Fly Trap
Author : Brian Varcas OK, time to get going again. I mean, what else is there to do but try to get back to the ship? I can see it only a hundred yards away. It shouldn’t take more than another couple of hours to reach it. If only we’d known before we landed that this…
read moreBiding
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The conversation had started in the lab, but while I could work there, I never was at home with my thoughts in that space. I suppose that’s how we came to be in the study. I took a scotch, neat. He declined. “You can’t honestly be…
read moreAnthropic
Author : Ian Rennie The sky is bright, not noonday bright but rather like the flickering of old fluorescent tubes. You can make out clouds against the light, a sort of dirty grey, but nothing beyond them. No stars any more. Everyone’s panicking, and I’m not sure why…
read moreSeeding
Author : John Wallace The subtle, pulsing “bing” alert of an unread MindMessage — MM for short — punctuated the Jazz-Trance track she was listening to through her MindTunes channel stream. She switched to the chatView window on her interface, minimizing the music to…
read moreThe Things Between Us
Author : Jason Frank This is how it ends. I turn the corner with coffees for us and everything, everything, is on the front yard. I don’t know how she did it (I wasn’t gone long) or how she did it (I thought she loved me). My eyes race over it all and stop at the…
read moreTraveler
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer He reeled out of the stinking alley into me. He was nearly eight feet tall and looked too skinny to stand. His hair was several different colours but as I looked at it more closely, it appeared to be made of metal. It sparked just…
read moreThe Wrong Question
Author : Jordan Whicker We’d been asking the wrong question all along. It was first posed by some fringe intellectuals: “Do they feel pain?” Initial research showed that yes, stimuli that might be regarded as ‘painful’ would invoke any number of reactions that could…
read moreThe Anomaly
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Lieutenant Robinson studied the sensor readings. The Captain stood behind him, patiently waiting for his science officer’s technical assessment. “It’s clearly artificial, sir,” Robinson finally said. “Although its surface…
read moreSend in the Clowns
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer They had been walking for weeks. They could easily pick their destination at night, or rather avoid a destination from the bluish glow low on the horizon that signalled a radioactive crater where a city once lived. They were…
read moreWhere, When and Why?
Author : David Bastin “Why,” asked the Captain, “have the engines all stopped?” The Chief Engineer grinned. “You never were a man to ask an easy question?” he said. The Captain raised his hand and repeated himself. “Why, he asked, “have the engines all stopped?” The…
read moreIncarnate
Author : Ian Rennie It was the last day of the forty third reign of the Enduring Prophet, and all was right with the world. The prophet was now bed-bound, and it was widely expected that soon his spirit would leave behind this mortal form, and appear incarnate in his…
read moreSomeday
Author : Erik Goranson Jane and Ellis floated parallel to one another across the vast canvas of space, eyeing the marble-like planets that slowly crept past them. Their skin reflected the starlight with a dull orange sheen. Ellis had called it ‘planet gazing,’ an…
read moreBlue Beams
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Anyone or anything that enters the blue beams are sucked up into the ships and never seen or heard from again. The ships populated the sky in one rush of deceleration all around the world. The night side of the planet suddenly…
read moreWho’s life is it anyway?
Author : Brian Varcas It takes two to tango, so the old saying goes. Nathanial Rogers was doing just fine alone, thanks to the wonderful people at LifeChange Inc. who’s strapline was, “Who will you be today?” Lifesharing™ technology, the company said, was a natural,…
read moreStarry Night
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Hell? Hell is what you carry in your heart. All your regrets. Things you should have done but didn’t. Things you did but shouldn’t have. That’s Hell. You carry Hell with you.” Without another word he stood and walked out beyond…
read moreVisitation Rights
Author : Andrew DiMatteo “Hey there Col! I haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been?” “Honestly? Things have been pretty crazy.” “Come to think about it, I seem to remember Bill saying something happened between you and Deb… is everything ok?” “Not really man….
read moreEgo Loss
Author : Damien Krsteski The receptionist was tapping her pudgy fingers impatiently on the desk. Leaning on one hand, her pale face hid momentarily behind an inflating chewing gum bubble until a loud pop revealed a familiar expression of utter boredom and…
read moreFirst…and last contact
Author : Brian Varcas There was no doubt about it. That was definitely Hendrix! Brad had every recording the legendary guitarist had ever made, including every bootleg live performance. He could easily tell the difference between the real thing and the myriad of…
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