Liberty

Author : Benjamin Fischer

The Shore Patrol has to ring three times before she comes to.

“Ma’am, we would prefer to not break down the door,” one is saying. “Please open it now, ma’am.”

Groggy and maybe still drunk, she paws at the suite’s ...

Stealth

Author : Roi R. Czechvala In a dark, empty hanger, a needle-like flat black fighter rested in its cradle... thinking. “You see General,” a small man in white gestured toward the ship, “those pods mounted beneath each ‘wing’ are the main armament. The magnetic rail ...

Finnegan Sue

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

Finnegan Sue was a pit fighter.

She wrapped leather around her knuckles, mindful of her nails, and ran her sharpened tongue around her poisonous needled mouth. She sung a tune while she prepped. Her horrible lisp made a mockery of the ...

Arrivals Lounge

Author : Chris McCormick

The finest moment of my whole life was when I stepped off that ship. When we finally found each other in the arrivals lounge, her utterly uncomplicated joy was mirrored by my own. Two friends since forever, separated by years of space travel. There was no ...

Jupiter's Lightning

Author : James Smith

Nothing but killers. They came screaming soundlessly out of the Oort and Mercury Station was gone. My wife swallowed a handful of pills when the remains of Venus fell across the Moon.

The Dyson sphere lays empty, reconfigured into an enormous laser. I ...

Adoption

Author : Geoffrey Cashmore

The first thing Vinka noticed were the trees, (Bula was late…why was she always late?) the ground was dirty too; some places nothing but bare earth or a covering of ragged grass. That couldn’t be healthy, could it? These pathetic people.

Vinka ...

Systema Metropolis

Author : Sam Clough aka "Hrekka", Staff Writer It's just like they try to teach you in biology. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Municipalis, Europa, Munchen, EDF, Umbra, Generatrum, Gigas. The common or garden Generatrum Gigas. Very roughly, that's ...

Sol-DOT

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The bright yellow spaceship of the Sol Department of Transportation pulled up next to a two ton rogue asteroid. They deployed the grappling sling, and slowly maneuvered it toward the asteroid. After they secured it, the spaceship adjusted its ...

Green Moon

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

The place reeks of green beans.

I hate the feel of the floor underneath my bare feet. It’s made of ivy and soft branches.

I’m not from around here.

I usually work the corporate zealots on the rim. All they know is credit ...

Third Viola in Paris

Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer Peter ran to the docking station, his small duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He did not walk in the front end where the merchants, pilots and passengers boarded their flights. Instead, the young man slipped behind the security tent and toward ...

Inhuman

Author : John Tudball

Love - with all its pain and all its wonder – is the human condition. We are slaves to it and truly, above all other creatures, masters of it. When we know love we feel alive. It brings us terrible, terrible hurt but that’s okay because of the joy that ...

The Ride

Author : Laura E. Bradford

“Merging down.”

He pulled the joystick and the car started its swift descent, tugging him along like on a roller coaster. “Whooo!” he yelled, pushing the pedal down and merging onto the invisible highway at two hundred miles an hour. He ...

Decade

Author : Michael Herbaugh a.k.a. "Freeman" Ten years. That’s what the Fri-l’r sting had cost him. Craig had been on safari on Lankus XIII when the accident happened. His friends didn’t realize until a few days later that his personality had been completely superseded, but for ...

Sundown

Author : Andy Bolt

The dripping residue of some poor bastard’s elbow explodes against my shoulder.

“Goo fight!” Jayav shouts, handfuls of dead man oozing through his fingers. My synthskin registers the contact with unstable biomaterial and sterilizes my left arm. ...

A Thin Slice of the Moon

Author : Beth Mathison

The thin slice of the moon slipped past her window frame, into the night sky waiting for it.

There were people there on the moon, they told her, although some days she doubted their stories. Her parents told her many things – that human beings had ...

Ravaged Angel

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

The Ravaged Angel.

That’s what was painted in red nail polish on the nose of the three-person cryshuttle. It had docked on autopilot with good codes but wasn’t answering hails. The dock’s computer was talking to the shuttle’s ...

Holly

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jacob sat as he always did, cross legged on the coffee table in the middle of the room, making himself the center of attention. "You really have to get over us and move on, you know that don't you?" His voice carried to the corners of the room and ...

Sunset on Mars

Author : Laura Bradford

He chased her even as her ship touched the stars.

At night he gazed through the glass of his telescope, feeling tiny compared to the evening sky, but his days were all routine: get up, go to work, watch the flying cars crisscross and block his chance ...

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