The Meaning of Life

Author : Townsend Wright "Alright let me see if I can explain this to you," I wasn't very good at deciphering the aliens' emotions, especially with the monotonous voice of the translator machine, but I was fairly certain this was condescension. "What do you know so far?" "Well," I ...

Gene

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer He was the result of a human experiment of gigantic proportions. Why had they done it? Because they could, the way their ancestors had once bred dogs into all shapes and sizes, these scientists of the new grand era tweaked and fiddled at the ...

Just Not Built That Way

Author : Michael T Schaper Tanya looked out across the room. The party was in full swing and, because both of her sisters now had children of their own, any chance at conversation was being drowned out by a multitude of little voices. She swooped down, picked up one of her young ...

Casey's Dream Book

Author : Will Strouse If Casey wasn't so hard to understand, she would be perfect; we kissed for the first time at work... The next day, we still got along... at work. Kind of weird that she can never hang out after work... She says she lives alone downtown but I don't know ...

Nancy

Author : John Arthur Beaman Waking-up felt strange. “Waking-up” is probably not the correct term, but its close. Her eyes didn’t work at first. That should have been expected, but it still surprised her. She was confused. Why couldn’t she move? Lying down with her head resting flat on ...

Point Two Point

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer As a child I was fascinated by the reflections you see when you place two mirrors facing each other and stand between them. Trying to understand that fascination drove me through mathematics and into science, down into quantum foam and up into the ...

Broken Cognizance

Author : Tiana Lexia The screen flashed on, casting shadows off the cadaver’s body. The tube that ran from the base of her head to the computer slowly radiated light with each passing memory. Her life started off normal, like any other person who passed through the Cognizance Center. ...

The Spinequake Register

Author : Huw Langridge It started as a series of headaches, but on my fourteenth birthday they made contact. Calling me by my first name. Talking inside my head. We talked for years. “The tremors are getting more frequent Daniel,” they eventually said to me. “The freak weather ...

Land of Opportunity

Author : Daniel M. Bensen "Ta zemya." The lookout cried from the crow's-nest like a muezzin. "Ta zemya~a! Kapitane, eto ya~a." Hristo Galabov gripped the plastic gunwale of his ship and squinted over the heaving Atlantic. "Ta zemya," the sailor said. Land. The last time, Hristo had ...

The Scientist

Author : Meg Everingham In the night Tom rolled over and opened his eyes. Through the dark like a ghost floated the low sound of his mother crying. She had arrived home earlier, from the airport; she had stared past him like a blind person and disappeared into her bedroom. Tom ...

Be Patient, Brethren

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Astronaut Lazo Hora drove his rover down the sloping interior walls of the 3.6 billion year old Shackleton Crater near the moon’s South Pole. As his headlights probed into the perpetual night of the crater floor, he spotted a saucer-like object ...

Containment

Author : Bob Newbell The members of the Galactic Security Council watched on the viewscreen as the bipedal alien in its bulky, white spacesuit erected a rod with a rectangle of cloth into the regolith of its planet's satellite. The starred and striped flag, the computer noted, ...

Colonists

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It started, as these things always do, with a kiss. Advice is useless to the young. That is their curse and their strength. They have no idea that some of the things that they attempt are impossible. That’s why an alarmingly high percentage of ...

Far Deep

Author : Katrina Johnston Within the Caves of Lozac under jagged vaulted ceilings, Razie Tay ventures eastward. Explosions crack like gunshot. ‘Sharding’ echoes bounce. Razie adjusts her helmet, snugs it tightly. Razor stalactites loom high above and sharp. Mineral icicles cleave and ...

Return From Red Zone

Author : Ray Daley It'd been a great day in Red Zone. We'd been first to apply for passes since it was classified safe. 800 years is a long time. Even then, it was 'droids doing the rad sweeps. Residuals had dropped below the safe limit so The Council lifted the blockade. When we ...

Touching

Author : David Gill The voice woke Phil from a sound sleep. “There’s a problem, Phil.” He found himself in the midst of saying, groggily, “What is it?” “Supply pressure, Phil. It’s too high.” Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Phil was at the console correcting the problem. “Thanks, ...

This Is What It's All About

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer We’d found some bizarre planets before, but this one required a whole new category of its own. I maneuvered my one-man exploratory craft toward the strange surface. The rest of the crew waited aboard Wanderer in high orbit. Some called this place ...

Librarian

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Unauthorised access to archives. Overdue viruser ‘Aloysius’ in serious breach.” The info-alarm finishes as I slide onto the longseat, dermal plates on mesh conducting me into the antechamber. Checking my vody for artefacts, I find my virtual self ...

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  • Singularity Day

    Author: Robb T. White “That is the aspiration: to avoid …