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There is No Accounting for Taste

By submission | December 30, 2009
Author : Jason Frank Satisfied that the "open" side of his small sign was indeed facing outward, Harrison parted the dusty blinds and nervously looked outside. The once crowded downtown sidewalks were empty, as they had been since the Tald-Mart had opened outside of town. The ...
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Marshoppers and Birds

By submission | December 29, 2009
Author : L.Hall Robert Lynch kicked the treads of the small field tractor, clots of dried mud falling off and busting on the ground. He took off his ball cap, looked up in the air and ignored the old man, Paul Gilbert, standing behind him quietly. Bobby, his five year old ...
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Simulation

By submission | December 28, 2009
Author : Omkar Wagh "How many days of funding do I have left?", I asked. "Well your thesis has been accepted and you have already been given a Ph.D. degree. So the college is willing to support you for about three more months at least." "Damn It! I would have never expected ...
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Impact

By submission | December 27, 2009
Author : Gavin Raine It's ironic, but I'd been having having such a good day. The children all had their heads down, working on their numbers, and I even had a little time to daydream for once. Then, I had that strange feeling that my chair had just sunk six inches into the ...
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Null Geodesic

By submission | December 26, 2009
Author : Jim Wisniewski She smiles and tilts her head to push a lock of brown hair behind her ear. I run the image back a few seconds and watch it again, entranced as always by the fluidity of the motion. The machines can show me any moment of her life, but this is the one ...
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Artificial Claus

By Patricia Stewart | December 25, 2009
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Kathryn opened the door to let her fiancée in. He brushed passed her and parked in front of the hall mirror. Carefully, he fluffed the snow off of his hair. Satisfied, he turned to kiss her, but stopped short when he noticed that she ...
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Codename Winter

By Duncan Shields | December 24, 2009
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The body was huge. Seven feet tall, at least, and heavy. X-Rays had shown a delicate tracery of machinery throughout, strengthening the huge frame to allow it to move quickly. Its bright, neon-blue hair glowed in the dark. It was the ...
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Inside Joke

By Roi R. Czechvala | December 23, 2009
Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer Purple waves gently lap at an azure beach. Our footprints quickly wash away in the encroaching tide. The setting twin suns of Rijos, the red giant aptly named Rojo, and her blue companion Danube cast an eerily beautiful violet light ...
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Flipped to the Sky

By J.R. Blackwell | December 22, 2009
Author : J.R. Blackwell, Staff Writer The last thing I remember before I hit the jagged edge of mountain rock was falling backwards, my feet flipped up, shoes dark against the snowy gray sky. Perhaps that's a way our bodies and minds conspire to protect us, screening out the ...
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EmalE

By submission | December 21, 2009
Author : C. S. McClendon I stepped out of the lobby just in time to watch the last metro transport of the day speed past and turn the corner without so much as slowing down. Great, that meant I had to walk home, and these heels were already killing me, wonderful. Still, no ...
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Orange

By submission | December 20, 2009
Author : Glenn Song Jeanette hated Dr. Kogen's waiting room. It screamed blue at her – the cushions, the walls, and even the magazine covers were coordinated in a fan of azure. Nestled in a wicker basket, on a round table in the center of the room, sat a red delicious apple, ...
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45 Feet Over Ninevah

By submission | December 19, 2009
Author : Glenn Blakeslee Forty-five feet over Ninevah, Phillip is enclosed in a spherically symmetric potential. He's feeling somewhat philosophical. Below, on the steps leading to the courtyard of the Library, Ashurbanipal, the last of the great Assyrian kings, faces his ...
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Of Andys and Upgrades

By Stephen R. Smith | December 18, 2009
Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Andy knew he was a relic. He used to violently object when it was suggested that he was past his prime, but after a while the reality was too apparent to ignore. It had been years, maybe decades since he'd been able to find factory fresh ...
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Savile Row Steel

By submission | December 17, 2009
Author : Ruth Imeson Edward Smithfield knew better than to hide. The heavy oak door to his lodgings rattled in its frame. The handle spun. Exquisite brass gears, cogs and counterweights shifted. The door swung open. Vapour entered the room, but the man it shielded dallied at ...
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Angel of Death

By Duncan Shields | December 16, 2009
Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The sensor charges go off and for a second I become a percussion instrument for the Devil. I’m wreathed in black smoke and dropping like a stone. Explosions kick me like excited children. I’m a trillion-dollar pinball of curled-up ...
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Escape from Io

By Collaboration | December 15, 2009
Author : Adam Zabell and Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Fifteen days after we landed on Io, Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon, a faulty weld on the ascent module’s fuel tank ruptured, venting all of our liquid hydrogen into space. Janice O’Connor was able to repair the ...
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What's Sauce for the Goose…

By Roi R. Czechvala | December 14, 2009
Author : Roi R, Czechvala, Staff Writer Charred bodies littered the streets. The blackened faces frozen in the horrible rictus of death. They had been men and women once. Children. Families who had laughed, lived and loved together, reduced to carbonized grotesques of human ...
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His Parts

By submission | December 13, 2009
Author : Steve Ersinghaus He gave away his parts at the proper time. Downtown he saw a man without a foot, so he gave the man his foot. A friend told him that the box full of left shoes he put on the sidewalk was a good idea. He gave his right arm to a construction company ...
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