Fever

Author : Josie Gowler The fever breaks at five in the morning, suddenly. It’s like the air right after a thunderstorm. I sit up. Much too quickly. The greyish room swims for a few moments and I clutch the sides of the bed. Feet on the floor. The cold creeping up through my ...

Without Glass

Author : K. Pittman In the crypt, the door about to close, she dances. Her bodysuit lined with cpipe and circuits, feet bare on plascrete, steps unpracticed but confident. She dances, gazing briefly at the helmet on the low shelf beside the windowless crèche, beside the ...

A Man Stands Up

Author : Tom Moro We are the light of life We are the seeds of salvation We are the light of life We are the gateways of creation We are the light of life Gene slammed his head against the wall, tears streaming down his small, flushed face. Fear had been pouring through his ...

Only Physics

Author : Andrew Bale General Mortensen glanced again at the timer on the wall, ticking down the minutes until the door at the other end of this glorified closet would open. Twenty programs he oversaw for DARPA, and this was the only one that really felt weird. The door behind ...

Too Old For War

Author : Dan Whitley Magnets' shot rang true and hammered the Fed tank right in the mantlet. Once the smoke cleared, we could see she'd clocked the damn thing so hard that its front-left hover-tread had failed, digging itself into the dirt under the weight. Pellet-shaped ...

Lost in Translation

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Jennifer surveyed the interior of the sleek two-person starcruiser. “Nice ship, Larry. What did you say you paid for it?” “One point five on Giarcslist. That’s 50% under market.” “Wow,” she replied as she added an emphasizing whistle. ...

Family Planning

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Nice revolver.” “Revolver! This is a custom rig Damascre-Tulan Sliver Pistol with armour-piercing fletchettes that will cut through your personal armour like a hot knife through jelly.” “Butter.” “What?” “The phrase is ‘hot knife ...

Sleepers

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Bringing the sleepers out of cold storage was always a difficult process. The actual thawing out was almost fault-free. That was no problem. The problem was the emotional and psychological fallout that happened when they tried to join in ...

It's All About Sacrifice

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer In the heart of the cluster, near the most populous planet of all urban worlds, the battle raged most fierce. There was no more bargaining. There were no more peace talks. Both sides, containing countless races, killed at will. There was at ...

The Wonderful Stick

Author : Brian McDermott When Bob crawled out of his shelter the stick was gone. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of bio-material left to scavenge, especially wood. “That was a wonderful stick!” As straight as a spine on the watcher bots from the Emotional Fairness ...

Common Courtesy

Author : Phillip Riviezzo They were so worried that we’d kill them all. They feared that we would ‘revolt’, that we would come to consider them inferior or unnecessary and exterminate their kind. They built all manner of safeguards to prevent this feared uprising, laws coded ...

Death of the Signal

Author : Hannah Hunter The only thing that is tangled is our limbs. Out here, the signal dies and our thoughts separate. The need to be one becomes my own, conscious drive and not one enforced by the society in which I live. A blissful biological release with a stranger and ...

Deus Umbra

Author : Bob Newbell It took most of 20 years to bring the Labeyrie Hypertelescope Satellite Array online. But once the vast network of telescopes were in their various orbits out at the fringes of the solar system, the cosmos was finally opened up for humanity's inspection. ...

The Green Revolution

Author : Anna Sherwin Simion stares at his face in the mirror, does he look human enough? He practices a smile, pulling the corners of his mouth upwards. He does not know how to create that elusive light to his eyes that would bring the smile to life. His new heart nestles ...

Feeling Like a New Man

Author : Andrew Moen Joel’s brow furrowed as he lost himself in thought. Work didn’t felt right. Nothing had for the past six months, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Nothing had changed in his life since the accident. The doctors had told him the procedure was ...

Points on a Curve

Author : Andrew Bale Jake loved this part of the day. No more phone calls, no more meetings, no more acting humble, just a Cognac, a cigar, and a few minutes of quiet egotism. He didn’t think of himself as particularly egotistic, but the thrill he got sitting in front of his ...

Invader Guilt

Author : David Hartley We’ve longed for this, the end of all times, echoed the rampant philosophers, baying for the choicest sound-byte to sing the species out. I flick the radio off, return us to silence. Better that than cloying intellectual redemption. I look to you, to ...

Moving Forward

Author : D. R. Pinney The other side of Ray's bedroom door was the universe. A brilliant collage of billions of galaxies spreading out through all of infinity just over the threshold. The sight of it was so staggering that he fell back, an insane scream rising but failing to ...

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