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By Duncan Shields | August 7, 2012
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer They stood on level sixteen of the meat building, waiting for their order of sharkbeef. This vat boutique specialized in hybrid delicacies and Kay was hosting a birthday dinner party tonight. The invites and accepts scrolled across her ...
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Survival Therapy

By submission | August 6, 2012
Author : Kevin Crisp The judge gave Rick several choices, of which the young men’s wilderness therapy program on an uncolonized but certified habitable world seemed the most palatable. He learned to pitch an atmosphere tent, tie a tourniquet and find cover from acid rain. He ...
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The Threshold of our Reach

By submission | August 5, 2012
Author : Aldous Mercer It was a deathbed recantation. The Astronaut lay, sunken and frail amidst his bedclothes, as they set up their equipment. There was a window on the other side of the bed, framing a portion of the nearby mountain range. “Beautiful view you’ve got,” said ...
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Boom World

By submission | August 4, 2012
Author : Chris Capps She's a shrewd old lady. She knows things. When she gave the Parch brothers the treasure map, she said the journey would be dangerous. She even asked them if they had twelve shooters and - more importantly - knew how to use them. When they assured her ...
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Something New Under the Sun

By submission | August 3, 2012
Author : J.D. Rice When man first delved into the depths of the sea, they discovered a teaming ecosystem like nothing they'd ever imagined. When he first ventured out into space, he found bright stellar formations in the midst of barren blackness. And when men finally learned ...
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The Cord

By Clint Wilson | August 2, 2012
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer I have been obsessed with The Cord all my life. A full century before my birth, scientists detected the tip of the strange tendril undulating and probing at the outer edge of our oort cloud. As far as anyone knew it was without end, as we ...
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Know Thy Enemy

By Patricia Stewart | August 1, 2012
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer As Bestiarius entered the cold and damp gladiator’s stockade, he tossed his blood splattered shields, sword, and mace into the weapons pit for cleaning. Then the four armed, four legged Quadnotaur stepped onto the Transformer Pad to be ...
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Ice in the Wind

By submission | July 31, 2012
Author : Dan Whitley A ghastly wrenching sound drummed the ship from outside. Another loose bit of hull or outboard instrument had torn away. It flapped off into the distance, carried on the frigid blizzard of an alien world. “Would you stop fidgeting?” Petra shot a baleful ...
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The Last Temptation of CR-1.57

By submission | July 30, 2012
Author : Dan Whitley The natives prostrate me over a disused shipping crate in their temple and begin their ritual. They flog me with ancient braided industrial cables that have hung from the temple walls for centuries, awaiting this day and this purpose. The temple sits in ...
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Theogony

By submission | July 29, 2012
Author : Bob Newbell Ship's log, Cycle 6944, Subcycle 3, Captain Zeus commanding. The Olympia's A.I. has performed an emergency biometamorphosis on the crew who were all in stasis at the time of the transrelativistic drive malfunction. The A.I. was able to get the ship back into ...
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Elise

By submission | July 28, 2012
Author : Thomas Desrochers A little girl runs down the street in her bare feet, her vivid orange skirt prancing through the air behind her all the way. She is young, barely six, and more full of life because of it. She loves the flowers in her mama's garden, the cookies that ...
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Commute

By Stephen R. Smith | July 27, 2012
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer In Marco's experience, most catastrophic events start with a simple accident. This evening it was fatigue and hyperfocus, coupled with hot coffee and a snagged lab-coat sleeve. And the nanos. Marco's stool, momentarily balanced on two legs ...
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In The Kingdom of the Gods

By Patricia Stewart | July 26, 2012
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “Well, there it is Brothergod,” said Sistergod enthusiastically, “the space probe Voyager crossed the boundary of their solar system. By My reckoning, they did it in less than 20 revolutions around the galactic core. Therefore, I win ...
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No One Was To Be Lonely Ever Again

By Clint Wilson | July 25, 2012
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer “Good evening sir, would you care for a bedtime companion?” Jenkins looked tiredly from the edge of his luxury mattress toward the glowing wall console. “I dunno, lemme have a look I guess.” Without answering, the household central ...
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Train Train

By Julian Miles | July 24, 2012
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Thundering down the kaleidoscopic tunnel at point four light and all’s well. Got a cold vodka sliding down to join the steak and chips delivered from the catering car as I look over to where old Max is interfaced to the drive arrays. The ...
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Confession

By Duncan Shields | July 23, 2012
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The priest wheezed on the other side of the confessional screen. It wasn’t uncommon. Cryogenia malathusmia. Freezer lung, we called it. Or the holy cough. Most people that traveled by cryo in the sleepships ended up with it. That meant ...
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Heat Sink

By submission | July 22, 2012
Author : Aldous Mercer Septu’s core-temperature rises as soon as he steps out of the wind. But he keeps his eyes to the ground. The trembling of his father’s hand has nothing to do with the heat and everything to do with gathering other Master-Miners every sevenday. "Greet ...
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Rapture

By submission | July 21, 2012
Author : Dan Whitley My people called me a fool. They said it was impossible to leave the surface. That was why no beasts flew through the air. It mattered not if I could imagine a machine that could. My people offered me hollow aphorisms; what goes up must come down. My ...
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