Migrations

Author : Gray Blix "Whoa, what's that approaching Mars, a comet breaking apart?" he said as he excitedly examined the images. He realized it would be quite a find for an amateur astronomer -- another Shoemaker-Levy 9 magnitude event. But to make sure it wasn't just hot pixels or other ...

Last Man

Author : George R. Shirer Adam woke, as usual, with a headache and a weird taste in his mouth. There was a woman by his bed, wearing a prim white nurse’s uniform. “Good morning,” she said. “Good morning.” His eyes rolled past her, taking in the familiar institutional green walls of ...

Too Many Coppers

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer She’s screaming like her life is being dragged from her using blunt instruments. Occasionally she’ll stop, but after a series of ominous ‘thuds’, she’ll start again. “We ‘ave control of zis street.” This from the blue-uniformed Avantacop. ...

Coal Miners

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The cure for the plague that killed half of the planet’s population forced mankind’s biology to outgrow what was previously defined as human. We skipped ahead six chapters in our evolution, overachieving little tryhards that we are. Those ...

All Right, Have It Your Way – You Heard a Seal Bark

Author : Theric Jepson “Did you hear that?” Dave fiddled with these and those switches and dials and flung his hands across a dozen touchscreens. “Huh.” Liz swallowed her water and let the bottle float across the cockpit. “Hear what?” “I don’t know. Like a barking sound.” “Like a ...

A Short Dark Night

Author : Benjamin Sixsmith Samuel Kurzon leaned back in his chair and looked down at the Earth, missing the home that he feared he had left for good. He turned back into the room and drummed his fingers on his arm-rests. The pale tones and smooth furnishings of the station had been ...

The Calm

Author : Ian Hill “You look like an angel.” the old woman croaked between breaths, her voice strained and genuine. She lay on her back in a large Peach Medical Industries bed, all arrayed in tubes and healing equipment. Allison Stafford looked down at her patient and beamed. “Now ...

Aqueous Solution

Author : Bob Newbell "Ministers," said the large aquatic alien that looked like a hybrid of a dolphin and a spider, "this parliament must vote to approve the funds requested by the Director of the War Department to eradicate once and for all the blight of humanity from this ...

Remote Angels

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer I am the reason for the silence. It is if there is an invisible column of peace centred upon me. Far to starboard, I see an entire flight of Black Dragon assault drones holding station. Upon detecting my regard, the lead drone tilt-salutes in my ...

Colour Me

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Eratz perched on the last of the big branches reaching out from the forest towards the massive clearing the space-farers had scorched into his landscape . His body stretched almost flush with the limb, lost in the blue leaves and rough ...

The Futility of Flight

Author : Lydia Devadason The whirr of the surveillance drone broke the silence. Georgie looked beyond the mountains of waste and makeshift huts housing her family and the rest of the excludes; she scanned the sky above the perimeter fence to try to locate the sound. ‘Quick, pass me ...

Relocation

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer We are on a planet whose proper name is unpronounceable by us according to the aliens who left us here. We call the planet Here, Prison, Earth2, Re-earth, Zooplanet and many others names. We haven’t been here long enough for one single name to ...

Awakening

Author : Michael Hughes Remer opened his eyes, but the room was coming into focus more slowly than it should have. The synthetic glare of the fluorescent bulbs made it difficult to think. Where was he? He searched his mind for the last thing he could remember, but kept coming up ...

Interview With A Dictator

Author : Bob Newbell (Thunderous applause over a musical flourish) "Thank you! And welcome to 'Interview With A Dictator'! We've got the old quantum teleporter warmed up and ready, so let's bring on tonight's guest!" (Applause) (Computer voiceover) "Tonight we have a despot from ...

Box of Rage

Author : Rollin T Gentry In the lift, Lieutenant Andrews asked herself how she, of the two hundred telepaths in the fleet, had been so unlucky as to be assigned to the Vulcan's Anvil, a third rate science vessel with an idiot for a Captain. She wondered what his latest discovery ...

Revolution

Author : Connor Harbison The villagers accepted the occupation as a fact of life. After all, where were they to go? The spaceport was heavily guarded, the surrounding jungles were filled with ravenous monsters and cannibal tribes, and beyond them the jagged mountains offered even less ...

The Spectator

Author : Elijah Goering The light from the unstable star took four hours to reach the scientific survey ship that was orbiting it. Consequently, it was four hours after the warning was sent before the ship's one man crew reacted to it. The star was now too unstable, and the jump gate ...

Walk-in Bistro

Author : Rick Tobin One unusual woman carved through me—cutting rivers in my desert landscape. I met Rebecca during my second career—writing, which was stalled. My haunt, when hunting ideas and caffeine, was a spartan coffee shop near San Antonio. The Walk-in Bistro had a counter ...

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  • TX-24

    Author : Adam Sprague February 4, 2049 Ava flew out …