Words, Words, Words

Author : Cesium The vibration of his phone woke Anders from a deep sleep. He rolled over groggily and checked the display before answering. "Hi, Eliza. Something wrong?" "Yes, Anders." The synthesized voice so familiar to him came through from the other end. "I believe the ...

Interview

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer “I’ve been to space.” He says. His wild blue eyes match the hue of the ass-baring paper dress he’s wearing. The plastic bracelet is a nice accessory. We’re in the interview room in a small-town hospital. I’m a visiting federal ...

Kwan

Author : Glenn Blakeslee In Guiyu, Kwan sits on a small concrete slab in an e-waste facility. Cascading piles of displaced circuit boards, ash-encrusted plastic hulks of outmoded tower computers, and ratnest tangles of cables, harnesses and plugs deposited haphazardly over a ...

One Life, Furnished In Late 1980s

Author : Edward Morris This is actually me then, writing now. I looked into my own eyes in the Instamatic snapshot I found, and switched places. The man that was sitting here has gone back then, just for a few hours this morning. Oh, he'll return, don't get me wrong. So will ...

Power Trip

Author : Helstrom God damn that young face in the mirror. Square jaw, strong cheekbones, full head of hair. Even the eyes have their youthful shine – they've never seen the things I've seen. The walls are closing in on me again. I grab a crumpled pack of Luckies off the ...

Mission to Turnbull

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer “Okay, men,” said the captain, “we have not received a transmission from the twelve person research team for over two months. Their ship’s computer acknowledges our hails, but the crew does not. We have to assume they’ve been killed ...

Assemblage

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Joseph stopped a few steps into the lab, the scuffing of his feet unusual against the normally pristine floor of the room. "Sean, why is there sand all over the floor?" His lab partner's head poked out from behind the pile of boxes ...

Deep Space

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The killed my best friend. They killed her right in front of me and I screamed. They just looked at me, confused at my reaction. I still rememember the surprised expression on the astronaut's face as his friends had to pry my fingers ...

A Stately Pleasure Dome

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer "… in reply, the Ambassador of the Chinese Federation to the U.N. had this to say;" "It must be made clear to the people of the Russo-North American Coalition that these insults to the People of the Chinese Federation and her partner ...

Gunsmith

Author : Nate Swanson Guns are truly simple things. Think about it. More then a hundred years before we were airtyping away while being ferried about in tracks with no drivers, people were happily butchering each other with fully automatic firearms. No electric lights, but ...

Stop

Author : Seej 500

The technician placed the oxygen tube in Walt's mouth. “Pure oxygen will make you feel kinda high, she smiled, but we've found the reanimation process is a little smoother that way than if we just gave you air while we flooded and activated the tank.”

Walt ...

Crown

Author : Liz Lafferty Max Fraser banked his craft hard right. Two blasts lighted the interior of the cockpit and caused a ferocious rip as his navigation blinked off for two eternal seconds. He gripped the manual control levers. The muscles in his shoulders knotted. “Come ...

Twinned

Author : K Clarke I wasn’t the first to be twinned, of course. They did it first with a woman called Adrienne Deuxfois, in France. There were all kinds of protests, and the government wanted to make it illegal, but before long CEOs had begun using twin bodies to work and ...

Going Up

Author : Helstrom Lousy food, filthy lodging, and a loan to pay for my trip up the skyhook. It was a bad deal by any standard, but I'd taken it. If you were born on a Venus colony, there were only three places to go: down into the atmosphere, up to the space stations, or ...

Probably

Author : Q. B. Fox It was bright, cold morning in late November when I pulled up to the high security gates at the Ministry of Defence’s Secure Facility for the Mentally Disabled at Rampton. The gate guard greeted me formally and took my name. An orderly met me in the ...

Shuttlecocks

Author : Lillian Cohen-Moore “My Uncle had a theory.” Jennifer’s low, soft twang cuts into my ability to sleep. I understand the nervous babble. She’s a first timer up here, and it’s hard to deal with. There isn’t a single window in our compartment, so I open my eyes to view ...

Second Chances

Author : K Clarke I stagger a little on the way up the front steps, catching myself against the rail where I stay for a moment, clinging like a seahorse to a piece of kelp. Fighting against the currents of nausea that threaten to sweep me away. The weak light from the newly ...

The Jump

Author : Nathan Andrew Blaisdell Jae fingered the seams of her spacesuit nervously. She was having second thoughts, but it was too late to go back now. The other jumpers started moving, getting in line. The countdown timer on the wall got closer to zero. Was it just her or ...

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  • Hardcopy

    Author : Michael Blewett Her father glanced down at the …