Just Us

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Life has always been hard at the bottom. My grandparents survived the collapse of 2013 and my parents made it onto the first exodus in 2055. It was considered simpler to test the tech and logistics on fifty thousand poor people. If it ...

Friend

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer SSG Ray Mansfield raised his rifle and glassed the valley below with powerful optics. His men, stretched out behind him, were virtually invisible, their chameleon skin armour blended seamlessly with the sparse vegetation and oily, rocky ...

The Future of Man

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer "I don't give a damn," bellowed Senator Orcus as he slammed his fist onto the conference table. "They knew this day was coming, and they did nothing to prepare for it! Why the hell should we bail them out?" "They were there for us," ...

Blank Disc

Author : Donovan Pruitt "It itches," the soldier complained, scratching at the data socket on the back of his neck. Seated across the table, the doctor offered a sympathetic smile. "That's normal for a new download, Sergeant Jax. Just don't think about it. Think about ...

Primates of Suburbia

Author : Robert Vennell I stumble down the road through the hazy tungsten half-light. Padded headphones suck out the ambient noise and replace it with the hum of distorted guitars. An empty street, a dim coating of artificial light and the buzz of electric instruments. I have ...

Homo Tardus

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I am too old to enjoy the future. I am physically unable to. People, like older trees and metal from the ground, could not be retro-engineered. Transporters were finally here but everyone who had dreamed of their existence could not use ...

Shinobi

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer Seventeen days to travel two kilometres through the most extreme security ever deployed. My rations are finished and I have drunk the last of my urine. The moon is bright yet anyone monitoring the meeting hall roof would find nothing. The ...

Requiem for a Prospector

Author : Steve Jopek A man lies gripping a slowly tumbling boulder of ice and stares into the distance of space. His broken femur pokes sharply into the material of his white skinsuit threatening to rupture it. His foot and leg are numb, his boot full of thickening blood. ...

Vinnie

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer The music was deafening. New wave fusion jazz. Whatever the fuck that is. I had an "appointment" with Vinnie "The Fag" Scarpacci. Most men would have been pissed to have a moniker like that. Some would kill you for even whispering it. ...

Freedom

Author : Clint Wilson, Featured Writer The eighteen foot tall robot stared down at the park worker in pleading disbelief. Sam jabbed the giant's leg with his broom, "Come on, off you go. You can't stay here anymore!" "But I don't comprehend this request. My place is here in ...

Shadows

Author : M. J. Hall We wait. We the shadow-women, the marginalized, the dispossessed. We wait, for our time of power is near. Long ago, the elite decided that natural means of reproduction were far too messy for those of great wealth and status. As the clone banks churned ...

To Boldy Go

Author : J. S. Kachelries This will be my greatest invention! Of course, my invention bar is not set very high. The phaser thing sort of worked. It was able to set the living room curtains on fire, but I got second degree burns on the palm of my hand when the damn thing ...

Good Boy, Max

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Major retrieved the chewed tennis ball Max had laid at his feet and loaded it back in the meter long, ice-cream scoop of a throwing arm he was using to launch it. Max bowed and jumped, eyeing the ball with keen interest as Major cocked the ...

CTRL V

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer My name is Control V. My boss calls me Paste. I am a clone. I work for the government. I am a secret agent. There are a few of me kicking around. I don't know how many. I am given orders that I can't disobey. I get through metal ...

Gal

Author : Julian Miles, Staff Writer “What do you mean you lost her? This is Central, the most surveilled planet in the galaxy. How do you lose a two meter tall three armed gal?” Gens Adamant had the grace to look crestfallen, and so he should. He may be from a long line of ...

Time Skipper

Author : Clint Wilson, featured writer I open my eyes and gasp aloud. Where... is this? What... what day is... time is... where am I? Who... who... who... who am I? Although my entire awareness is a swirling multitude of uncertainty, I know I am looking up at the sterile ...

Freedom Someday

Author : Huw Langridge Carla's hand retreated from the ON switch while the media wall flickered to life. The software programme went through its final initialisation stages, with lines of configuration code working its way up the screen. She waited. ADAM appeared on the ...

Bushel for the Candle

Author : Martin Berka Tom stood meters behind the ethicist, armed to where his teeth had been until they encountered grenade shrapnel two years ago. She knelt in the alleyway, engrossed in some insect or small plant ? it was not his job to understand. He could end this right ...

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