Reaping the Void

Author : Ian Hill The thin machination stood at the asteroid station’s balcony, leaning over the guardrail to peer off into the depths of space with her multi-faceted eyes. The two red points of light were a mere formality, vestigial figments from her creators intended to set those ...

The Recruit

Author : Adam Mac Wanna see a modern-day miracle, kid? Whatever. Well, just sit tight. Sure. It's not like I'm going anywhere. Here, take the binoculars. See that old guy on the bridge? Orange raincoat, red baseball cap, using a cane? Over there, to the left of the first tower. ...

Insubordinate Claus

Author : Bob Newbell Lieutenant Jvora shuffled down the corridor considerably slower than his four legs normally carried him. He was not looking forward to his meeting with Commander Skal. Jvora entered the commander's office and raised a pincer in salute. Skal returned the ...

Beauty is in the Sensory Apparatus of the Beholder

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The thing about sleeping in zero g is that I have a lot of dreams about being in my mother’s womb except that in my dreams, my mother is sleeping in zero g as well. That’s impossible because my mother never went to space. She was sixty before the ...

Manual for Surrender

Author : Dominic Daley Sometimes, as I let the knowledge packets bleach out my old preconceptions and dull misapprehensions, I’d ponder, considering how sluggishly my brain operated whenever I indulged in this arthritic retail therapy, how boring it must have been to have had to read ...

Gift from the Heavens

Author : Suzanne Borchers Maybe in a dozen years I’ll forget you. Maybe I’ll forget your face and your feet and your fur, but not tomorrow or next week or next year. My nerve ends from optic to tactile quiver when I remember you. I loved you. Was it only last summer that I lay on the ...

It Could Happen Any Time

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer “Xachnore you shouldn’t play with that it’s dangerous!” “Not to worry Tzhamlaa. I’ve got it pointed into the light matter zone. Nothing lives there.” “And just how do you know that Mr. smarty sheath? There are some academics who would disagree ...

Sanctuary

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The lights reflect from the gleaming chrome and glossy Union Jacks on the lines of matt black all-terrain cars. Typical over-indulgence: four-wheel drive is hardly necessary to drive down a thirty-mile, two-lane strip of tarmac. They sent me ...

The Longest Distance

Author : Aaron Koelker The first note, neatly folded into squares, appeared a short ways off the park path where I enjoyed my evening walks. Had I not spotted the strange rippling effect, like a vertical pane of crystal clear water broken by a gentle leaf cast down from the tree of ...

Memories, Light the Corners of our Minds

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Lucas Three sat in the coffee shop long after she left, long after the people that had watched the scene play out had moved on. He sat for hours after she'd calmly, mercilessly ended their three year relationship with a calculated precision ...

What's in a name?

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Yes, the aliens were invasive. Savagely invasive. But how could we blame them? We were a treasure trove to them. The aliens had no name of their own, you see. As a warrior race, they let the planets they invaded name them. As they took planet ...

How to Fly A Spaceship

Author : Andrew Hollis The manual had been totally inadequate. For a start the Chinglish translation was hopelessly out of date, there were archaic digiverbs in it that must have been superseded at least three authorisations ago. Of course flight inexperience would be no excuse, ...

Clockwork Heartbreak

Author : Glen Luke Flanagan Click, whir, grind. Melvin's movements were always accompanied by this sequence of sounds. His jeweled clockwork joints moved with a decidedly inhuman precision, but his troubled face wore the mask of a truly desperate man. “What is love?” he asked, while ...

The Drifter

Author : Tony Taylor Out here things make sense. The only thing I see is the glitter of stars beyond my visor. My breath is loud in my ears, rhythmic and soothing. No longer do I hear that infernal whine. No more of the yelling. When I’m alone things are so much easier. There are ...

A Long Way Home

Author : Ellen Ahlness “We’re entering the closest point of the arc,” Yeltsin calls. “Fourty rels now!” We all take our positions, Marko, Kovsky and I. Marta’s already been at her place since we got in range of the Planet. Earth. It’s such a strange word, tingly and rough on my ...

Room 101

Author : Jonathan VanDyke With a rush, the ground was beneath me. The blacktop was cold, wet, and unforgiving. I pulled my jacket close. I was sure I looked ridiculous. We'd comprised my outfit from old pictures of the times. Leather jacket with a sheep skin collar, flannel shirt, ...

Meeting

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer We meet every six years. The project churned out over two hundred of us. When they ordered us terminated, twelve of us escaped. There are eight of us left. The government made a Superman straight out of the comic books back in 1952 but you know ...

A Mind of My Own

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer They never understood how I could be so smart when it came to food. Of course, when I was rushed into hospital and they found Deke, it all came out. He’d started out as one of the things that lives in our guts, but he either evolved or was a mutant ...

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