Erosion

Author : Steven Odhner Entropy gnaws at the walls, shaving them away molecule by molecule. Jeremy calls it the Nothing, after some story that never existed anymore. It’s as good a name as any - certainly I’m not being scientific when I call it Entropy. "The Nothing is hungry ...

Airport Security

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I’ve rented my persona out to a smuggler. I’m a chip in the back of his head. I'm a soldier that died a while ago and I’m making a few dollars post-mortem by being an emergency safeguard for morally dubious people. I’m riding in his ...

Body-Death

Author : J.R. Blackwell, Staff Writer Was it the crisp hard skin of an apple that hurt her teeth? The texture of sand beneath her feet, soft in summer and rough when bound with winter ice? Or was it the smell of autumn, all bones and fire? I lost my mother to these things; ...

Aurora

Author : Paul Bort The stars twinkled as they always had; a hint of purple in the west showed where we had missed sunset, the better part of an hour ago. But most spectacular was the Aurora Borealis, flickering, twisting, glowing in the shades of green and blue that I could ...

Sacrifices

Author : Ian Rennie Anton opens the door with a blank face. He is worried, but can't show it any more. "How's she doing?" I ask. "Not good," Anton replies, expression neutral and voice flat, "I think she's dying." I move past him without a word. Laverne is lying in bed, ...

You'll Never Go

Author : Claire Webber “Excuse me, miss?” he said, raising a finger to get the stewardess’ attention. “Yes, how can I help you?” she said with a smile. Her accent was faint, and a single curl poked out of her modest hijab printed with the airline’s logo. “I’d like a copy of ...

Punishment 2100AD

Author : John Logan The metal clasps dug into my arms as they strapped me to the chair. I spat on one of the guards and called into question the loyalty of his wife. He raised his hand to strike but the other guard stopped him with a simple movement of the eyes. “Let me up,” ...

Picture Postcard

Author : Ken McGrath The car pulled to a stop overlooking the city. “There it is kids. Dublin, where your old Dad grew up? What do you think?” “It doesn’t look like the postcard Dad,” Amy said, looking up momentarily from her computer game and at least showing some sort of ...

Dawn

Author : Matthew Forish It was cold. Of course it was cold. Now though, I could feel the cold. Feeling returned to my body, and a faint light was starting to filter in through my closed eyelids. I was waking up. Thoughts filled my mind. I was shivering, hungry, thirsty and ...

The Eyes Have It

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Blue. That’s the colour I remember the most in that operating theater. It was the last honest colour I would ever see. I had them installed as part of my training. It was something I had a choice over. I regret that decision now but ...

She Hunts

Author : Helstrom They call her “The Flying Dutchman”. Don't ask me what a Dutchman is, or whether or not it is supposed to fly – it's apparently taken from one of old Earth's folk tales. It doesn't really matter, but I suppose every ship needs a name. The Flying Dutchman ...

The Birds and the Bees

Author : Roi R. Czechvala “…but I think,” it said “No, you process.” “I dream,” it replied. “You analyze.” “Cogito ergo sum,” it asked hopefully. “No, Cogito, ergo SUM.” The overworked engineer’s voice was strained. His patience was wearing thin. He thought of his three ...

The Black Star

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The attack cruiser Etherwolf docked at the Alliance Refueling Station orbiting Vesta, the second largest planetoid in the asteroid belt. Captain Olbers disembarked the Etherwolf and was greeted by the Station Commander. Sarah Wilhelm ...

Coconut Milk

Author : David Dykes Geoff said to Alice, 'I like how you smell. It reminds me of Bounty bars.' With a slow realisation, she noticed that the sounds bouncing off the work office walls were speech; then, as they entered her ears and travelled to her temporal lobes, she found ...

The First Hunt

Author : Benjamin Fischer “How do I feel about this?” Tavare said, repeating Arcand’s question. The hard-faced Spaniard frowned and didn’t immediately answer. Arcand was tempted to open his mouth again, but then Pack Instructor stopped that mistake. “Arcand! Suit up, you ...

18th Birthday

Author : Nathan Andrew Blaisdell "What you choose as your first improvement says a lot about you." Sam said thoughtfully through a mouthful of pizza. I agreed with a nod, glanced up at the TV in the corner of the restaurant, and gave him time to swallow. "I mean, it's a ...

Placelessness

Author : Glenn Blakeslee They said the best thing to do was stay at home. That way, they said, the retrovirus would have fewer chances to spread and the effects would be minimized. We made it for three days, Donna and I. We had plenty of food we'd saved for emergencies. We ...

Proteus

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Proteus is Neptune’s second largest moon. When unmanned probes were sent to explore Proteus in 2308, the radioactive decay of uranium-238 into thorium-230 revealed that the moon was not 4.6 billion years old as expected, but was less ...

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