Commercial Break
Author : Desmond Hussey
Black rain streaks the windows of Mr. Nielson’s 35th story apartment. Beyond the aqueous smear, a tiny room is illuminated by the hypnotic flicker of an enormous, wafer thin television screen. Outlined by the electric glow, a mass of limp flesh, ...
Trinket
Author : Thomas Desrochers
“Hi Kristen, it's your mum...”
Jaques picked up a picture of Kristin Trinket off of her bedroom nightstand. Twenty years old, red hair, stunning green eyes. Crooked, imperfect teeth at home in one of the warmest smiles he had ever seen. He set the ...
Immersion
Author : Andrew DiMatteo
"Now, there are a lot of channels down there. Some of 'em may surprise you. Be careful . It's easy to get distracted when you're Immersed. Always remember to pay attention to your surroundings and…"
The dive operator was giving us condescending ...
Generation Gap
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
The one-hundred-and -eleven year old man stood at the transit stop listening to an antique MP3 player. His electric blue faux hawk practically glowed in the afternoon sun.
Suddenly an eighty-eight year old man came strolling up, twirling a ...
Hacker
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
The pastel decorated walls were hung with tasteful art that changed as needed to offset any negative morale the system garnered from the gestalt of everyone’s mindnets. Since the advent of the cranial implant, society had changed beyond all ...
Evolution
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
We were so wrong.
We saw evolution as a paring down to essentials. Our pinkies were getting shorter and soon we might only have four fingers, for instance. We theorized evolution as a process that winnowed away the unnecessary. It ...
Correspondence
Author : D. Ahren Bell
“Peregrine, this is the ship. I… I have an important issue that I must discuss with you. Our fuel reserves have run out, and photovoltaic energy is not enough to keep me in orbit for much longer.”
Peregrine’s response time was, per usual, long delayed, ...
I Friended an Alien
Author : Brian McDermott
“This could be the single most important event in the history of our planet,” Jake leaned over the formica. “I think I've been friended by an Alien,”
Amir's stunned silence was broken by the sounds of his legs peeling off the vinyl bench. Jake slowly ...
Salvage Operation
Author : Bob Newbell
Ship's Log, 1330, 24 June 2533. Captain April Green recording. Al-Basri and Sanchez continue to work on the alien ship's engines. The vessel appears to use an antimatter-enhanced helium-3/deuterium fusion rocket not unlike the interstellar drive on the ...
Cargo
Author : S. P. Mahoney
“Freighter Tigris, Control. You’re straying out of your flight path -- explain. Now.” Maria and Crone shared a look, before Maria put on her headset. Rank hath its responsibilities.
“Control, this is Tigris. Something hit us ...
Ticket to Paradise
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
Two-hundred and twenty years had finally passed. We had reached our destination. From our sleep tubes we could see the first images of the beautiful green planet on our displays. But I did not care about any of it.
Then as our ship ...
Big Brother
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
The battlefield is silent and empty. In the city beyond, we can see figures on the remaining vantage points. All of us gawking like children as the spectacle continues.
The dawning light reflects from angles or scatters in rainbow flashes ...
Sisters of Mars
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
I watched as the Martian women came down the stairs from their shuttle onto the tarmac.
Regular Martian humans smeared red clay into their skin but these Ambassadors had tattooed their entire bodies red. They believed that if your skin ...
Twitch
Author : Christina Richard
More often than not, pretty girls do not get master’s degrees in neurorobotics. I am as ugly as your worst nightmare, but the bots I design have made grown men forget how to pronounce their own last names. And considering what happens to some of the ...
Before Ruin
Author : Cruz Andronico Fernandez
People were getting sick everyday. Scott could care less. It was just something talked about on the television. So when he fell off his bike and tore up his arm he was only thinking about when he could get back on and ride again.
The day ...
Little Sarah's Sixth
Author : Thomas Desrochers
The crowd is fast on the heels of the gate guards. Evacuation sirens are blaring, deafening. Over everything the massive ship looms, engines warming up. Everybody is running, but from what, or why, nobody can say. They've been trained to for years. ...
kharla's Getaway
Author : Desmond Hussey
We’re cutting it damn close. The three Gyth gliders are closing quickly as we jink in and out of the towering rock spires attempting to stay out of their line of fire. We’re gaining altitude quickly enough, but Kharla’s running low on water to convert ...
Show and Tell
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer
“Good morning, children,” said Nek-orf La’Erer.
“Good morning, Mx. La’Erer,” replied her students in unison.
“We have a lot to get through today,” she said without preamble. “So, we’ll continue where we left off yesterday. Tjen’er, ...
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