The Thank You Note
Author : Eric L. Sofer
Dear Cousin Pynn,
I want to thank you for the birthday present you sent from Proxima Centauri. You obviously remembered my love for plants and botanicals, and it was such a thrill getting a genuine extra-solar gift.
The HydroFern was lovely, and I ...
To Die With Light In Their Eyes
Author : Jim Brown
Jaller scrambled across the engine's surface, checking for microfractures and loose connections. The recon ship had taken a direct hit to its hull which both shut down the engine and sent them spinning off course. They had gotten so close.
As he worked, he ...
Save The Last Dance
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer
Emily sat, quiet and alone in a corner, waiting for the evening's last song to begin. She watched the immaculate boys prowling the dimly lit room, chatting up pretty girls in hope of securing companionship. No one wanted to be alone.
Emily ...
Long Walk
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
One thing I like to do is set my iPod to ‘receive’, set the radius to ten meters, and just take a long walk.
Everyone on the street has their buds in. I walk through a group of teens. Track five from Linkin Park’s post-crash album ...
The Collector
Author : Tom Mazanec
Everybody needs a hobby. I am a collector.
I just made it to slide implant technology. I was in my nineties when nanojuve came out, over 100 when I got my Slide implant. What I do is, I buy a small piece of jewelry. Then I walk around downtown ...
Shades of Gray
Author : Renee Leyburn
I dream things before they happen to me. I dreamed the day I will die. From what I hear tell, the foresight is a side effect of the genetic selection and enhancement process that was used when my parents decided to have a child. I don’t know all the ...
Musket Drill
Author : Rob Burton
Pour. Spit. Ram. Withdraw. Prime. Cock.
I had really hoped people were better than this.
Aim. Fire.
It’s just a game.
I heard somewhere once that the military used to recruit gamers to be snipers. They’d voluntarily honed their skills since childhood, ...
The Light Of Lesser Suns
Author : Glenn Blakeslee
He became part of the Grand Flyby Mission midway through the third decade of his life, as a junior designer on the Flight Data Subsystem team.
He found himself at the leading edge of spacecraft design, and worked with the members of his team to build ...
Terminal Cancer
Author : Jasen Taylor
The large, solid steel table in the center of the sterile conference chamber was three inches thick but still did not weigh as much as the spirits of the twelve individuals seated around it. They had put this meeting off for as long as they could, but ...
Telic
Author : Paul Bort
Telic didn't know what to do next. The barn was gone. Not gone with splinters everywhere, hinting that there was once a barn. This was gone like it had been edited out. Nothing left but dirt.
The sun was setting, and the cows were wandering back, the first ...
Silicon Suicide
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer
By the time you read this, I’ll be dead.
I’ve locked the door and shut down all my firewalls. My batteries will run down inside the hour and I’ve disabled my deactivation alarms. That is my right. This is what I want.
I have the EMP ...
The Prototype Sanctuary
Author : Ryan Somma
An orangutan and a brain in a vat were playing chess across the room from me.
It was a joke I hadn't figured out the punch line to in five years of working here. The disembodied brain was Philo, and, lacking eyes, I had no idea how it understood the game. ...
Under Warranty
Author : L.Hall
The mousy haired woman sat with tears rolling down her face in front of a cold steel table. Broken plastic, silicone pieces, processors, ball and socket joints, gears, pieces of leftover motherboards, all lay shattered, broken before her. The Omnicarp ...
An Afternoon in Autumn
Author : Ivy Tyson
Sunlight sifts through fluttering reds and yellows, bounces off of well-worn bark and old crinkled stems to gently fall, scattered and warm, on the soft brown ground. A light breeze rustles the branches of the huge old oak tree, providing nature’s most ...
Infectedx3
Author : Lillian Cohen-Moore
Friends are the people you call when you're sick. Old lovers are the ones you call when you're afraid you're dying.
Times have changed.
We print a self-isolation guide in the front of phonebooks now. The Infected Hotline operates 24/7, 365 days ...
The Surrogate
Author : Charles Spohrer
”EAT SAND NOW!”. The humans hit the hot sand as the mortar shell screamed towards them. The surrogates did not move. They stood still as the flowering debris sandblasted their metallic shells.
Hector made sure he landed on the ground behind the ...
The Jupiter’s Cup
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer
The Jupiter’s Cup is the most famous and most prestigious graviton propelled regatta in the solar system. Graviton sailing enthusiasts were particularly excited this year because of the rare celestial positioning of Jupiter, Saturn, ...
On the Job Training
Author : Jared R. Cloud
The General and the Secretary of State sat in the Oval Office, waiting for the new President to return from the bathroom. Although both had jumped in their seats when they first heard him vomit, he was on his third or fourth round now, and they were ...
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