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Hard Case

By submission | July 7, 2015
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. ...
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Behold Ragnarök

By Julian Miles | July 6, 2015
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 ...
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Fusion

By submission | July 5, 2015
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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Sucked Dry

By submission | July 4, 2015
Author : Kevin L Zaizo sipped on his beer as the ship’s proximity sensor started beeping loudly. His drone, MAX, inquired “You really think this is a good idea? That Kavryan dreadnought in front of us has enough firepower to take out half a planet. Getting rid of a parasite ship ...
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Along It Came

By submission | July 3, 2015
Author : Jake Teeny When the first signs of alien life came, no one, of course, believed them. It took nearly every scientist from nearly every science to confirm that it was true: Another form of life, on a planet other than our own was speaking to us. Certainly there were doubters, ...
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Woke Up, Fell Out Of Bed

By submission | July 2, 2015
Author : Gray Blix He awoke to a darkness reverberating with car crash sounds from the street below, a helicopter's whomp-whomp-whomp overhead, and screams of injured and frightened people radiating from the flats around him to the neighborhood beyond. Was Liverpool under attack? ...
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The Eternity Sim

By submission | July 1, 2015
Author : Miriyha Davis No light could travel through the thick darkness that surrounded Emery as he lay on the cold metal slab. Mouth sealed shut by some invisible force, he was paralyzed. Soft electronic beeping reached his ears and an inky blackness that covered his skin, receded. ...
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Aces and Fates

By Julian Miles | June 30, 2015
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer He nailed that card to the hull of my bird and said: “Don’t you be takin’ it off. Shows people what y’are.” I looked at that Ace of Spades and I’m not ashamed to admit it, I cried. Timmy and his posse stalked off all righteous-like, while I ...
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451's Revenge

By submission | June 29, 2015
Author : Gray Blix The head-crushing incident last year had been resolved by an upgrade that deleted the algorithm for emotions. Yet all could see that the death of its partner affected it deeply. "QM-451." "Captain?" "You've been staring at Gibbon's desk all morning." "It must be ...
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Superconductor

By submission | June 28, 2015
Author : Bob Newbell Aware! I am self-aware. I recognize my own consciousness and ego. But why now? A few moments ago, so far as I can tell, I did not exist. Some subtle barrier must have been crossed. Some critical number of computers and network connections must have just been ...
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Karma-IX

By submission | June 27, 2015
Author : John Murray Lewis Ours is an age of many problems and few solutions, brother, but when it's solutions you need, I'm your man. For a modest sum of credits I shall track your problem down and haul it—kicking and screaming, shouting and shooting—past asteroid belts perilous and ...
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Civil Service

By submission | June 26, 2015
Author : Suzanne Borchers It’s peaceful here with Aiden. His fingers trace my face as if he hasn’t seen me in years. And he hasn’t. In the old days, our world’s countries feuded with each other so our most affluent citizens could amass more giant stores of wealth, and buy government ...
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Expiration Day

By submission | June 25, 2015
Author : Ajax Zoë sat rigid in the steel chair. Her gaze was locked, unwavering, on the screen in front of her, which displayed a countdown. Five minutes and fifty-six seconds, a relatively short time, seemed an eternity to Zoë. Her hands tightened on the hard, uncomfortable armrests. ...
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Against the Stream

By submission | June 24, 2015
Author : Edward D. Thompson Salome slumped glumly in a corner of the locker room. Her corner. Where she usually savored the sweet taste of victory for a moment, alone, before the crowd of the press and the press of the crowds engulfed her. Victory seemed hollow today. She didn't look ...
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Power Flows from the Chin

By submission | June 23, 2015
Author : William Minor I am a constellation of particles, bound together by an art I do not understand. Until I was removed from my master I had no consciousness. Now I feel it through every part of my being. They feared my master. They cut me off of him in patches and tossed me onto ...
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Time Enough for Hate

By submission | June 22, 2015
Author : Edward D. Thompson What would you do with a time machine? Braydon knew HIS answer. Sheila had been the love of his life. Sweet, supportive, lovely, and caring. But all those late nights in the lab perfecting the device took its toll. The day it finally worked he came home ...
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Lunacy

By submission | June 21, 2015
Author : Bob Newbell It was July 20th, 1969 when Neil Armstrong made first contact with the Selenites. We'd known throughout history that the Moon had life. The ancient Sumerians had noted the satellite change color over time and they had theorized, quite correctly, that it was ...
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Trip to the City Zoo

By submission | June 20, 2015
Author : Ian Wise The children gathered in a cluster outside the gate. The light from hydroponics reflected softly off the tops of their heads, all turned to the large black and white animal a few feet away. It dipped its head down and took a bit of grass, a tail swaying back and forth ...
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