Malice Aforethough

Author : Sam Clough, Staff Writer "Elass, check your drones. I think they're goofing off." "Thanks, Laurie. They're on target now." The fleet was deep in the 'gravel' region of the asteroid belt. Elass was dragging in the larger chunks for processing, Laurie was filtering ...

Time and Space

Author : Rayne Adams I stole a lightspeed cruiser today. Went flying. Found Ancient Egypt. You learn in school that time and space are the same interchangeable abstract, but no one really believes it. You walk three steps, you move forward in space and in time, but if you ...

Biological Backup

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

The test drill had gone horribly wrong.

The bipedal meat structure wasn’t breathing. Emergency!

There were specific instructions tattooed on the outside of the biological’s skin for repair procedures.

The yellow and black ...

She'll Be Waiting In Istanbul

Author : Ian Rennie

I met a girl the other night while hopping. It was in some bar somewhere, and she must have been a local, because she was fascinated by my bracelet. It must have been a relatively close hop, because she spoke english in an accent that wasn't too weird, but I was ...

Mercy

Author : J.R. Blackwell, Staff Writer Unlike the rest of humanity, I had an intelligent designer. My designer had thought enough to make me compatible. I can attach myself to almost any machine; external computers, appliances and yes, even weapons. Today, I've attached ...

The Sensation Station

Author : W. Kevin Christian A monotone, bureaucratic female voice shot through the hearing centers of Felicity's brain: "Free-form imagination, courtesy of The Sensation Station. Free-form imagination, courtesy of The Sensation Station." On and on it went until the computer ...

The Senneela Cure

Author : JT Heyman

You, who read this, remember us.

When the Senneela arrived, there was panic, at first. People forgot that. I mean, what would you expect when an eight foot saurian biped in silvery vacuum armor suddenly appears in the middle of the United Nations Security ...

Novalight

Author : Ian Rennie

It was a crisp, clement evening. The air was fresh and new, and the gentle purple of the sky gave the scene a tranquil and poetic feel.

About five hundred people were gathered here, although similar groups were gathered all over the world, looking up at ...

E.L.E. Sapiens

Author : Alla Hoffman When he opened his eyes, it was a special kind of dark. The sky was a dull purple, and what light there was came from the ground beneath its stygian spread. He sat up stiffly in a sea of trash, a vast junkyard. Much of the scrap metal and rock glowed a ...

Tentacles

Author : Pavelle Wesser When she first appeared to him in the dead of the eternal night, her tentacles undulated in bluish silver tints that reflected the twinkling lights of his ship. She slithered silently toward him while he was out performing an errand. Until he saw ...

In-Situ

Author : Glenn Blakeslee

Lisa called me that afternoon. I was standing in the rain in front of the In-Situ Laboratory, watching deer run beneath the elevated walkway.

"I just wanted to say," she said. "Sam… I'm sorry about Saturday." Her voice was quiet. She sounded ...

Of or Relating to Sound

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Marshal's great grandfather had taken up the guitar as a older man, and played it as though he simply always had done so. He had passed this love onto his son, Marshal's grandfather, before the Departure. Marshal's family had always been ...

The Cirrillian Campaign

Author : Paul Starkey

Villam’s first campaign began at 29:15; within minutes he was a veteran.

A third of his squad died within seconds of disembarking, victims of the Cirrillian psionic artillery, the heavy bombardment shattering their synapses and boiling their brains within ...

Old Joe

Author : Glenn Blakeslee

It's another damn fine desert day, and Old Joe sits on the dilapidated Lazy Boy on the porch in front of his trailer. He's got his feet up and a pint bottle of cheap wine in his hand, and he's thinking lazy desert thoughts. He's got his chores done, tended ...

Dispatch

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

There’s a hole in the roof of my mouth that I can’t fix. A black putrescent liquid that hasn’t stopped for hours is dripping slowly onto my tongue. It tastes salty and smells a little like melting rubber. I’m still alive.

The plague killed ...

Incident Desk

Author : Oisin Hurley

On my first day on the incident desk, a distraught little man well into his second century burst in through the door of the station. "I've killed her!," he shrieked at me, "Killed her!" He punctuated each bespittled utterance with a spastic wave of a cricket ...

Tinfoil

Author : Sam Clough, Staff Writer "Look, man," I'd noticed that Mark's type always seemed to call you 'man' or 'mate'', "I did some proper analysis of the whole tinfoil hat thing. You'd need almost a full helmet, a nice thick grounding chain, and preferably an electrified ...

Gods Upon Gods

Author : Ryan Somma

"Is that one of those computers?" I asked gesturing at the flat, monolithic screen hanging on the far wall.

"Sort of," he replied, staring oddly at the housewarming gift I'd set on a table. "It's more of an entertainment center, but it does a lot of the ...

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