Altitudal Lapse.
Author : S. Clough Guy Daschien released the breath that he’d been holding. The seal between his helmet and collar snicked shut, and a little hiss announced that it had become airtight. He gripped each of his wrists in turn, pulling his gloves on tighter, making sure…
Sshh! Quiet!
Author : Catherine Preddle Jericho sighed contentedly as he eased himself into the contoured leather recliner of the Virtual Library booth. He’d spent most of his lunch break scouring the Multi-Mall for an empty VL booth and was determined to make the most of the…
Classroom 010
Author : B. York, Staff Writer The bell rang and the world became a bustling mass of eager students. Halls were like vessels pumping the mind-blood of the future through the academy to give it life. Each brain pattern that registered into the student ID banks was…
Guerillas in Our Midst
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Janko was living the high life, running guns along the fringe and reaping the rewards just outside regulated space. People brought their goods to him, and he delivered them to those in need, those who could afford them at least. That…
Binary Thinking 101
Author : Patricia Stewart The war against the Centauri was not going well. For the first two decades of the war, the combined forces of the Earth Coalition had battled the military forces of Alpha Centauri to a virtual draw. However, in recent years, the Centauri…
The Delicacies of Zombiekind
Author : Kathy Kachelries, Staff Writer That Halloween, the ship decided to be a ghost. The ship itself wanted to use an oversized sheet, but Tommy laughed at the artificial intelligence and pointed out that there was no way his mother would be able to find a sheet…
Footprints
Author : Jim Wisniewski They say the wind carries the souls of the dead, forever blowing to remind us of things past. At least, that’s what the kasht say, but then our worlds usually have less wind than Tun Ekshati. Most humans don’t believe it. Marcus might. He’s…
Birthdays
Author : Curtis C. Chen When Stacy was twelve, she celebrated her father’s thirty-third birthday. It wasn’t actually his birthday. It was two weeks before his birthday, but he was leaving on a mission in five days. Stacy thought the party was boring. There were a lot…
Almost
Author : Kat Rose Battle raged on around him, the constant sounds of gunfire ringing in his programmed earlike audio receptors. He, however, was oblivious to anything but the almost lifelike pain near where his navel would be, where the bullet had pierced his stark…
It Takes All Kinds
Author : Daniel Nugent “And I expect you to show all your work on the problem sets. Points will be deducted!” shouted Professor Smith as his class began to shuffle out of the lecture hall. He began collecting his papers and tri-parencies from the holo-video podium. A…
Biomass
Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer The nails slide out effortlessly from beneath the shizu skin of my fingers. The swollen carapace of my back splits in even sections and the hive breathes. The hum becomes a vibration you can feel in your chest. Something like…
Ballroom
Author : Angela N. Hunt “We’re flying.†His voice is soft. Satisfied. Her smile never wavers, nor her posture or the angle of her head to the angle of her swan white neck. But the hand in his squeezes for a half-second. Her feet keep perfect time with his as…
Doppleganger
Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer I’m standing in front of the safety glass and seeing the thing look up at me. Its legs end in black tentacles that look diseased. The fingernails of its left hand are very long. One nostril is dripping what looks like grape…
Runner
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer He made the corner into the alley at a full sprint, nearly missing a mountain of abandoned waste containers, but not completely. One foot caught a lid, throwing him off balance, and momentum and gravity combined to send him skidding…
One of a Kind
Author : Pyai (aka Megan Hoffman) On top of the highest shelf of plywood painted to look like expensive wood, in the corner of the spare bedroom, sat a globe. The globe rested on a base of wrought iron with gentle scrolls and turned out feet like a bathtub. The globe…
Hubris
Author : Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh We wanted to save the planet. The greenhouse effect was getting out of hand and someone came up with a solution. It seemed a bit outrageous at first but the alternatives were not acceptable. Something drastic was needed and we found…
The Host
Author : Michelle Pitman “Can’t this be a thing we do on our own one day Freleng?” “No Hannah! It can’t! Not yet anyway. We have to do this with Panish now or we don’t get to do it at all” Panish quietly assumed the role of immutable, silent host to his two guests….
Not with a bang but a whimper
Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer The people started dying almost immediately. They said that the earth would defend itself. That’s what the global warming and rising ocean levels were all about, they said. Eventually the atmosphere would get hard to breathe,…