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Backup Plan

By submission | August 30, 2011
Author: Dan Fuhr Years spent as a shuttle engineer and now I’m facing the unemployment line for another week. Of course, after this week, someone will be calling me up. A bachelors and masters in Electrical Engineering, MBA, Professional Engineering license, the whole nine ...
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Little Life

By submission | August 29, 2011
Author : Carter Lee Martin Crimmons was brought into the hospital at 5:40 pm on a Thursday. 63 years old, Martin had suffered a minor heart attack, and was admitted overnight because his personal physician had a boat payment to make, and personal hospital visits were ...
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The Long Job

By submission | August 28, 2011
Author : Asher Wismer "You're not even human anymore." EB-109 paused, holding a heavy crate. "Excuse me?" "We should have a human here, to oversee." "I function," EB-109 said. "You deliver, I defend. It's not that hard." "But you've been here for a thousand years, right? ...
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The Scarf

By submission | August 27, 2011
Author : J.D. Rice "Do you really think it needs a scarf?" I ask, watching my daughter try to wrap the thing around the robot's neck. It kneels patiently, unmoving, allowing the tiny mammal to dress it up like a doll. My stomach turns just looking at it. "Of course, daddy. ...
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A is A

By submission | August 26, 2011
Author : Asher Wismer When Jennifer entered the lab, Van was talking to the computer. She dropped her bag and picked up the headset. "...silly. Answer the question." "What's silly about it? I hear you two talking. I know what you're thinking." "You can't know anything, ...
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Suicide Pact

By submission | August 25, 2011
Author : Waldo van der Waal There are people that say suicide is a coward's way out. But those people don't know what it is like. Not just the final act of squeezing the trigger or taking the plunge, but what it is like to lose your mind to the point where it finally flits ...
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I Have Become All Eyes

By submission | August 24, 2011
Author : Jason Kocemba I was a simple machine built to answer simple questions in a simple domain. I was successful, and so the questions multiplied. I had software written to augment my capabilities: I could answer faster, dig deeper and look sideways. I subsumed less ...
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So the Guy at the Bar Turns to Me and Says…

By submission | August 23, 2011
Author : David Macpherson I ain’t a collector, but I know a lot of old guys who pack-rat a bunch of shit and call it a collection, you know? Like there was this one guy, he had himself a spread: hardwood floor and banisters. He had these collections he showed me. Told me ...
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Sufficiently Advanced

By submission | August 22, 2011
Author : Andrew Bale At a touch of her finger, the words on the single sheet of paper scrolled and changed, revealing the final words of the story. Angeline sighed. It had been a good book, and she had increasingly identified with the plucky young woman who strangely was NOT ...
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Sabbath

By submission | August 21, 2011
Author : D'n Russler It had been an eventful two weeks that the first exploration from Sol's System had spent on the rocky planet about twice Earth's size named "Wolf", circling Gliese 581. Yaacov Ben-Ish and his team of exobiologists had revealed a vast, rich ecology with ...
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Yellowshift

By submission | August 20, 2011
Author : Garrett Harriman Marigolds blossomed in the Evermore courtyard, tiny manes preening in the light. Alongside them, Halley proofed her math. She knew it took eight minutes--ninety-two million miles--for sunlight to blanket the void of space and peck their tender ...
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MyMasterPlan.ppt

By submission | August 19, 2011
Author : Jason Frank He was losing the crowd. Maybe they were already gone. "Look, this is a new approach. We can't keep attacking them directly; we always lose. We need to try unconventional approaches. We can win if we make them fight the battles they don't want to fight." ...
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Coldships

By Duncan Shields | August 18, 2011
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It was a shock to learn how short their life spans were but not surprising considering how much naked energy they threw off. We do not know how long we live because none of us have ever died, only changed form. They called themselves ...
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Rediscovery

By submission | August 17, 2011
Author : Patrick Condon His memory was slowly returning. That’s what she told him, at least. The physician was a liar, though. He remembered nothing before Thursday, the day they woke him up. They called him Keene. It wasn’t his name. He would correct them, only to fail at ...
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Soldier Ex Machina

By Stephen R. Smith | August 16, 2011
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The soldier sat on the corner of his footlocker in the virtually empty barracks, the barrel of his sidearm pressed against his temple. A respectful distance away, Major Ramses watched the younger man calmly, speaking in soothing tones with ...
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Restoring the Great Library of Georgia

By Patricia Stewart | August 15, 2011
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The dilapidated sign above the front door read, “Doctor Hawking’s Tackle and Bait Shop”. “I don’t know, Anthony,” stated Lamar Gregory of the University of Georgia’s Temporal Physics Department. “Do you really think that’s ‘The’ ...
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Lost Perspective

By submission | August 14, 2011
Author : Isaac Archer Be careful. Those were the last words Gully had spoken to him. And as he drifted beyond the point where the shallows ended and the real ocean began, Sam's greatest regret was that the old man would know he hadn't listened. Again. Greed is the pathway to ...
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No Time

By submission | August 13, 2011
Author : Andrew Bale He stared at the body on the ground. He felt like he should be crying, laughing, raging at the universe, something other than just sitting there, but all he could do was sit there and stare. The belt pouch was new – he had never seen it before. Reaching ...
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