Author: R. J. Erbacher I had been told from a child that ‘nothing’ was black. The absence of light. What you see when you close your eyes, in a prolonged blink, or in sleep, or permanently. The bottom of the ocean. The far reaches of space; Heinrich Olbers be damned. The ...

Author: Zachary Skurski My hands, still wet from scrubbing, are first to feel the chill of the operating room as I step inside. I’d been waiting for this, implanting the latest computer-brain interface. Doing my part for the future. “Good Morning Dr. Freeman,” the ...

Author: Majoki Red Rover, Red Rover, send MADIE right over. Red Rover, Red Rover, send MADIE right over. Red Rover, Red Rover, send MADIE right over. ANDIE sent the request out for the gigazillionth time, but Red Rover didn’t respond. Neither did MADIE. ANDIE widened ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The curtains hang out the window, blowing in the breeze. A tic starts on his cheek, but stills when he looks down, gaze drawn to where a torn page from her notebook flaps about in his grip, like a little bird trying to escape. Far down ...

Author: Jacqueline Kaufman Jean of Arc takes her meds, swallowing carefully. “Delicious,” smiling, almost all her teeth intact. The voices have gone somewhere in the whiteness, gathering strength. In Russo-Amerique, meds are treasure, and she has been selected. Regularized. ...

Author: Moura BUREAUCRATIC RECORDS OF THE END TIMES Automatic compilation of human and environmental records Source: multiple devices Status: recovered fragments THE LAST KNOT (Record 001 — Autonomous diving equipment) Two hundred meters below the surface, the ...

Author: David Dumouriez Approximately four score and seven years ago, the Luxians saw, they came and they conquered. Well, actually they didn’t need to do much conquering. They simply made their presence abundantly clear and waited for the locals to decimate themselves ...

Author: AP Ritchey Every Sunday Jed and I met up at the catching place—a pond we’d been fishing for years. It wasn’t much to look at. Just a muddy oval tucked back behind a row of cottonwoods, with a leaning dock somebody built long before either of us started coming out ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher He woke, sat up in bed, transmuted a yawn into a groan of satisfaction as he rolled his shoulders before dropping his feet onto the carpet. Standing, he stretched his fists up to the ceiling and groaned again, twisting the kinks out of his back, ...

Author: Majoki There are some insults even aphids can’t ignore. In 1999 Japanese researchers released their study of “old man smell” which they compared to the scent of crushed aphids. Generally easygoing, we aphids have rolled with our reputation as pests and nuisances, ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Nine million boxes. Over nine million lives. We’ll never know how many were actually lost when the Stormgate Battalions came so close to taking Europe back to 1942. All we have left are fragmented tales that orbit an official story so ...

Author: Rick Tobin “Not on my ship! Do you hear?” A giant, hairy fist struck the ship’s control console as Commander Tros rose from his chair, preparing to join the Bay of Death ceremony. His second followed behind, head bowed. “Your Prominence, my duty is to inform, not ...

Author: Kip Pratt Dear Supreme Being, Thank you for the commission. And now, the results… On the planet Earth, in one of your cleverer little galaxies, the bugs are all deceased. Take the car out at dusk, and the windscreen returns squeaky clean. No squashed ...

Author: Cecilia Kae I woke early yesterday to catch the last glimpse of the island. It took twenty minutes getting to the pier. I wanted to be there before it got crowded but it already was. Most were there because it was the first time Mantasia, our neighbouring country, ...

Author: Alastair Millar Lemme tell you, time and cost are serious issues if you want to meet an Offworlder. Which was a problem, because I did: Earth girls are so narrow-minded. The Solar System just doesn’t exist to them. My life partner’s gotta have a wider outlook, you ...

Author: Majoki Everyone said the Charmers had really known what they were doing fifty thousand years ago. Trema’s quandary was that no one had ever been able to figure out what they’d really been up to. Sure, they’d left some mage-level techno artifacts. Seemingly random ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’s raining again. Mike looks up at the dirty brown sky and frowns at an errant childhood memory where rainclouds were grey. His headware comms activate. “Papa Ten, Papa Ten, you watchin’ the skies again?” Mike grins at Samantha’s way ...

Author: Aishwarya Srivastava They called it The Orb because “What the actual….!!!!!” did not sound proper in physics journals. It appeared on a random Tuesday, a bright globe hanging next to the Moon. Telescopes were pulled out (a great tussle ensued to display who has the ...