Author: Hillary Lyon “Congratulations, Stiv!” Stiv recognized that voice. He spun around and saluted. “For…?” he asked. “You’ve been chosen,” his Commanding Officer clarified, “to volunteer for our Donations Program.” “Donations Program?” Stiv asked feebly. “We ...

Author: Majoki Lera began to master Lalandean at the same time she realized it began mastering her. You know you’re gaining great fluency in a language when you begin to dream in it. The only hitch for Lera was that it was getting harder and harder to tell when she was ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a gun under my pillow and a dagger above the door. I’ve got torches and lanterns hung about the place, too. I’m never more than a metre from a weapon of some kind. Do I feel safe? Hell no. I started prepping back when it wasn’t ...

Author: George Bancroft Bentus removed the neuralcom helmet, privately congratulating himself on an exceptional Kratalon performance. Daylight had filled his room when he linked to the game. Now he found himself immersed in darkness. He had a nebulous sense that he had ...

Author: Joey Ball “Are you good?” I heard Max ask as I stepped up the last few stairs to the massive abandoned nuclear power plant. “Yeah man, I’m ready,” I said, although nothing could be further from the truth. The place gave me a horrible feeling, a feeling like an ...

Author: A Allan Chibi Improvement Pending “Good morning, Dave,” the coffeemaker called out brightly. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you brew coffee this morning.” Dave was not expecting this on a Wednesday. “What?” He stopped dead in his tracks. He hasn’t even dressed ...

Author: Alzo David-West Below, there are little beads of amber light. She arrives with a silver suitcase. I cannot stop looking at her round face. Our bodies speak. It is not subtle. I am not subtle. A standing mirror reflects her back. Air flows in the room. There are ...

Author: Majoki “It can’t be moved.” “Anything can be moved.” “You ever heard of the Sword in the Stone?” “It took the right person. The right person moved it.” “You ain’t no Arthur.” “You ain’t no Guinevere.” “I’m not even a woman.” “You’re not even ...

Author: Alzo David-West The uncharted world was tidally locked with one side in icy shade and the other in burning heat. Between the black and red was a belt of shining green. Our spacecraft neared the exosphere. We detected the remnants of extinct oceans and ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I’m just thinking this lot might be further behind the curve than the last flight when - “I got it! I got it!” I kick my bird inverted while replying. “Quebec Ten. Romeo!” There’s the twit, coming up hard - a decent Romeo response: ...

Author: Frank Sikora September 11, 2001 • World Trade Center • New York • 9:40 a.m. A wall of flame stalks the historian, 2000 degrees, capable of melting steel and glass. Black smoke billows throughout the building and into the air, desecrating a stark blue sky. The ...

Author: Frank Sikora “Her name will be Eleanor,” says the clerk. “She will be your wife. Your best friend. The mother of your three, maybe four children, depending on the probability wave functions at the time of insertion, and in the end, on your deathbed, she will betray ...

Author: Susmita Ramani In Laura’s dreams, she and Herb were as they had been in their twenties: racing their brown horses around hillsides, their laughter ringing out, eating apples near the river, swimming, and arguing about philosophy and religion -- which Laura had been ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher She walked across the plywood subfloor in her bare feet, leaving damp impressions of her soles on the fresh wood. At the window she leaned her shoulder into the sheetrock wall, looking sideways through the pane which still had the factory installed ...

Author: Mark Renney The Elders insist that all descendants of the survivors still reside under a dome. But how can they be so sure when we haven’t yet ventured outside? The Elders insist that if any of the others had abandoned their dome, and were managing to exist out ...

Author: Majoki "They had a splendid wedding…after the beheading." "She went birdwatching…after the beheading." "In Disneyland, the child held Snow White’s hand…after the beheading." "The pastor bought a red convertible…after the beheading." "It was a dark and ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “I tell you it’s a hologram! Once our people get past it they’ll see conventional forces, without a doubt.” General Bel Charles is known for being a bit of a throwback. A real blood, guts, and the occasional atrocity soldier. Calmly ...

Author: Frank Sikora My friend Stanislav bends forward and coughs, not once, not twice, but five times. Even in the mill’s dim light, I see the bloody bile on his hands. “I’m dying, friend Wojtek,” he says. “A most unpleasant experience.” I cannot disagree. I take a ...