Author : Callum Wallace “Well, this is a little awkward, but we’ll have to destroy you. Only literally, of course. Metaphysically you’ll be right as rain.” Paul shrank back from this. “Metaphysically?” The speaker nodded, the soft beak spreading into what could have been a smile. ...

Author : R Gene Turchin The lumbering thing on treads wasn't sophisticated or complicated, a 0.50 caliber machine gun mounted on tank tracks. An array of sensors rotated on top along with a pincushion of antennas. “We can send it into neighborhoods where the bad guys are without ...

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 ...