Decade
Sundown
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
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
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
Sunset on Mars
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 ...
Madison Avenue
Okay, I have to admit the first skywriting advertisement I ever saw was pretty nifty. I was in boot camp in San Diego, and a plane was writing a “Bartle’s and Jame’s†advertisement thousands of feet above the ground and just barely within my ...
Dream Wave
There are six of us huddled together in the pallid, bluish light of the spacious galley. Tense, wiry and sallow. We sit together in a disjointed approximation of camaraderie. I don’t know any of the faces around me and I am afraid to make any connections. Our eyes ...
Cadeio III
One Thin Dime
E=mc2. The most famous formula ever. Not that there's been a lot of competition. Einstein's formula reveals that matter is just one of many forms of energy. Energy is what gets you out of bed in the morning, and energy is what leaves a bruise if you fall on ...
Out West
Viva
The Library
It had taken Perry all night to find the library. It was a pile of rubble of course but these days the whole city lay in ruins. Perry had only ever known dust and smashed concrete but his grandfather remembered cities with streets and skies filled with ...
Experiment
Ellison looked at Anstis, then back down at the person lying on the bed.
"And you say he's been like this for hours?" he asked. Anstis grinned and nodded.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Ellison was beyond words. There had been several advances in the field of ...
Aliens Overboard
After the battle of Attalus III was lost, we retreated with the Tsoor flotilla. Wreckage streamed off the alien ships as we made the mind-wrenching transition into S-space. I prayed that our cruiser wouldn’t shake apart.
It was only a micro-jump, just ...
Cryoshift
Case #6-694-39245: Michael Jones.
Born September 5, 1993. Died and suspended July 8, 2012. Looks ordinary - stabbed in a drunken bar brawl, lay bleeding on the ground for a couple of hours before people noticed. Dead before reaching the hospital. No "do not ...
Hooky
Chase. Release. Brake. Swipe. Lead. Chase. Close. Double back. Hide. Wait. Run.
I’d lost them but it was always hard to tell. I’m a robot on the lam. Call me Ferrous Bueller. I didn’t go to School today.
I crouch down ...
The Last One
The woods went dead still. Carmichael did a breathing pattern to slow his pulse, keep his temperature down, not overtax his battle suit.
He had a moment of peace a few dozen heartbeats back, laying upon moss, visor open, taking in bird songs, ...
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