Gently Used

Author : Z. J. Woods There seemed nothing wrong with the guy when he backed through the door. A little nervous, maybe. A little too long since he'd shaven. But otherwise? And for whom were such descriptions untrue? Sloan produced glasses from a breast pocket and fingered ...

Coincidences

Author : K. Clarke One could’ve happened by accident. When the first one appeared, I was eating cereal. His machine had plowed across half the basement and stopped against the wall, nested in the remains of the treadmill and the dryer and most of the plumbing. It looked like ...

Carbon Nano-Switch

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Antonio geared the big Mercedes down, slowing to a crawl before pulling off onto the loose gravel of the motel parking lot. He pulled around the end of the building to his usual parking spot in front of room one twenty five. His mistress ...

A Shared Interest in History

Author : Juliette Harrisson She rifled through the library’s card catalogue, shivering in the winter cold. A fire was burning back in the main reading room, but its warmth could not reach this drafty spot on the edge of the stacks. The door to the stacks was open and the ...

Easter Egg Hunt

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The best way to ensure the death of a neighbouring planet’s race is to start with the children. Camouflage razor skin peeked out pink-eyed from underneath the dappled leaf shadows. Claws re-sheathed back and forth in anticipation. Huge ...

The Atheist Wind

Author : Dan Whitley The weathered old Director stood before a window in the control tower, gazing southward at the freakish storms over the ocean, churning up the water where his company’s facility was – or had been, he wasn’t sure. He turned on his heel and faced his ...

The Rain

Author : Jason Frank "I felt a drop." Laurine looked over but her cousin was facing away from us. She talked to herself so much that you didn't always expect it when she wasn't. Laurine waited a moment before returning to our close, breath sharing intimacies. "There's ...

Hide and Seek

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer John Jones leaned heavily on the counter in the hotel bathroom, a haggard face he barely recognized staring back at him from the full width mirror. Six o'clock in the evening, and he felt like he'd already been awake for days. The ...

Abaddon

Author : Michael Iverson Dr. Mensah and Father Velázquez stood in front of the black obelisk, the central control to the supercomputer Abaddon. All around them, the servers had been ticking away for weeks, but for the first time they were quiet. The tense men stood waiting in ...

Nose Plugs

Author : Natalie J E Potts “Go away!” The pounding sounded like it was never going to stop, even a pillow over my head wouldn’t block it out. Grudgingly I dragged myself from bed, a tissue still shoved up one nostril –holding fast with a moist grip. The man was still trying ...

Wake Up

Author : Jordan Whicker Wake up, Pjotr. My eyes snap open. I am awake. Adrenaline courses through my body and my eyes flit around my bedroom, eager to locate the source of the voice before I alert it to the fact that I'm no longer asleep. There's no one ...

Last Supper

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I eat what I dislike the most first so that I end my meal with what I like best. It’s the way I lived my life. By getting the bad things out of the way first, I could save the best for last. That was before I knew I was under ...

Countermeasures

Author : Jessica Thomas MOOT blinked. Across the aisle, LU-C sat dark. Down for maintenance. Irrelevant. LU-C couldn't warm MOOT's circuits. Not anymore. New protocol. External temperatures reduced by five degrees. MOOT could handle the cold. Not the issue. ...

First Flight

Author : Andrew Bale “Commander, I’m getting something weird on the optical arrays – a signal oscillating from the IR into the UV.” “Are we emitting? Where is it coming from?” “I think somewhere behind us, sir – we must be getting some scatter off the dust. Given the ...

The Last Terran

Author : Victoria Barbosa   “Look what I found skulking around outside.” The Grosthnos pulled Rory into the control room by one skinny naked shoulder. “Claims he's a Terran.” “A what!” The captain, a burly Hronoid with tusks like a rhino's, swiveled in his command ...

The Torus Ring

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “That’s the largest Stanford Torus habitat I’ve ever seen,” stated Commander Strohm, the Endeavor’s science officer. “The major diameter of the Ring must be over twenty kilometers. But it appears to be abandoned, Captain. It’s no ...

Going Steady

Author : Julian Miles It’s a cure worse than the condition, yet they sell it like it’s a panacea. I saw another one today and I listened to her at the counter. “How much is a week’s supply?” “Five hundred euroyen, miss.” “Oh, great. I’ll take a fortnight in day and night ...

A Good Day's Work

Author : T.C. Powell After a three-day's pursuit through nothingness, Rass Det's cruiser, the Virgil, finally tracked down the green-black war barge known throughout the Terran League as Deathspike. It orbited Regis III with shields up and weapons armed, obviously ready for ...

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