Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Flickering light is the only illumination in the empty laboratory. A faint humming the only noise. At the centre of a mass of equipment sits an old, metal-framed specimen tank, edges spotted with rust. Inside whirls a multi-coloured cloud, ...

Author: David Barber Teachers make the worst students, thought Mrs Adebeyo. They drifted in, chattering, and filling up tables according to subject. At the front sat four English teachers. One of the women was busy knitting. Mrs Adebeyo was already frowning at the click ...

Author: Marshall Bradshaw “You’re going to remember this next part,” said Dr. Adams. The fluorescent lights of exam room 8 hummed in beautiful harmony. I counted off the flashes. 120 per second. That was 7,200 per minute, or 432,000 per hour. The numbers felt pleasantly ...

Author: Fawkes Defries ‘Shit!’ Russ collapsed against his chrome tent, cursing as the acid tore through his clothes. Usually he made it back inside before the rain fell, but his payments to Numeral for the metal arms had just defaulted, and without the gravity-suspenders ...

Author: Shannon O'Connor I watch the space ships leave and wonder what it’s like to be able to go that far and dream that big. These days, space travel is available to the elite, but not to those on the bottom like me, who can barely afford to get by. I used to watch the ...

Author: Majoki “A planetary AI, a quantum simbot, and an ice queen walk into a bar…” “Ice queen?” “One of those augs with the latest mods boosted to the max. You know the type. They act all cold and calculating, believing any display of emotion will make them look ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “Your rifles are fully charged,” the safari guide said as he walked out to the four-wheeled transport. A group of three hunters followed behind. He opened the door on the driver’s side and got in. “Remember,” he continued as the hunters climbed in ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Slow night on the back side of the club quarter. Shouldn’t have taken the bet, but two bottles of wine and Ronny being a tit decided otherwise. So here I am, looking to beat his takings from the main drag, watching the only possible ...

Author: Lachlan Bond I watch on, as the sun begins to expand before my eyes. Slowly, at first, its pulsating shape growing ever-so-slightly behind the Vintusian glass. The radiation waves shake the station, solar winds battering our rapidly failing shields. Alarms blare, ...

Author: David C. Nutt I did a quick scan outside my vehicle. I could see columns of thousands upon thousands of them, spinning fast, trying to ride the thermals up and out of the dust devil. At least half of them are getting shredded by the wind and when pieces of their ...

Author: Morrow Brady Without a backstory, the darker patch at the edge of the busy road went unnoticed. It was being faded to oblivion by layers of desert dust and the enraged rush hour traffic. As my evening walk took me past that patch, near the busy street junction, I ...

Author: RY Jack floated in the observation blister, the void pressing silent against the reinforced plasteel. Earth hung like a chipped blue marble a million klicks sunward. Behind him, the comms array of Lagrange Point 1 hummed its patient vigil, vast silver dishes ...

Author: David Barber The first meeting between aliens and humans had not gone well. The details will never be known, but as the generation ship Pilgrim neared Centauri, it had been met by an alien craft. Imagine the descendants of those first colonists, isolated for ...

Author: Majoki Junko opened the dumpster lid and peered up at the spires of Saint Petersbot towering above. It made the sign of the triple cross and performed its diagnostic ablutions. Only two system alerts pinged. Junko would ignore them for another day. From the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The battlefield is littered with carcasses to the point where soil has mixed with ichor to form a gritty green mud that shines as the searchlights swing by. I wave the site teams to either side. “Get the spotlights up! We’ll never find ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher I had just stepped into my shower, having had to wait a full five minutes for the water to become hot enough. It took forever for the water temperature to get up to at least tepid in my apartment. Usually, it was either freezing cold or scalding with ...

Author: Jennifer Peaslee The stale air of the Interplanetary Dynamics office reflected the collective mood of its desk jockeys. Ash Zendar, stewing in a stiff-collared uniform, barely glanced at the form in front of them before stamping approval for a three-cycle visit from ...

Author: S. Douglas Hall Doctor Hibberd’s shoulders slumped and he laid his clipboard on the table. The buzzing at his lab door overshadowed the normal beeps, clicks, and whirls from the lab around him. He ran his hands through his graying brown hair and adjusted his ...