GSDS Take the Wheel

Author : Gary Will Kreie I love my new self-driving car. My name is Leo. This is my brand new 2029 crashless car with vehicle-to-vehicle communication and GSDS, the Google Self-Driving System. I love my commute now. My car is pre-programmed to know the best way to get me downtown ...

Practical

Author : Aaron Koelker The old man looked over his shoulder at me. His clothes, hands, and face were just as greasy as any of the parts within the dinosaur engine compartment beneath him. His arms were black with it up to the rolled sleeves clinging at his elbows. “What is ...

Treated and Released

Author : Bob Newbell It was a typical night in the emergency department. I'd assigned a couple of medmechs to use the tissue menders on a pair of Loraxels who'd gotten into a bar fight with a Sniddan. The brawlers had apparently forgotten that Snidd Prime has three times the gravity of ...

In Our Shadow, Infinity

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The ship had stopped in between Earth and the moon, twinkling like a massive cathedral made of glass and crystal. No shockwave or energy point. It was just suddenly there. Our Earth defenses reacted immediately. The defenses of the asteroid ...

My Caverns They Shine

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer “Commander Marshall, do you read me?” There was nothing but static. The two belt patrol cops raced over the surface of the massive asteroid in their rock-battered cruiser. The rookie Chang said, “We’re coming up on the camp sir.” They crested a ...

Cracked Shot

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The era of warp drive started badly. Ships went in. Nothing came out. Then they found that ships did come out, just a gazillion miles from where they should have. It took some very clever people to realise that there was only one ‘computer’ with ...

Fall from Grace

Author : Becky Kendall The biggest disappointment for the public around the mid-21st century was when physicists conclusively disproved time travel. Scientists were taken completely by surprise when they realised how many people had believed time travel would be possible at some point ...

Click

Author : Paul Cosca The sedatives were beginning to wear off. She breathed in deeply and was met with the smell of sawdust. It triggered a memory (playground?), but it was just a flash. Immediately, she felt a *click* in her head, and her thoughts were back to neutral. It was dark. ...

Boy or Bot?

Author : Sam Davis I think I'm a robot. Hi. I'm Arthur. My parents, well I guess I should say the people that own me, they like to call me Artie. All my friends here at school call me Arthur though. They say I seem more grown up that way, and that makes sense to them since I was in my ...

Contempt

Author : Aaron Koelker Most said I was crazy, some wished me luck and only one said, “I love you”. Though I was strapped to a flaming arrow that the archer had no intention of ever retrieving, I had yet to question my own sanity. In fact, I thought I was the sanest ...

No Rest For The Weary

Author : S. Tyrel Murray Its cold all the time. I don't mean cold, as in frozen. More like uncomfortable, chilly. Its still cold enough to die from hypothermia. I was one of the first volunteers selected. They said we would travel. See the sights. They lied. They had us in cold ...

Midnight

Author : Mae Thann Rounds of heavy artillery sent the bunker shuddering. The dim desk lamp flickered. The deteriorating energy shields outside crackled. The only constant was the scraping of metal on metal. Sera shivered and padded toward the light. “Daddy? Will you tell me a ...

Oni

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer We were getting pasted in a dogfight off Agnos IV when Team Havoc dropped out of subspace and chewed up the Havna interceptors that had been giving us grief. The thirty-two of us left were damn happy to see the cavalry. “Marduk Leader to Havoc ...

Memory of a Morning Broken

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Shadow coloured stones crush and scatter under boot heels. Their passage unheard, two figures have slipped silently across the rooftop expanse to its eastern face. Lumbering mechanicals presenting themselves at intervals, drinking heat from ...

Computer Wizard ™

Author : David Barber “You might have seen my paper in Thaumaturgy," the sorcerer was saying. He'd introduced himself, but the name hadn't stuck. Maxine complained that Jeff just didn’t try. "So you're Maxine's husband? Maxine's father and I met in England." Jeff was sitting in his ...

Sowing Seeds

Author : JD Kennedy It is interesting how seemingly unrelated technologies become connected together to create new and unexpected capabilities. First, there was the successful development of cryogenic ‘sleep’ systems. The goal was to freeze someone who had a terminal illness until a ...

The Accidental Tower

Author : Stephen S. Power Despite the miners' diligence, a fleck of intellimetal again drifts away during transfer from the supply ship to the adit. Wherever it lands on the trojan an accidental tower will grow, and any tower is soon full of squatters, so the mine promptly deploys ...

Suicide is Painless?

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Sergeant Gains got the call at four am; lone white male out on the Golden Gate Bridge about mid-span. He spent the twenty minutes on the Harley with the throttle pinned, the lights up and the siren silent wondering what he’d find when he got ...

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