Melting

Author : Peter Andrews The unmoving city. My city. The boy is frozen now, four, maybe five, feet from the ground, cheeks pulled by inertia's invisible fingers. It is up to me--he might never turn into viscera, his limbs and neck at deathly angles. His family might never ...

Neptune Event

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer The Neptune was a first class luxury star liner, the finest of everything from stem to stern; from her massive chandeliers hanging from cavernous twenty meter and higher ceilings to the never-ending filigree of intricately wood-carved ...

Customer Support

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer "Thank you for calling BIOMEK customer support. My name is Tammy, how may I help you today?" "Hi Tammy, I'm having a little problem with my domestic. I am a little frustrated here. I hope you can help me." "I am sorry to hear that. ...

Fly Dark, Fly Fast

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer "Bring us to membrane distance," ordered Commander Richards. Yeoman Miller deftly maneuvered the UESS Kenar toward the subspace membrane separating the primary universe from the adjacent multiverse where they were currently operating. ...

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 ...

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