Ground Up

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The agent had been a train wreck. Until just a few hours ago he'd been laid open like a can of tinned meat from his ear to the bloody stump that had been his left foot. Blue, the mechanic, had stopped counting the number of liters of fluid ...

The Lady Is Not

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer ‘The night is yet young’ as my grandmother used to say. Apparently it was my grandfather’s favourite line before they’d go out and party. She told me about the two of them jetting off to Dubai for breakfast and always being in Shanghai for ...

The Message

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer The secretary general entered the command center with her entourage. She walked directly toward me, an imposing figure. Although we had not yet met in person she obviously knew I was the team leader. Dispensing with any formalities she got ...

The Loneliness of Time Travel

Author : George R. Shirer I met myself in a coffee bar the other day. He was older, but looked pretty good. “We should talk,” he said, then ordered us a couple of coffees. People were giving us strange looks, but the other me didn’t seem to care. He sipped his drink and ...

Plasticized

Author : Alexander Polkki The sales associate places the tablet in front of me. She delicately sets her nails on the screen and it comes to life, brimming with imagery, with iconography. We are living the revolution. She's waiting for me to say something. My silence ...

Don't Look

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The controls were familiar to any race that had developed mechanical means to get around on their planet’s surface. There was an altitude stick, turning/braking pedals, a throttle plus a variety of buttons and dials to let the pilot know ...

The Field Test

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “A one-way ticket to Ganymede, please.” “You can’t buy a one-way ticket to Ganymede.” “Why not?” “Ganymede orbits within Jupiter’s radiation belt. The law says no one can stay on Ganymede longer than six months. Therefore, you need a ...

Mountain Men

Author : Aaron Koelker They came like mountains in the night. Great behemoths of lumbering shadow that walked with thunderous grace. With beards of moss and fur of grass, they looked down upon the intruders without a hint of malice. Their great round eyes of polished stone ...

The Darkness

Author : Jack Holt No one knows why the Darkness came back to life that day, but Stron the Peerless was sent to deal with it. There were others who knew the ancient ways of commanding the power of the Darkness, but none had studied them so single-mindedly as Stron. It was forbidden to ...

Life Star

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room was smoky with the singed emissions of substances that made tobacco seem like a health supplement. Everyone knew the risks, but when you were fighting the greatest tyranny to ever rule humanity, longevity just didn’t enter the ...

Lonely Lights

Author : Phro Metal A chill autumn breeze blows through the trees lining the old, cracked cement path. Their leaves whisper like the fragmented cries of an artificial intelligence trapped on a dying CPU. Save for the weary pale glow of a single, distant skyscraper light, the ...

Security

Author : Christina Richard It happened every Tuesday; we were lined up, yawning and drinking coffee as the wireless network light blinked from beneath our hairlines as we waited for our updates. What HR said when they installed the chip was that human networking technology ...

Reflection

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer This is what I’ve been waiting for my entire adult life. All my work has come to this. From the moment I signed up for theoretical physics as a youth, I was destined to arrive at this day. Countless alternate universes with a finite number ...

Brave Old World

Author : Bob Newbell Hugo swallowed his last protein pill, paid his bill, and left the cafe. As he walked out the door, the rocket thrust from a young lady leaving the parking lot by jetpack blasted him with fire. It was only his quick reflexes that prevented him from being ...

Beaming

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The sentence was passed. The switch was flipped on the transporter and Caleb’s protests were cut off in mid-scream. The concrete block fused with his head. The first transporter accident taught us a valuable lesson about the covalency ...

Who's Better, Who's Best

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jack withdrew the blade slowly, knowing with the sudden swell of blood from the wound that the blow was fatal. "Nothing personal mate, it's a survival of the fittest thing and I'm simply better than you." He felt the body beneath him go ...

Defragging

Author : Bob Newbell Jimmy Shindorf reclined on the hospital bed. A hollow filament as thin as a thread penetrated his neck over the right carotid artery. An IV dripped normal saline at a slow rate into his left antecubital vein. They had suggested placing a Foley catheter, ...

Awoken

Author : Methias He slumbered. He remembered. His recollections were filled with vague, half-things. Muted feelings, dulled senses, broken memories. He remembered the last time he slumbered. He remembered the fall. He remembered the fire and the death. He remembered a heat ...

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