An Explanation
Author : Thomas Desrochers
People don't want to feel anymore, not beyond petty happiness. They don't read to expand their minds or learn or come across the emotional depth that real art brings about. People read their shallow books about overcoming some petty obstacle, about ...
The Sound of Silence
Author : Desmond Hussey
“Hello darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again.
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain,
Still remains,
Within the sound of silence.”
- Simon and Garfunkel
I ...
The Resurrected
Author : Desmond Hussey
The twin, muscled eunuchs shove the girl to the feet of Tar Marrella, Crèche mother. The remaining forty-seven crèche citizens stand in a rough circle surrounding them. All but the girl wear pale, toga-like robes and watch impassively, dull eyed and ...
Fine Line
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
My father always told me that there was a thin line between bravery and stupidity. Just like genius and insanity, it frequently comes down to time, place, outcome and who's doing the judging.
Right now, I don't need to check with any ...
Sentence Option B
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
“Well let’s see now Mr. Williams, you have your battery charged for over 100,000 hours of usage, plus the suit’s solar absorbers are in good order. Your spots will provide ample light should you land somewhere where it’s night. Of course on ...
Blackout
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
“During the mission, your memories are yours. After the mission, they belong to the military.”
The sergeant had droned on at the beginning of this op. It was a standard briefing. I remember seven similar briefings followed by months of ...
Final Effect
Author : Desmond Hussey
Dr. Chow Ming Fu and his cat Schrödinger are the only inhabitants of the titanic supercollider surrounding Canis Majoris like a ring. With a diameter of over 4.5 billion kilometers, the supercollider harnesses the gravity of the massive sun, spinning ...
Skyhook Waypoint
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer
Terry abandoned the powerbike at the bridge a few hundred meters before the checkpoint, running it off the road, down the embankment and parking tight against the understructure before he waded into the river.
He swam across, letting the ...
Graviton Tsunami
Author : Patricia Stewart
The patrol ship SS Rakki was approaching Moonbase Delta when the science officer announced, “Captain, I’m picking up an emergency distress signal from the Ultragravity Research Station orbiting Jupiter.”
“Are they requesting assistance?” asked the ...
Hard Time
Author : Bob Newbell
"We beat it!" Those were the words my lawyer had said to me right after sentencing. "It" was the death penalty. "Son, you shouldn't have done this in Texas," he'd said to me the first time we met. "This" referred to killing a man.
It happened in the ...
Marooned
Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer
It's been ten years since the Humanis Confederacy swept the Roekuld from the Spiral Arm in a rebellion that no-one thought mankind capable of. In six months we undid the defeats and treacheries of fifty years. Victory was absolute and mercy ...
Reading
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 ...
Survival Therapy
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 ...
The Threshold of our Reach
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 ...
Boom World
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 ...
Something New Under the Sun
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 ...
The Cord
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 ...
Know Thy Enemy
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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