Token Hope

Author : Jeffrey Veregge I died today. Death did not just gently tap on my door. My entire being was vaporized in a hot flash at the expense of a highly calibrated laser beam. Pain was not an issue this time as it was almost instantaneous. This time you ask? Sadly this was not my ...

Ship's Ghost

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer Almost everyone on board had reported seeing it here or there in the dimly lit passages of the ship. I had not yet had the pleasure. Perhaps because I usually worked the greenhouses. But I had now been reassigned for a time to engineering. They ...

Stars Go Out

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It was a beautiful night to watch the stars go out. The grass rustled softly in the wind. Small waves scudded across the pond as other families unpacked night time picnics. The clouds had been removed for the viewing so we could see the ...

Elevator

Author : Cesium My office glows all night long, It's a nuclear show and the stars are gone. Wind howls past my helmet and something unidentifiable crunches beneath my boots. Dust. It's dust. It used to be other things, it used to be trees and windows and... and people, but now ...

Gallery System

Author : Russ Bickerstaff One more thing love: I believe I forgot to tell you about this strange experience I had the other day. I had visitors. (Yes!) Visitors. Isn't that strange? From off world of course. I hadn't seen them before. No idea where they came from. I believe they were ...

Relativity

Author : J M Walker he had no idea if she would have this opportunity again. Every second counted. Only moments were left of her two hour time allotment. Her opportunity to advance earth's technology, and most likely her career, depended on how much information she could gather in ...

Pax Aqua

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer There is a stream that runs from the foot of the dais where I meditate; shimmering and trickling along the length of the cave system before it fills the little pool under the shading overhang, which drains into the aquifer. M’tembe smiles as I ...

The Cost of Survival

Author : Suzanne Borchers Sarah sighed. She walked past the shelter’s only window—a 6-inch square with 6-inch thick glass. She focused on the gray metallic wall in front of her, refusing to even glance at the window with its hazy view of volcanic rock. A 2-inch by 3-inch photo on a ...

Paradox

Author : Bryan Pastor “You can’t kill me.” Two men stood facing each other in a glass walled penthouse. Beyond the glass a neon jungle stretched in every direction. “I mean, you can shoot this body, rob it of its life, but you can’t actually kill me. Time won’t allow that.” He ...

Update

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I was a time traveler. I say ‘was’ because it’s apparent to me now that this was a one-way trip. I realized I was a god as soon as the pain stopped. I could hear all the other gods, shouting in my head. Billions of them ordered into groups and ...

Empathy Won

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer They lay together for hours after they'd finished, he propped on one elbow, she on her back, eyes closed for the most part, but opening one occasionally to watch him watching her. "It's the way the sun reflected in your eyes that caught my ...

My Clone Sleeps Alone

Author : Roger Dale Trexler The hydraulic door hissed open as I looked out the porthole. I could see Alpha Centauri, still a generation or two away, in the distance. I sighed. Behind me, Brandon 8 cleared his throat to get my attention. I turned. “Another one?” I asked, nodding ...

Empty Nest

Author : Tyler Hawkins It started around the 22nd century. Like all revolutionary technology, it didn't suddenly wrench its way into our lives and start running them, it was truly a gradual change. But anyone who's alive now has always had the Mother's support, Mother's love, and ...

Insurance

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “What’s the range?” “One hundred metres, sir. Awaiting go code.” The screen showed multiple long-range views in stunning detail: the sunset illuminating a long balcony on which an old man sat sipping a drink and having a smoke. On the ground ...

Emergence

Author : Adam Levey “So, what does it do?” The brief silence was filled by the hum of various electronic devices strewn around the cramped room. “...Do?” “Yes. Does it do anything? Tricks?” The sound of traffic drifted up from the street far below, like the fumes they had once ...

Blue

Author : Ethan Noone She looked at him in horror. He wondered what was coursing through her mind as she stared at him. Her repulsion, evident. Her disgust un-disguised. "Why did you show me this?!" she screamed. "Because I love you. You needed to know. Me. For good or bad." She ...

Scrapped

Author : George R. Shirer Noir York. V9.7. The rain fell, neon droplets painting the city’s stark black and white streets in a kaleidoscope of liquid color. Sitting in Smiley’s, propping up the counter, Dashwood stared through the window at the technicolor weather. “Shit. Would you ...

Copperhead

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Branson felt the rhythmic thrumming of the helio-copters long before he saw them, and instinctively he curled into a ball, pulling his hood over his head and pulling his hands up into his sleeves. There would be no heat trace when the ...

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