Author: Majoki The age of life was short. The age of sentience much shorter. The age of understanding lasted only a moment. Though a quantum moment, fractally infinite. From the primordial blue roar of the mother star that first lit the cosmic web to the lingering wheeze ...

Author: Morrow Brady I was beside myself, beside myself. I looked across at where I was and could see through me to where I was again. All three of me there. Two lesser versions of the original. And me, the least version, knowing far less than the lesser version. Content ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’s a bright morning across Ixaroz, the heart of the Consortium. Beings go about their purposes with a spring in their ambulations, buoyed up by decades of peace, and the traditions that accompany it, like traversing the long span of the ...

Author: Samuel Price Frozen heads sat in metal containers with glass fronts like aquariums. LEDs on the fronts displayed names, ages, and social status. Shelved floor to ceiling in alphabetical order, the heads ran the length of the ship. The top shelves were heads of the ...

Author: Andrea Damic Cydra loves the crisp morning air, sitting on the porch drinking her black poison. She rests her gaze on the frosty pastures immersed in the morning sun. The anticipation of that feeling of apricity when the warmth of the winter’s sun crawls through the ...

Author: Gaylynne Quince The group of scientists huddled together as they worriedly watched the probe fly towards the rift that had cracked open the skies above. In mere moments, it would cross the event horizon and transmit data back of what lay on the other side of the ...

Author: David Sydney "We're running out of bronze." "What?" Mel Schwartz squinted at his partner in disbelief. "Look at these greaves, Mel." "My God. What must his shins be like?" What was true of the greaves applied to the javelin, spear, scimitar, and bronze mail as ...

Author: Alastair Millar Most people don’t meet the love of their life with their pants around their ankles, but that's what happens when you find a rip in your EVA skinsuit and don't have any patches handy. Fortunately there are emergency suits near all the airlocks; ...

Author: Majoki “The world is a Rube Goldberg machine, a bowling ball on a teeter totter, and all it will ever do is scratch someone’s ridiculous itch,” Amira d’Kay coolly observed to Riisa who nodded thoughtlessly, content to let her aunt ramble in the smothering warmth of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Will burn across the worlds. From shoreline to mountain top, from wrecked vehicle to ransacked fortress, they will light a night like none will ever see again, and will start a conflagration that will blaze so far onwards we will never ...

Author: JH Mentzer The boy was getting lonelier every day. He could almost not stand how many hours he would spend sitting in the woods, watching the babbling of the creeks, as the sun would rise and set, set and rise. Moss grew on his southern-facing side. He traveled home ...

Author: Bill Cox It’s amazing what you can learn in a bar. All kinds of secrets come out with the liberal application of alcohol. Let me tell you about one such occasion. It was a Friday night and I was knocking back the beers on my lonesome. The regulars were in, along ...

Author: Matthew Scott The article that started it all appeared in Progress in General and Special Relativity. Andrey Ivanov’s Development of the artificial cosmic string as a method of time travel was as welcome to Theodore as a sudden geomagnetic reversal was to a ...

Author: Becky Neher Something enormous strode through the double doors of the dilapidated, rust-begrimed warehouse. Not quite whale, not quite elephant, not quite ogre, but nevertheless a creature hefty, fleshy, and odorous. Sporting purple and magenta beads glittering ...

Author: Majoki A little problem, she’d reported. Fatima was a master of understatement. In some ways, Jorge felt she’d deserved to be eaten by his monstrous spawn. Though, it probably wasn’t the time to be reflecting on Fatima’s missteps. Explosions still rocked the ...

Author: David Barber The final part of the plan involved capturing a Jirt Princess. Morgan led one assault team, a band of Earthers who took terrible losses before the Jirt security swarm was destroyed. A last Jirt warrior blocked the way down into the palace. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I thought the skinny functionary nodded my way. The two of them are approaching, all eager smiles, curious glances, and whispered asides. "Are these seats taken? The server said they weren't, but you know, they sometimes get things wrong. ...

Author: Rainbow Heartshine “Internet porn is succubi terraforming. Is what you’re telling me with this.” “We embrace all kinks and fetishes that can be worked out with love,” Dylan typed as if in response to himself, though he couldn’t really say it was either 'typing', ...