

Author : Sara Labor “They don’t respect us. Never have and never will.” Karen kicked a mound of dirt to release some of her pent up anger. Her temper was one of her many flaws; she heard this all the time. “They don’t need to respect their tools,” pointed out ...

Author : Gray Blix I'm awake before dawn. No alarm, but my internal clock must have a reason. Another job interview today? Can't remember. Might as well get up, check messages, have something to eat. Might as well get up. Can't move. Frozen in my favorite sleeping ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer I hear the mugger running off as the echoes of the gunshot fade. Opening my eyes, I’m still standing. There’s a bleeding body at my feet that hadn’t been there when I closed my eyes. He rolls over. “Michael!” He looks up, tears ...

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jessica sat in the corner booth at the back of O'Tooles with the best sight line to the door. She wanted to see him when he arrived, Taylor Jacobs, highschool sweetheart. Well, he might have been. He'd always been polite, and they grew ...

Author : J.P. Quinn Arron sat on an outcrop of rock. He’d stopped to watch the sunset. He knew he shouldn’t have, but he couldn’t help it. It was the shift from copper to blue. That extended interlude between day and night, where, for a few fleeting moments, he could almost be home. A ...

Author : Daniel Fairbairn A wind that started a billion years ago ended today. It sighed past my apple tree and ended its journey. The breath of an age of warriors, poets, beasts and storms lay in the marks in the dust. The grass stood still as if in some moment of ...

Author : Matthew Harrison It was a struggle, but they managed to get the trainees ready just in time for the cocktail. “I don’t see why we need to bother,” Simon said as he surveyed the work. He had crumpled his suit, and didn’t have a spare. “We can just explain the ...

Author : Bob Newbell Wachter ran out of the bank just as the alarm sounded. It was not an auspicious beginning to what Wachter had imagined would be a long and successful criminal career. The teller had initially thought he was kidding when he'd asked for $20,000 in cash. ...

Author : Alicia Cerra Waters “Don’t touch that,” I said as I slapped Henry’s hand. His doughy cheeks formed a pout as he let go of the zipper of his thermo suit. Somehow, hiking through the mountains of a planet on the brink of being engulfed by a dying star had not helped ...

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I look human. In this new world, that is freakish. I am stared at with disgust. My taboo choice of structure is offensive. I have two legs, two arms, no tail, a cranium and a chest cavity. I walk around, balancing from stilt to stilt, ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer The bench seat complained loudly as Thom7 lowered his armoured bulk into it. Waitresses hovered near the cash register nudging and whispering to each other before one, having apparently drawn the short straw, ventured over. "Would you ...

Author : Leanne A. Styles “Welcome to your new life,” the foreman says, thrusting a set of gardening tools and a pair of overalls at me. I take them and file in line behind my little brother. “Have you ever seen so much green in your life, Della?” my brother says, ...

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer My dad was a spy. A really good one, according to mum. I couldn’t get her to understand. How could he have been any good if he got caught? It meant there was a better spy, or spycatcher, out there. That was who I wanted to be. Twelve ...