Author: Cheryl Snell It’s raining stardust, elemental, anonymous stardust straight from the humming sky, rootless stardust descending on a discontent man, a blank-slate child made of infinite stardust, plugging his ears against sound trapped in light leaking music. While it ...

Author: Robb T. White “That is the aspiration: to avoid AI becoming the other.”—Elon Musk, Twitter, April 23, 2017 Martin slowed on approach to the stone bridge in the center of Camden-on-Wofford. The village was a quaint snapshot of Victorian-era tranquility. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer "I find charcoal best for landscapes, but cityscapes demand ink to capture their harsh edges. Living things I always work in coloured pencil, layering basic colours to achieve the myriad shades that life grows in. "For battlefields, it's ...

Author: David Barber This is the Ada Swann, limping into Vesta Dock on manual, which is illegal, but Perry won’t pay tug fees, so with automated systems off-line, she eases in the big ship by eye. Dockside’s not handshaking your autopilot, Ada Swann. "Maybe you’ve got ...

Author: Immy Basmar A lifetime ago, Velvet loved playing in the purple sands at the edge of town. Antiman, who spent all his days there, would chastise her for galivanting on the carcasses of gods and tell his stories of a long-forgotten race, whose metal bodies had ridden ...

Author: Sarah Klein Fred didn't return from space the same man. Loretta noticed it immediately, but brushed it off. "He just needs to relax," she told herself. She did everything she could to make him comfortable. But Fred was anxious. Fidgety. Not eating as much as ...

Author: Majoki You know that feeling you get when you’re halfway to work and you realize that you can’t remember the last fifteen minutes of your drive. You know you’ve been gripping the wheel staring out the windshield, but you aren’t really there. Some part of your ...

Author: Mark Renney Over the years Tanner had become highly attuned to his work and was able to spot the conspirators from afar. He could pick them out on a busy street, in a crowded bar or restaurant. This wasn’t ever based on anything concrete but he just knew. Perhaps it ...

Author: T. Thornton Gray I stopped wearing a mask. I don’t know if it was because I was used to the stench around me or if it was because decomposition was turning to mummification. My search to find canned food that is over a year old has become far more difficult. If I ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Any final thoughts, Captain Macawdy?” Macawdy smooths their layers of bright clothing, then leans forward with a smile: “I’d like to thank you for having the courage to invite me on your show, Miss Dreams. All the other networks have ...

Author: Rachel Handley “Bloody hell.” “Shush, Terry, don’t go invoking hell willy nilly.” “I’m neither being willy nor nilly, Martha. Did you not see the email? “Oh, what email?” Martha pressed the button on her wrist. A small hologram screen spread over her left ...

Author: Andrew Bird Kerrrrr-SHAZ felt his taut antennae shudder as he struggled to slow the Flying Saucer’s plummet towards jagged Nevada mountains. His face, reflected in the mirrored control panel before him, drained from bright to pale green in fear. Desrius in the ...

Author: Arkapravo Bhaumik FADE IN (A newsroom setting with the reporter and the President seated face to face) Reporter: Mr. President thank you for this interview. President: (smiles, nods in an affirmation) Reporter: Mr. President, as it has ...

Author: Majoki Thang Danang balanced the hypodermic on the tip of her index finger. Reckless. Irresponsible. Crazy. That’s what her cousin Luc had called her. He’d yelled that her visions of their family ancestors weren’t real, that she was hallucinating. Thang had ...

Author: Alzo David-West A soldier – roving through the miasma streams of rended forms and spectral cores, the broken gangrene and the fractal pain pouring from the fading – an anxious, empty, frenzied atavism without love and without feeling, except for the instinct to ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “This is the Stop Fraud hotline of the Department of Employment Assistance. My name is Flynn. How can I help?” “I want to report the woman across the road. She’s ripping you off.” “I can certainly assist with that, madam. Do you know her ...

Author: Majoki “Hustle, hustle, hustle,” Selse hissed. “In this universe, you gotta go fast to go slow.” Her training team was darting between a random course of high stone pillars, low walls and short ledges, crouching low, praying not to mess up. Selse was praying how ...

Author: Michael Kerby A guy, licking the carpet. He's on all fours, in a Doctor's waiting room. And he's licking the carpet. Tongue out, dragging it across the rough blue carpet like it's the most important job in the world. It's the kind of carpet designed for ...