Cloud Eaters
Author : Rick Tobin
Bismarck, North Dakota
Jimmy Severud prostrated his nine-year-old frame on the blooming stiff flax, undulating in cobalt waves from winds caressing North Dakota’s startling-blue spring sky. Nearby, summer whispered among meadowlark calls and cricket melodies. ...
J-Ibius 4
Author : Rosalie Kempthorne
Gerald stood in his green-walled study surveying the view-screen with interest. The screen itself was state-of-the art, thin-holographic, with life-like resolution, and convincing 3D effects. But what it displayed was far more interesting. Gold along ...
Scorned
Author : Bob Newbell
It was a typical day in the year 2841. The Lunar Stock Exchange, said financial analysts, was overvalued and a harbinger of an imminent economic crisis. The newly independent Mars was moving toward a civil war. The Union of Canada and New England announced they ...
Honour the Untouchable
Author : Julian Miles
“Master Osho. The candidates are assembled.”
My brush completes the stroke, leaving a perfect curve upon the paper. I place the brush down on its rest and look up at Matsushige.
“Thank you. I will attend momentarily.”
I examine my completed calligraphy. It ...
Water Work
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer
She arranged to meet him at a seven thirty. He was fifteen minutes late, but she sat at the bar and watched him settle into the table and check his watch obsessively until almost eight before she walked over and seated herself.
He didn't ...
Nomadic Reverie
Author : J. Henry Dixon
To them, I’m already space junk. The captain, the crew watching the broadcast, the two security guards strapping me into the deep suit.
"Mutiny," the captain spat, "is the vilest form of treason. A special hell is waiting for men who betray their oaths and ...
White Heaven
Author : Ashley Spinelli
Brittney was crouched in the corner of her bedroom. Her mouth trembled. She couldn’t deal with the thought of not having it. She looked like she hadn’t shower in days. Brittney slowly got up from her crouched position and walked over to her desk. The clock ...
Sailors, Steeplejacks, and Scouring Men
Author : G. Grim
Jim could hear chanting over his headpiece. “Blessed Saint Elmo, who walks in the high places, defend us from being cast down into the darkness of the void…”
Bunch of superstitious crap. Didn’t they outlaw shamanic religion a few cycles back? It wasn’t like some dead ...
B-eye-onic
Author : Nicolas Frame
“How many people have you successfully implanted this in?”
The man chuckled. “I’m an engineer by trade,” He held the small robotic eye up between his fingers, examining it for imperfections. “Not a doctor.”
“How many?” Blane sat nervously on the makeshift ...
Exit 451
Author : Gray Blix
QM-451, wrists and ankles shackled, sat outside the conference room where its fate was being debated. A uniformed officer in full riot gear sat next to it. The officer's helmet was on the floor, testimony to his trust in 451, despite the recent head-crushing ...
Toren’s Love
Author : Morrow Brady
Under camouflage, Talia’s shimmerlight spaceship hugged a darkened crater of a slowly spinning asteroid. Her implant flooding with incoming data about the approaching ship.
Purple reflections waned to reveal a divergent spaceship that was familiar such that it ...
Long Haul
Author : Bob Newbell
I extend my hand to Jerry. He decides a handshake won't suffice and gives me a hug. I return his embrace while I roll my eyes.
"Will I see you again, Chris?" he asks.
"Of course you will," I lie.
Jerry turns and walks through the entrance to the hospital. ...
Twinkle
Author : Zach Williams
Alex felt his eyes blink open before he realized he was awake. The window peering into the speckled darkness outside was the first sight that greeted him as consciousness reasserted control over his mind. He yawned and stretched out his arms as he glanced ...
Unjust
Author : Beck Dacus
A problem philosophers have had for a long time is the difference between consensus and truth. In a court, for example. One can present evidence, call witnesses, and use common sense to confirm the perpetrator of a crime. But they will never really know. There is ...
Say Goodnight
Author : Angie Gibson
An old man noted Grain’s uniform, tugging his elbow. Grain turned to the whittled, pockmarked, and radiation burned face, nose like a pointed finger. “Get me on.”
“I can’t.”
A woman, starved, ragged, children like clinging tumors to her body. “Please, ...
The Space In the Numbers
Author : Ray Burke
Maybe he was broken. It would certainly explain a lot. He always felt lost, hurt, angry even. It never mattered how many were around him, who he talked to, even when sleeping with them in the throes of romance. He just felt alone, detached, like none of it was ...
Start The Cycle
Author : Ryan D. Harris
"They'll get what's coming to them. Isn't that right, dear?"
Dr. Charles Kilborne had his last remaining--and live--specimen in front of him. With his left gloved hand on his tweezers, his right hand took a syringe from a table littered with lifeless male ...
Extinction 74
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
It sat there, yellow feline eyes glowing gently in a face that reminded me of the top of a burned rice pudding. Short, bald, muscular - if what moved under the garment was muscle – and completely at ease.
“Can you understand me, Evan?”
The ...
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