Ding

Author : James Riley “Oof!” Miller grunted, raising the bar for John to take it. He exhaled deeply and sat up. John casually dropped the weight onto the maglev lifts and patted his friend on the back. “Think that’ll do it?” John asked. “Should. . .” Miller replied, tapping ...

The Other City

Author : Cesium They were together when the city stopped. Their office perched atop a spire reaching up from the business district. Usually holoscreens afforded them a panoramic, unobstructed view of the city, or of whatever other landscape they wished to see, but those were ...

What’s The Manual Say?

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The shuttlecraft was careening out of control in the upper atmosphere of an uncolonized Class-M planet orbiting Alpha Mensae. Lieutenant Ashby reached down and touched the control panel to shut off the alarm. “What’s the Manual say we ...

Our Title was “Revivalist.” We Performed “The Process.”

Author : D. Maurer “Coffee?” I asked him; we were watching a recovery procedure. This poor sap died well over five hundred years ago. He was the oldest meat popsicle we had attempted to revive. “Excuse me?” “Would you like some coffee?” “No. No, thank you.” I looked at ...

Prophet and Lösch

Author : Q. B. Fox 17th April 2002, a concrete room, off an unmarked tunnel on the Northern Line. “How long were they down?” Simon looked up from what he was doing, and even in the dim light of the rack mounted servers I recognise the pinched expression. “12 days. ...

News at Nine

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer “Okay, this is some of the best footage of the conflict we have seen. We spent a lot of money to have Johnson’s eyes and optic nerves replaced with the latest equipment including superconducting neural jacks, which can operate at higher ...

Sovereign Earth

Author : Liz Lafferty Seven years I’d waited for my DNA match. Seven years of anxiety about what she would be like. Seven years of stress about whether she’d find me attractive and a suitable provider. Nineteen billion people inhabited the planet. I never understood why ...

False Positive

Author : Mark Robinson “But, how is any of this possible?” Despite the scene she’s making all I can focus on is the pink tip of the pregnancy test strip - which we stock on aisle five - that she’s waving around in the air; watching the droplets of pink-tinted urine fleck ...

Crash Protocol

Author : Daniel Fuhr Red rocks crumbled under my heavy boots. I looked around the desolate Martian landscape and destruction thereupon. I could taste the acrid smoke around me as I walked through the wreckage of the downed ship, even through the environmental suit and ...

The Anti-Universe

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer A small boy sat in his father’s lap staring at the full moon as it rose above the eastern horizon. “Daddy,” he asked, “Where’s mommy?” The father rested his son’s head against the inside of his right bicep and pointed toward the ...

The View From Below

Author : Elbie Kruger I was born on the Calcarus colony settlement, a city floating 50,000 miles from planet Earth with a breathtaking view of the solar system. Having been born in space there were perks, however there were also drawbacks. You became used to cramped spaces ...

Way Out

Author : Ellen Couch “Don’t you love me?” she asked. “You know I do,” I said quietly, “but you’re not mine, you never really were.” I could tell she didn’t understand- how could she? As far as she was concerned, we had the perfect life. Late one night in the physics lab, ...

Sense Chair

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I had all of the animals in the dome jacked and miked. I issued an edict. Collect every puppy, kitten, or chick for a small reward. It was popular game with the children. They’d go out ‘hunting’ in the engineered woods in the western ...

Expiration Date

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Arkus had come in from the mining field with less than a day before termination. He'd slipped unnoticed through the security fences and into an airlock in the biotech wing where he now sat, unable to enter and unable to leave. Marc ...

Kayak Angst

Author : Stephen Ira Owen was standing on the side of a boy's driveway. They were both smoking long thin joints, which made Owen's face pink and his eyes telescopic slivers. The other boy, his round face capped by a black beanie, called Owen "precious." Beyond the ...

Bedtime Stories

Author : W. Robinson I had thought after my last assignment on Epsilon that I was done with the military. Quite obviously the young woman in front of me with the large blue-gray eyes had not received that memo. Stock-built, but short, she stood with her arms crossed as I ran ...

Camping

Author : Jacqueline Rochow We're going camping. Mum finishes packing my bag as Dad prepares a celebratory stew. I packed the bags already, but Mum insisted on pulling everything out again to make sure that I didn't forget anything. Food, clothes, gun, bandages, antibiotics – ...

Love at First Sip

Author : Jacqueline Rochow We decided to take the draught. My parents didn't like it. A lot of people didn't. It was unnatural, people said. It wasn't the real thing. It was empty. It was selfish. So we didn't tell them. Stupid? Reckless? That's what my mother would have ...

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  • Returned

    Author : David Blatcher The withered astronaut had forgotten how …