Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The Achrifendil fought us to a standstill so many times. From star systems down to lonely hilltops, they fought like we could only dream of being: ferocious, honourable, truly legendary at times. What we did in frustrated response was ...

Author: David Broz The space navy still needed humans. Still needed me, I felt and I knew. By the time I enlisted, the war was full-blown, having raged silently for several years. Those in my orbit asked why I enlisted. A calling to do my duty to the planet, I would say ...

Author: Jaryd Porter “Good afternoon,” Xiu said. The smile on her face fought with her tired crimson eyes. People modified their bodies as subtle as a new eye color, hair color, and sharper teeth, but others would get augmented with extra limbs, exoskeletal implants, ...

Author: David Henson I settle in for an episode of Body Hunters. My ex, Stella, and I used to enjoy trying to guess which body would be chosen. The host, Arthraw, introduces a husband and wife looking for a new body for him. The guy, Zander, says he wants bulging biceps. ...

Author: Philip G Hostetler The madness settles on my skin. I scratch and I caress, I hold it close like a needy infant, I cherish it. I need to be naked, so I cast my Atmo-Suit aside. I'm too hot amidst the snow, it melts and steam rises, a furnace burns in my chest, an ...

Author: Majoki “Thank you for reaching out, Mx Shaddower.” “Please call me Bobbie. Just Bobbie.” “So, it’s true. You’re the Bobbie. Of Bobbie’s Law,” the attorney said in a way that made it part question, part reverence. Bobbie nodded. “I’m honored. And ...

Author: Rick Tobin Keet rested on the alien ship’s bridge, its green, leaf-like skin absorbing the nourishing rays of a distant Earth sun. It was a new recruit explorer among the plant-based race known as the Jotso Witan, traveling in massive, organic vessels orbiting a ...

Author: Majoki “We eat life, not sunshine.” Shielding his dark eyes from the desert brightness, Sitanni surveyed the acres and acres of solar panels filling the valley floor and waited for Jub to respond to his provocation. It didn’t come. Jub stood silent soaking in the ...

Author: William Torphy I’ve always heard voices, whispers actually, from another dimension. I exist between worlds, suspended between the quotidian concerns of one and the timeless aspirations of another. People call me distracted, ditsy, and sometimes even disturbed. They ...

Author: Graham Mossman I loved Afterfone when I was alive, but now I curse the jackass who invented it. They started by calling their dead friends and family, but then they realised that by building in a universal translator, they could call all kinds of interesting people ...

Author: Alastair Millar You know how sometimes you enter a room after a while, and you just know that someone’s been in there? It’s not your imagination. It could be an aroma so slight that you don’t consciously notice it. Maybe something’s not quite in the same place it ...

Author: David Broz I knew the stars would fall, and they did. I watched from the observation deck as the midnight sky slowly brightened, burning with orange streaks, brighter than the hottest day, and I watched as the stars came crashing down. Down through the dome ...

Author: Toshihisa Nikaido The woman jolted awake, surrounded by unfamiliar sterility. She didn’t know where or even who she was, until a cracked nametag dimly illuminated by a slit of light from across the room caught her attention—the letters “Ali” remained. She approached ...

Author: Majoki When I broke into the abandoned home, I hadn’t expected to stay long. I only wanted to get off the streets and out of the cold for a few days. I was pretty broken down. Being on the run for years will do that to you. So, I’d hacked the home’s defenses and ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I look back as the car accelerates away. She’s standing there under the streetlight, perfect, one hand raised in tentative farewell, the box I gave her tucked under her other arm. Then pa takes a hard right and she disappears from view - ...

Author: Joanne Feenstra A woman pounds on our front door. She is gaunt and tall, wet hair: short roots tipped with long dyed blond ends. We've seen that look before here in the Mercy Valley: city people. We've pretty much lived through the first couple waves of city folk. ...

Author: Shanna Yetman Leila likes to lie within the algae when the air is thickest with smog—smoke, nitrogen oxide, and ozone particulates squeezing at her lungs, agitating her asthma. Today her chest is tight. The smog has sat on top of the city for days, building up as ...

Author: David Barber The dry and sunny weather spoiled their holiday, confining them indoors until nightfall. It was Lord Byron who proposed they pass the time by writing tales to entertain one another, and for two days the villa beside Lake Geneva was silent with their ...