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 ...

A Question of Rights

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The men that delivered Louis to the Chancellors chambers had done so quickly, forcefully and without remark. Louis had goaded them through the tunnels from the parking garage, up the elevators and along the corridors without rebuke until ...

Technologic Encounter

Author : Renee Leyburn “I object to this kind of treatment! I'm an upstanding citizen. I've an elderly mother to care for,” Paul exclaimed vehemently, gathering himself up to stand as straight as he could in front of the droid. The robot stared back at him with unblinking, ...

Unforeseen Consequences

Author : Luke Chmelik With a timid knock on the door, a pimply faced messenger poked his head into the sumptuous office of the Head of Commercial Relations. “We're having some p-p-problems with the Turing units, s-sir.” Ezekiel Jonas Tate tapped his cigar into the nickel ...

Cuts

Author : Summer Batton We bled orange. Not some giddy childhood sherbet kind of orange, but the sickly rusty kind that comes off of metal barrels after they’ve sat out in the rain for 10 years. Orange like the rust that comes off slowly in chunks, running down into the ...

Escape Pod

Author : J.R. Blackwell, Staff Writer I awake for the first time and feel the comforting press of Mother around me. She has woken me up for a reason, but I do not know why. Mother is big and strong and knows everything. She holds me and my sisters and all the people inside ...

Taking a walk

Author : L.Hall "I loved a woman once.." Lil looked up sharply, immediately checking the oxygen gages. Walkers usually started talking morosely when they had a pressure leak. If that was so, she'd need to pull him in quickly. All the gages showed 80%, no pressure ...

Upgrade

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer It was Momma Spokes that helped me in the afterlife. It was a hard first few months of living back then in the rusted shards and sewage filters. Sustenance was brutally fought over and hoarded. Flatlines happened every day over ...

Human Integration

Author : Sam Clough, Staff Writer "I cannot sing the old songs, the songs I sang so long ago..." Guin kicked her heels, muttering the misremembered words to herself. She hadn't changed. She still looked as young as ever: her dark skin was as flawless as it had ever been. For ...

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