By The Light Of The Silvery Moon

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer The thundering blasts of the plasma cannons hammered us relentlessly like meteor-sized fists, as the Zalkanthian war ship maintained its attack position directly outside our cockpit bay windows. There was no escape. Their bizarre hive-mind intellect ...

Peacefully Co-exist

Author : Bill Drummond We three, the only survivors of the wrecked starship Buoyant, are Captain Bertrand Kelmond, Sergeant Rosalind Druley and me. The Captain has suffered a head injury, leaving him confused and ineffective as the leader. I am not happy with being assigned his ...

Behavior Modification

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The shrimp trawler ”Treadin’ Water” plowed through the calm gulf seas on its way to Baratana Bay. Clasping the wheel in his massive hands, Captain Noyent eyed his son skeptically. “So, your mother and me spend half our life’s savin’s putting you ...

Frontier Justice

Author : Bob Newbell, Featured Writer "Surrender your cargo and you can leave unharmed." The message comes over the radio the moment I come out of a space fold maneuver inside the Gliese 832 system. It's a fairly old trick. There are a finite number of space fold nexuses and of that ...

Interference

Author : J. R. Hargenrader When Mission Specialist David Branson joined the Solarian Defense Force, his romantic ideal of “see the universe, learn advanced skills, and encounter alien civilizations” never meant hiding on the far side of an asteroid, cleaning regolith-covered optics, ...

The Loaner

Author : Dave Rigby Steve sat in the beige waiting room idly flipping through channels on the tv, not stopping on any for more than the few seconds of allotted free viewing so as to not incur an automatic charge. At home he had a pretty decent entertainment package with no overrun fees ...

Runaway

Author : Bob Newbell, Featured Writer "Ensign, report!" yelled the captain over the ring of klaxons and the groans of metal fatigue that filled the bridge of his starship. The young officer didn't respond. His eyestalks were fixed on the kaleidoscope of stars streaking past on the ...

GraviTech Inc.

Author : Stephen LaGioia I stand anxious and apprehensive in the corner of the hallway near the top of my front door. I crawl to the peephole and squint through it, surveying the empty sky below me and blades of grass protruding upwards, my eyes frantically searching for help. Cars ...

Magnification

Author : Ulrich Lettau “This has never been done before.” I blurted out, watching the massive instrument continue to magnify the fluorine atom image. The gauge rapidly passed the billion power mark and continued toward the 1,750,000,000 times, the theoretical maximum. “Dr. Cronus, you ...

Warped Drive

Author : Bob Newbell, Featured Writer The President of the United States smiled as the press photographed and video recorded her handshake with the Un'Vidik representative. The tall, spindly alien showed no emotion. How could it, encased as it was in its stark white encounter suit? The ...

The Burgarii Collective

Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer Darwin was wrong. The Burgarii Collective is living proof of that. Watching the massive arcologies floating above the old city is surreal – mountains literally drifting among the clouds. I am reminded of a text book found deep in the library’s ...

Cheddar Plain and Mordeck

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Mordeck and Cheddar Plain were field-stripping their weapons on top of Concourse B. No one came by here. They talked and smoked openly. Eyes in the sky were a thing of the past. They perched there on an I-beam, ten stories up from the concrete ...

Special Ops

Author : Bob Newbell, Featured Writer "Can you see him?" asked the SWAT team commander. "Yes, commander. I'll stream the video feed to your display," said the CASO officer. A live video of a disheveled, wild-eyed man of about 20 years clutching a girl who appeared to be about 14 ...

A Day in the Office

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer It's dark when my ears finally stop ringing. I lie deathly still and carefully inventory my corpse. "Not such an unstoppable bastard now, are ya?" Docherty is still here. That explains the pain in my jaw. He put one in my head, two in my ...

Lucky Day

Author : Dennis Von Euw “ 'X-ray 3' to 'Harvest Queen', come in, over” “This is 'Harvest Queen', what is your status?, Over” “We've completed the survey on the asteroid. It shows no transuranics, and damn little heavy metals. The bulk is just stony ...

Priorities

Author : Ryan Watson The war had finally been instigated. Nobody was truly certain how it had started or which nations were involved. All anybody knew was that it had been a month since the missiles were launched. All high profile personnel were secretly escorted to underground ...

Judge Not

Author : Bob Newbell, Featured Writer Vandrin walked into the officer's club and saw Rudneth sitting by himself at a table in a corner. Fleet Admiral Rudneth was drinking shots of straight tyrofin. To all appearances, he'd been at it for some time. Vandrin doubted if his ...

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