Crack

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It’s one of those moments everyone dreads. You’re standing in front of an observation window looking out at open space and you see a crack silently trace its way up from the corner and across the glass. Once when I was seven, I stayed ...

Peaceful World

Author : Thomas Desrochers We've turned into such a peaceful race. We are so... So... Dull. We never fight any more, wars are a thing of the past. Even violent crime seems to have just disappeared. The typical city needs, maybe, one law enforcement officer per every ...

Small Print

Author : Waldo van der Waal Nobody warned me about the pain. Creeping from your brain and slowly extending to every bloody nerve-ending. Hot acid makes way for molten lava before the really hot stuff arrives. A million tiny needles prod at every part of your body. From the ...

From Far Away and Deep Below

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Walter had felt cold before, but nothing like this. In the hours since sundown the temperature had dropped steadily, but in the last hundred yards it had been dropping twice as fast. He had to find shelter quickly or risk freezing to ...

A New Life

Author : John Logan At 34 years old, I was in bad shape. Sixty pounds over weight and wheezing like a dying man every time I trudged up a flight of stairs. The cigarettes didn’t help. My wife, Claire, constantly nagged at me to stop. She hated the smell. I also drank heavily. ...

High Crimes

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer Drop capsules are virtually impregnable to anything man or xeno can throw at them. They have consistently proven themselves many times in combat under the onslaught of increasingly sophisticated weaponry. We don’t feel anything during ...

The Sirens of Adhara

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Jason Hausen studied the 3D holograph of the star Adhara in the constellation Canis Major. Imbedded within the image were the telemetry tracks of the two dozen spaceships that had entered the star system in the last 20 years. Entered, ...

Senility

Author : K.S. Kim It’s certainly nothing new. Shipping off the old to make way for the new. They used to call them homes for the elderly. They would have them everywhere, just to make it easier for the younger generation to pursue their everyday lives and goals, without ...

Flat Out

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jeanine walked the length of her racer, running her bare hand across the seams, feeling for any fastener stressed out of place, trying to get a sense of any uneasiness in the craft. She paused and read the name stenciled down the side, ...

Value

Author : W. Kevin Christian Damn it, he thought. The delirium had stopped. Again he felt the pain and heat. Burning, sizzling, scorching heat, like tar on a summer sidewalk. It was the middle of the third week. Changes had begun innocently enough around day three. A ...

Biological Control

Author : Phill English We welcome. They are quickening their destruction of planets at an exponential pace. We acknowledge. But what can be done? We encouraged their growth, gifted them technology that could build worlds. They were only exerting their free will by ...

Rite of Passage

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I remember entering the room. I was eighteen, cold, naked except for the paper underwear, bred for this and still nervous. I suppose terrified is more apt. Even after the rigorous physical training I was still very skinny. My breathing ...

Quisnam est Dominus

Author : John Logan “I don’t want you to die,” said Vincent. The words didn’t actually transfer as sound to any part of my ear. They were signals which ran from a dermal connection on Vincent’s body, through my hand, and up into my brain where they were interpreted by my ...

Inevitable Outcome

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer He had been a brilliant physicist, she a promising graduate student. “I love you,” he said. “And I you,” was her reply. Autumn threw off her many coloured coat and bowed to the dominance of Winter. “Marry me,” he said. She ...

Lights Out

Author : Liz Lafferty Three weeks ago, there were lights on the horizon. Solar lights from the small town to the south flickered in the night, reminding me that I lived within walking distance. One day, I woke up and life was different. An eerie dark mist had settled over ...

The Great Doctor

Author : James Boone Dryden In the world beyond tomorrow, Dr. Gregor Lustovicz would be remembered for his greatness, his ingenuity, his wit. There were things that the doctor would invent that were beyond the imaginations of the people of St. Rustof. They would wonder how ...

My Branch of Work

Author : Jeromy Henry Before the day ended, Tam knew someone would die. He dug his claws into the tree branch and chattered to himself. Nearby, other squirrels scampered along the twisty highway made by branches of the great oak. Tails twitched, beady black eyes darted as ...

The Uccisore

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer A solitary streetlamp flickered above the gloomy urban street. Few people would venture into this neighborhood at night, but Simon Bodhan strode unsuspectingly down the dilapidated sidewalk, lead by his 50-pound extraterrestrial ...

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