Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks At the console, the technician remembered a few Latin words from school: Deux ex machina. He couldn’t remember what they meant, but he heard his teacher saying them. He felt sweat on his temples, and hoped his supervisor would excuse it. At a ...

Author: Robin Cassini “Please, have a seat.” A bare lightbulb flickered overhead. I settled onto a folding char. The steel dug relentlessly into my spine. It was not meant to be comfortable. With a creak, the officer positioned himself across the small table. He ...

Author: Travis Connor Sapp 5 days before present day… 10:38 AM, the sun is out, and Juan rests cozily on a rickety mattress. The normal person is up and doing work, endlessly living their boring 9 to 5, but this big fella starts his day around 11 AM. Juan ...

Author: Bryant Benson Dear Henry, Sometimes I wish I never met you. When you found me washed up on the beach in my final hour I was something different that could have stung or bitten, but you took me into your home and gave me a safe place to die. I truly wish it wasn’t ...

Author: Majoki Click. Split. The metal gleams. That was all. Decades of research. Years of development. For this. Click. Split. The metal gleams. Hiroshi was toast. His head to be delivered not on a silver platter, but on a silicon wafer to Project Director. He was ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Did you see that, Pete?” I nod. “Just another rocket from Abaella.” Said on the news it’s going to be in range of Earth for another month. “It’s bigger than that, Pete.” Amanda sounds unhappy. I wander out onto the porch in time to ...

Author: Rick Tobin Jason continued to turn a small half-fried reptile in a solar often. Cooking took longer on this world with its distant red sun. Bursts of drifting dust blew over him and his two companion portal flyers. Emily was rinsing her hair delicately with precious ...

Author: Palmer Caine Between gates things get weird. Perception splinters to span myriad levels, too many to navigate, too many to understand. Like of Galaxy of mirrors, everything reflected infinitesimally. Or so it seems. Maybe a fly with its many segmented eyes could ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher The road ahead was dark and going darker as it banked down into the shadows of the towering mountains, blocking the angled light that was parching the land. Pausing there at the summit he wondered if there was anything in the valley below that waited ...

Author: Joann Evan One morning, I received a suspicious email. The subject line said “King Crimson.” The sender was “No One,” and when I rolled over the name it showed only random letters and numbers. I knew I shouldn’t open it. It was probably a scam. I clicked delete. I ...

Author: Hillary Lyon Wilson drifted from guest to guest serving hors d'oeuvres, taking drink orders. Most party goers hardly regarded him, too engrossed in their conversations. Save for Brenna. Young, idealistic, she possessed a heart big enough for all creatures—as she ...

Author: Majoki The gently rolling hills stretched to the horizon. Randy Jansen shielded his eyes from the noon sun to get a better look at what Jack Forsythe was pointing to along the base of the wind turbine towers. From his vantage, the barrel looked a mile long rising to ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Swinging into the forward turret, I see the displays are alive with scanner arrays and intricate calculations. “Morning, Hinton. How’s the hunting?” “Once again, Zaba, I’m going to ignore the irrelevance of arbitrary planetary ...

Author: Alastair Millar “C’mon, Jack, the fans will just eat this up! You know they will” “That’s kind of the issue, Morty.” “It’s totally ethical, don’t worry about it.” “But is it tasteful? There’s going to be people that hate it.” “Then they can choke on it! This is ...

Author: Yueyang Wang No.365: assigned as Breeder for Stem Cell No. 173. I saw my number on the screen. This was my first time breeding. The surgery started immediately. Mechanical arms extended a catheter into my body, warm fluid surged in, and then instruments moved ...

Author: Srdjan Budisavljevic ..Finally, he opened his eyes. The feeling was strange, like the feeling of rebirth. Faint images of his former existence sporadically surfaced in his consciousness, but he was unable to recognize those memories as integral parts of his ...

Author: Jas Howson Xero had been scouring the planet for scrap parts for half the day. When she and her partner crashed, their comms device, along with the rest of the important equipment on their ship – and their ship – had scattered across the planet. Frequent sandstorms ...

Author: David Barber Over the centuries it had become a tradition for the Immortal Emperor to wash away His guilt in ceremonies at the Schwarzschild radius. Since nothing escaped the event horizon of a black hole, awful secrets could be whispered there, cruelties, ...