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 ...

Evan is a Perfect Name

Author : Elle B Sullivan He stood in the exact center of the house. There were three clocks on each of the four walls. He had set them up perfectly to tick at the same time and then tock at the same time. He counted the four seconds on each clock, when the fifth second came ...

Laredo’s Tugship

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Laredo’s tugship was idling peacefully in geosynchronous orbit. Laredo was ten screens from the end of Asimov’s Second Foundation when the LSC alarm sounded, followed by a vocal transmission. “Code 13, Sector E180D500.” In one fluid ...

Selachimorpha da Spazio

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Captain Broahm hadn't been asleep nearly long enough when he was dumped unceremoniously from his bunk onto the floor. Cursing, he'd barely gotten his bearings before the ship righted itself, tossing him backwards into the bulkhead, sending ...

Monkeytron

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It's been said that if you give a room full of monkeys a room full of typewriters, they will eventually type up a Shakespeare play given enough time. As a philosophical exercise, there is a point to the premise. However, there are a ...

Life As A Drone

Author : Liz Lafferty Wake up. Make coffee. Go to work. Eat. Sleep. Wake up. Make coffee. Go to work. Eat. Sleep. # “What’s wrong?” “I don’t know. It’s the worker program jamming up again.” I frowned at the array of code for that particular program. The pattern ...

Evolution

Author : Jacqueline Brasfield I was 18 years old when they’d captured the first howlers. Mom and I stayed up to see the first footage of them flash across the TV screen on the 11 O’clock news, blurry images of hollow-eyed men and women wearing orange jumpsuits, their arms ...

Anniversary

Author : Chris Deal It’s the only story the news is talking about today: twenty years since the fall, since the wall came down. My boy asked me if I remembered it, where was I when I heard it had come down. Told him I was right where he was, asking my father what it meant, ...

Heavens Above

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The radiation levels following the Great Holy War of the twenty third century made living on the surface of the Earth impossible. Consequently, humanity moved underground. After millennia of self-sufficient, artificial environments, ...

It's Complicated

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The way my race has sex has made me a natural choice for the role of diplomat, lawyer and event organizer at an interplanetary level. Our planet adapted to overcrowding by creating new sexes. We have seventeen now. It seems to be holding ...

Flight of the Crimson Dawn

Author : Roi R. Czechvala: Staff Writer The Crimson Dawn hung in geosynch above the besieged planet. Far out of reach of the meager defenses the primitive populous threw at them. “Skipper, another salvo is being launched.” Captain Dimitri Sardukar gave a bored sigh; ...

Plugged

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Nick inhaled on his cigarette until the glowing ember reached the filter, then flicked it absently out the driver's window. His younger brother James sat upright and fidgeting beside him, eyes wide trying to look at everything at ...

Pied Piper

Author : Kathy Kachelries, Staff Writer There are two things I hate about a job like this: Carrie, and the viewer-at-home. That’s not true.  There are dozens of things I hate: network executives, directors, producers, footage editors with their nasally little 'we could have ...

Escapism

Author : Petter Skult “How was the game?” Ann asked as Jeremy crawled through the hatch. She had to wait with the answer until he had pushed it close, metal screaming. “It was awesome!” He replied breathlessly, as he threw his bag off his shoulders and went directly for his ...

Machine Monastery

Author : Credentiality Cynthia was reluctant when it came time to leave the Machine Monastery. Nobody had predicted that machines would be Buddhists. Crazed killers, perhaps. Indifferent to humanity, perhaps. Cold calculators, almost certainly. She had learned the tactile ...

The Second and a Half Law of Thermodynamics

Author : William Garnett The day the universe stopped expanding was the same day all the traffic lights failed to turn. But it wasn’t just the traffic lights. Cars didn’t start. Dogs didn’t bark. Radios were silent. Microwaves paused. Automatic drive-thru teller machines ...

Spores

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer and J. S. Kachelries “Command and Control says that we will not be permitted to land,” stated Taylor O’Leary, the pilot of the return module. Despite knowing that O’Leary wasn’t responsible for the decision, Jonathan Hartwell argued, ...

Drifting

Author : Bryant Pocock “Dammit,” grunted Sam as the wrench slipped and he lost his grip, drifting slowly away from the mining craft. “Now I’m really in deep shit.” Mentally running through his options, the panicked miner came up with nothing. The battered and stinking ...

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