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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...