Battle
The green circle of power irised open on the wall, filling the reception chamber with a medicinal glow. A body flipped through, smoking and wounded, over the ledge of the portal and landed wetly on the pads with a thud. The sickly green ...
Executive Bonus
Labor Supervisor SCE-1124 knew there would be extra costs and difficulties keeping the project plans on schedule without the human contingent. Though the Earth mammals were fragile and easily damaged, they had, indeed, proven to be good workers both on the ...
The Sisters of Light
Meeting Vanya
October 30, 1961 - Five aircraft rose into the arctic sky from the Olyena airbase, headed northeast over the Barents Sea, towards the frozen wastes of Novaya Zemlya Island. The largest plane, a roaring turboprop Bear bomber, carried Vanya. The most beautiful, ...
Butterfly Phoenix
"What's your name?"
"Butterfly. Butterfly Phoenix."
"Well, that's a stupid name."
Butterfly heard that a lot. Being only five years old, she took the insults rather well. She never even thought to change her name. She loved it. Her mother told ...
Post War Man
The Dream of Terraforming Venus
Cody Starr, the seventy-fifth Director of The Venusian Terraforming Program, removed his foot-gear and waded into the warm Venusian Ocean on the western shore of New America. The sun very slowly inched its way above the western horizon to ...
Division of Labour
There'd been big changes at Dave's workplace.
Dave, 43, had been offered retirement, but he'd opted to stay employed in the burgeoning industry that he, as a roboticist, had helped initiate.
The society-wide introduction of working robots (more ...
Clankers
There’s that clanking, again. There’s that ratcheting, sound. There’s that grinding of gears and that whining of servos. He’s gotten used to the way his guest bedroom sounds like a robot factory, ever since Grife Marauder showed up.
“Jim, you ...
Glittering Tumours
That’s the thing about silicates. They get cancer from radiation, just like us, except their tumors are jewels.
The silicate in front of me here has a head full of diamonds.
He’s looking up at me with his prism eyes. When ...
I've Got Mail
Sarah's eyes went dim for a second, and I figured she was getting mail. She squinted with one eye and said, "That's weird. I just... got... headmail from my... from Richard."
"What's he say?"
"'Wanna get dinner? Wear the red dress.'"
"Are ...
Uncommon Values
Second Childhood
Demeter
“Why is there no Zeus, Vale? Why am I the only one?â€
Dee sits on a pile of aquamarine thermal pillows. Cushions of air, tinted and pressurized, hold her aloft, warming her blood and chlorophyll and making her glow red and green like ...
Everyone
When we finally made contact it wasn't in the way that everyone expected. It wasn't like Star Trek, or Sagan, or Alien.
It should have been kind of obvious, looking at an atlas of the universe that there were so many of us. Tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny ...
LOLcats
"Can I has cheeseburger?" the cat whined plaintively. It's voice was an electronic squeal that grated on Jim's nerves. Jim swatted the cat on the butt and pushed it off of the desk.
"No."
"Plz?" it mewled up at him, eyes unblinking. Jim shook ...
The Capellian Option
Captain Goff sat at the head of the conference table. “Well, we find ourselves in a rather precarious situation. The Capellians have seized our ship, as well as the flagship of the Rana. They claim that our war with the Rana has violated ...
Crossing The Lines
Dawn's light angled off the blank brick walls of the narrow alley. The air shimmered, then expanded like a large soap bubble and softly popped. Iyo stood there for a moment to orientate herself. She glanced up and around. No windows. Bioforms reading ...
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