Author: Majoki “It’s not a case that we can’t see the fuckdam forest for the fuckdam trees,” Lipton spat as she whirled on Parrati, “because anywhere, anyhow we look at it that fuckdamn beast is waiting, ready to bite our fuckdamn heads off.” Parrati tapped slender ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Tallisandre peers at my dagger. “That’s a wicked stick you have there. I’ve never seen the like.” I hold it up so the light from the forge catches the square end of the blade, showing the third edge and double point where the ...

Author: Peter Griffiths Elsie had heard some noise in the night, but hadn’t had the energy to get out of bed to see what it was. Now she could see splatters of paint on the window pane, grey on the grey of the cold morning light. The result was obvious even before she ...

Author: Jordan Emilson “Make sure it has a name” Werner whispered to the darkened figure beside him, looming over the crib. In the blackness the room appeared in two dimensions: his, and the one his wife and child existed in across the floor. Her head turned, or at least it ...

Author: Alastair Millar “It would be fitting,” the Sardaanian said, “if you took a new name now. A human name.” “But my name has always been T!kalma,” the woman replied. “Yes,” ze replied, “but that is one of our names. Your birth people are reaching out, as we predicted. ...

Author: David C. Nutt The newbie made his way through central supply. “Why can’t I have a Prussian Blue exosuit?” I rolled my eyes. “Because you can’t.” The kid slapped the counter, my counter. “Unacceptable. You dissin’ me because I’m a noob?” I smiled. “No. I am ...

Author: Zayan Guedim Once caught by Sheriff Jeb, criminals faced a gruesome demise. Grave offenses or petty misdemeanors, all the same, he would drive them to the abandoned silver mine. Then alone he would return, with bloody clothes and a blanched face. A judge, jury, and ...

Author: Majoki As he entered the lab, no one was directly staring at Etherid, but he felt all eyes on him. No doubt because of the neon orange Hawaiian shirt and optic green shorts he was sporting. As a new hire in his first week, he’d gotten an email yesterday from HR ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Yesterday I climbed Everest with Hillary. Tomorrow I’m travelling as a passenger on the 1888 Orient Express. Today? I’ve been asked to make a presentation to you all about what we’re doing here at the Human Existence Archive. My name is ...

Author: Matthew Miehe The large hangar was where starships sat to be scrapped or bought by new owners. It’s also where Hammer-II, a blue and grey cargo cruiser, had found love. When he flew into the dock, Argus Luxury Model (serial code 11727) was the first thing he laid ...

Author: David Barber Even grandfathers fearful of paradox— in case squashing a butterfly alters the future—had no cause to fret, because the time engine emerged in low Earth orbit and just took pictures. What could go wrong? Instruments gazed down on a warm, pristine ...

Author: Bill Cox “What’s happened?” The Captain’s voice was a harsh rasp, his throat still raw from the cryo-fluid. “The ship has experienced a failure of one of the three cold fusion engines due to a catastrophic meteor strike,” the mainframe avatar replied. “We have ...

Author: Amy Lyons I meant to birth children but they slipped my mind. I should have ransom-noted a reminder with the black and white word-magnets on my aughts refrigerator, though those sudden stories trended toward pronoun erasure and my sketchy memory, even as a ...

Author: Majoki “You occupy space. Therefore you exist.” “Does that Descartes bastardization work in graveyards?” “The dead occupy space.” “Well in a diminishing returns kind of way. You might want to factor biological depreciation into your axiom.” Stenslen eyed ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer I have no memory of what came before. It's as though I didn't exist prior to this moment and have just come into existence and apparated into this crowd, in this hall, surrounded by the ordered chaos of these several hundred people. We're ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a tavern by the graveyard. Not one of those new servaraunts, but a real vintage place with tiny lattice windows and a big wooden door that glints in the light from the glows as it swings back and forth. Old Stanislaw told me it ...

Author: Michael Edwards One night, when you are asleep, you have a dream. And in this dream, you are sitting —on a plain wooden chair — in the belltower of an ancient temple. Which you somehow know is standing at the summit of Tai Mountain, in China. Above you hangs an ...

Author: M.D. Smith In 1975, drugs were available in New Orleans. Nestled among the narrow streets and vibrant markets of the French Quarter, lived a young man named Alex. He worked at a small bookstore by day and spent his evenings lost in the pages of science fiction ...