The Bay It Buzz

Author : Harris Tobias I knew they were lying. "Don burry Bill, ebry thing bill be all bright," in that crazy accent of theirs with their "B's" and "W's" crossed. The house was a horrible mess. The furniture was dirty and old. What pictures there were were crooked and not ...

Time Travel

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer God give me patience, she thought, as Peter ran into the living room with another ‘great invention’. Peter was wearing a flanged-open broccoli steamer on his head with a crude system of wires sticking out of it like dead flowers in a ...

The Witness

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer

It didn’t bother me at first. Killing them I mean. They had come to our home world with plans of conquest. I can’t even dignify what happened by calling it a war. They claim we fired first, which was true, but nobody asked them ...

Earthsick

Author : Matthew Callaway It looks like snow, except there's no snow here, no rain. The foamy droplets float down from the decontamination sprayers as a ship lands, speckling the faceplate of my respirator. When I was a kid seeing snow was like seeing a planet for the first ...

Omniflower

Author : Ron Wingrove Discovery of the Omniflower should have been one of the greatest of the 23rd century. It happened on a distant planet, to a ragged crew from an equally-shabby exploration ship. Anybody who could cobble together an FTL drive went into exploration. Most ...

Atrocities and Crimes

Author : Thomas Keene The Secretary set the tablet in front of the Director. "This is the file we have been asked to review. The news is calling him the 'felon artist.' He's quite the celebrity right now." The Director thumbed through the man's profile. "Convicted of ...

After The Machine Stops

Author : Jason Frank I'm in my office, the big one on the top floor, minding my own business and he just walks in without knocking. Hey, we might have just had a revolution but there's still a right and a wrong way to do things. For example, storming into my office with a ...

No One Ever Considers the Unforeseen Consequences

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “Tell me again, Welin, why you have to lie to the Captain?” asked the temporal assistant. “It doesn’t seem right,” she added with disgust. “You’re not seeing the big picture, Molly. It’s not about a single ship; it’s about what ...

Eleven Days Since…

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer She sat in a corner of Starbucks, talking on her phone. In the window behind her, the Earth was just setting. Her short blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail which she twisted nervously. “How long will you be gone,” she asked. There ...

A Matter of Taste

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The invaders had left automated sentries in charge of the human race. They’d really cleaned Earth up. All animals, vegetables, and water were being managed expertly for maximum freshness and yield. They left the precious metals in the ...

Rule 34a

Author : Michael Bagen Hobbes lowered the Polaroid, blinded Carla giving him the finger. “I just woke up and I'm hung over. Please die and leave me that picture to dispose of. He ignored her, turned, and dealt the image like a playing card onto the scanner. “What the hell ...

Rain

Author : Matthew Velez I miss the rain. It’s been years - I’ve long since lost track of how many - since I saw it last. Since anyone saw it last. It’s been so long that no one really remembers it anymore, except for what you'd find in dictionaries. I remember rain as being so ...

Horatio Kiddleson’s Wild Ride

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Horatio Kiddleson stared open-mouthed at the turbulent accretion disk as it swirled into the ergosphere that surrounded the bottomless gravity well. “Dammit Schwarz, you didn’t tell me our destination was a black hole.” “Quite right, ...

Why, I Oughta…

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Allright men, listen up.” Even without the aid of his complant or the voice magnification of a batt’suit, First Sergeant Lesimov could easily be heard over the scream of drop ships as they streaked through the atmosphere. “True to ...

Forever

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The world demanded immortality at gunpoint from the ones who had it already. A transfusion of the nanotech-laced blood from the wealthy was all it took. For those without access to transfusion equipment, it wasn’t long before the rebels ...

We Make Our Dreams

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Robert rifled through the stack of sketched notes and diagrams, some he vaguely remembered making, some he'd simply found under his tired and aching head upon waking; pen clenched in cramped fingers, the writing forgotten yet clearly in his ...

Red Alarm Clock

Author : Ryan Swiers From the sand she raised herself. The desert wind had coursed over her exposed flesh and the gritty pain of its wake made the effort slow. Sleek tendrils of sand rolled from her back. She realized a layer of the sand had once been her skin. She could ...

All but for a chance of fate

Author : Zachary Murray My mind came awake before my body. I was thankful that the sense of detachment was short lived, and it was good to feel the warmth of the fluid that filled the tank around me. I hated being in the tank. The whole breathing liquid aspect of it always ...

Random Story :

  • Apples

    Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The moon picks out bright lines …