ABC

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer "A is for Android, B is for Blood," They chant so happily, without a care in the world. I love them so much, but that is exactly why I am crèche matresse. The room is huge and covered with colourful pictures of all the neo-heroes and the ...

Decompression

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It's a unique experience to be involved in an explosive space decompression. If you survive, you never forget the sound. It's like something turns the volume down sharply in the middle of the explosion. The screams, the shattering of ...

The Unwitting Participant

Author : Barry Reimer I remember falling. Somehow, I saw it coming seconds before it happened, but I had no way to stop it. Snap. The rope severed. The top of the towering spire of rock began to fall away. During my freefall, time became surreal. Each moment stood alone; an ...

Float

Author : Mark Ehler Lt. Bernard sat, arms crossed, in a 15,000,000 credit coffin. The nuclear battery shorted out and now, without engine power, his ship was just another object in space. Interceptor Pilot Protocol dictated that he stay with his vessel and wait for a patrol ...

The Second Drop

Author : Chad C. Burns My gorget chafes as I sit in the dark, listening to my world hum. I can feel the distant thrum of engines, and the creak of cables. Steam and pressure hiss and burble, vacuum engines thump and click, shunting force thru the veins of the ship. Some of ...

Exit Strategy

Author : John Conway Grant pushed through the crowd, ignoring the direction indicator. He longed for elbow room and privacy, luxuries of a forgotten past. But rumor had it there were still places--distant, underpopulated islands. He only dreamed of reaching their shores ... ...

Last Embrace

Author : Jarrod Chestney-Law Sapphire, threaded with white and then a diamond studded blackness. Sapphire and white fill my vision again. They remain now. Chirps and static bursts chatter in my ears. Emerald threads begin to fill my vision, cascading down, faster and faster ...

Juggers

Author : Salli Shepherd Ant, You're not going to believe this. Unzip the folder and check out image 14, number 227. Yes, that's a jugger you're looking at, only ten times the regulation embryo mass. And yes, that is an illegal frontal lobe. Look at those EEG printouts. ...

Jeromes

Author : Tom Coupland Even more of the world watched Jerome II enter the hospital room than had even watched those first interviews with Jerome. Those early interviews had set the world alight. They had watched in their thousands of millions as the gray haired scientist had ...

The Brain Room

Author : Jamie Grefe It doesn't take them long to do it, just eye contact. Once they do, and those eyes are locked, instant transmission — you disappear. I'm not sure if this is just the way my own programming reacts to this planet, but something has happened. I was on the ...

Slow Passage

Author : Victoria Barbosa "You want to do what?" said Alice's mother, Irene. "That's insane!" "Not really," said Alice. "We always speak about time as if it were a great surprise, an uncontrollable element. I think it's time we tamed it." Her father smoothed his muttonchop ...

Playing The Long Game

Author : Geoffrey Cashmore Regret. That was new. My life had been built into a shape where regret had no place. I only had one purpose - my entire existence leading up to it - and it wasn't just me - I couldn't even guess how many others were involved; working behind the ...

The Trouble With Children

Author : Maria Coello "The problem with sibes - the main problem with sibes - is that they won't lie down when they're dead," Kirsten said three days ago, spitting bits of sausage across the dinner table. I ought to have told her years ago, of course, but it never seemed like ...

Auburn Tresses

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer He awoke to the cloying smell of marijuana mixed with patchouli. His eyes fell on a poster featuring a cartoon rendering of a short bald man in yellow robes and flowing white beard. One sandaled foot was outthrust. The caption below the ...

Keep Your Head

Author : Clint Wilson The herd of Separable Hybrates fed veraciously on the nutritious fungus. You had to get your fill when you could and patches like this didn't usually strike up so abundantly this early on. The old matriarch was larger than the rest, and her feeding ...

Cargo

Author : A. R. Coy A fine layer of crimson dust covered the streets and filled the transporter with a red haze. Freetown claimed to be the finest of the planet's three cities, which only made the scene drearier. Deals were made here that were banned throughout the galaxy. ...

Something to Not Forget

Author : Jeremy Herman Did you know coal can be reduced to liquid? With enough heat and pressure it's possible. The government discovered this once they ran out of oil but they still needed to power their war machines. Right now Coleman felt like one of those dull pieces of ...

Attitude Problem

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer The office was tidy and the boss sat smiling behind the desk as he finished pouring a second glass of malt whiskey. The smell almost made John drool. Andy looked up with a beaming smile. "Come in John. Take a seat. This is informal so you ...

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