Author: Colin Jeffrey The newly-created Department of Temporal Dysfunction hummed with bureaucratic indifference as a voice called out across the waiting room: "Number forty-seven!" "That's you," the Seraphim sitting next to Quetzalcoatl said, pointing to his ticket. ...

Author: Kenny O'Donnell Touchdown. The ship rumbled. The landing gear drilled into the asteroid, anchoring his one-man yacht. The asteroid, only a kilometre long and half as wide, was too small to hold a ship without anchors. His joints popped as he floated from his chair ...

Author: Majoki When his son stepped through the privacy-field into his home office, Manfred began to disconnect. “You told me to come see you after I finished my homelearn session, Dad.” His son’s eyes narrowed disdainfully at the etherware bands his father removed from ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Joey looks around at the crowd. “I see we’ve some new faces tonight. Thanks for coming.” He presses his palms flat on the table. “You’ve done what each of us has done at some point in the last few years: you’ve realised there’s ...

Author: Aubrey Williams I’ve been looking for work for months now. After the chip company got all-new machinery, the bean-counters did a review, and I was one of the names that got a red strikethrough. I can’t live on redundancy forever, and I’m not poor enough to get a ...

Author: Eva C. Stein After the service, they didn’t speak much. They walked through the old arcade – a fragment of the city’s former network. The glass canopy had long since shattered. Bio-moss cushioned the broken frames. Vines, engineered to reclaim derelict structures, ...

Author: David C. Nutt It was an alien invasion, not in the sense of “War of the Worlds” but more like what historians called the “British Invasion” but without the Beatles. What invaded us was close to five million overprivileged alien tourists, all here for one reason: to ...

Author: K. Andrus Where was the best place to murder someone and get away with it? A question that had been fun to ponder, back when Albert had been at home accompanied by nobody else but a chilled glass of scotch, the comforting roar of a June snowstorm, and his most ...

Author: Majoki Standing among some of the oldest living things on earth, Mourad Du, felt his age. Not just in years, but in possibilities lost. And, now, the impossibility he faced. Who could he tell? Would it even matter? They would all be gone soon. Nothing he could ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “I’d do it in a flash,” Jason declared, tightening the lid of the cocktail shaker. “Clone you, I mean. And how about you? What would you do?” In his hands, the shaker was a percussion instrument. The rhythm was enticing; it made Kerra want to ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The bright lights look the same. Sitting myself down on the community server bench, I lean back until my spine hits the backrest. My gear starts charging. Diagnostics start scrolling down the inner bars of both eyes. The trick is not to ...

Author: Lydia Cline He had always had a quiet appreciation for blue. Not loudly, he would never be as conformist as to declare a love for, like, the number one colour for boys and men. No - he was loud in his love for green - the thinking man’s blue. And yet, as he stared ...

Author: Emily Kinsey “Jessie! Get over here, I think I found something!” Annoyed, Jessie said, “You always think you found something.” “It smells good,” I offered, hoping to entice him. It worked, because Jessie only ever cares about his stomach. He discarded his ...

Author: Stephen C. Curro Veema peered through the glass pod at their latest subject. The human was young, perhaps eighteen years by his species’ standards. Her four eyes noted physical traits and the style of clothing. “Flannel shirt. Denim pants. Heavy boots. This one was ...

Author: Rebecca Hamlin Green I honestly didn’t know where else to turn or if you’re even accepting these requests yourself. I hope you hear me out at least. The day she came, she was perfect, she really was. I almost couldn’t believe it. Everything I thought I knew was, ...

Author: David Barber Inhabitants of Earth, (read a translation of the first signal from the stars) Our clients wish to bring to your attention a copyright infringement with regards to your use of replicator molecules. As the dominant species on your world, we hereby inform ...

Author: Fawkes Defries Stuck out in the black sand, lodged between trunks of thin stone, Kayt lit life to her cigarette and drew the clear smoke in. Her silicon eyes fluttered between the deactivated droid she’d excavated from the Rubble and her sister’s body lying ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Kinswaller reads the report with a mounting feeling of doom: another failure, this time with casualties on both sides. The appended note from the monitoring A.I. cements the feeling. ‘Have recommended Field Combat Intervention. Combat ...