Recruiters
The Forsaken
We have no choice, they said. We have to leave. We don’t know where we can go, or even if we can survive out there, but we can’t live here any longer. But there isn’t enough room here for all of us.
And then it became clear that the “we†...
Spring
The path to the discovery of intelligent non-human life was, for me, a life's journey. SETI had invested billions in high tech telescopes and antenna arrays, thousands of personnel hours and miles of red tape, without a single positive result. I had done it at the ...
Flyby
Any starship could request a flyby. Popik received them all the time from the Customs Patrols and the Space Force when they needed to eyeball our ship. If they wanted a bribe that day, they'd come aboard Popik's old Mod One. He would shake hands with the ...
Time Enough for Twilight
Taurus
Annette sways forward and for a second it’s like there’s no bonesetter in her bloodstream. She’s languid again. Graceful and alive. Pre-soldier.
We’re friends. That’s hard to come by this far out in the rings. Most of the ...
In the Eye of the Beholder
My head was throbbing. I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to ease the pain. It didn't help. "Try rubbing your temples. That seems to work for me," suggested a gravelly voice to my right. Prior to that instant, I didn't know ...
The Collector
Time Assassin
“This wasn’t what I expected the past to be like.â€
I looked around warily, absorbing the unfamiliar sights. I was alone in a rotund, palatial chamber, standing at the center beneath a sweeping ceiling supported by ornate columns. Yellow ...
Amateur Historian
“Why do you keep writing in there?â€
He looked up and into her eyes, through steam shaded orange from the bonfire’s glow, and smiled. “It’s so people, future people, remember everything we went through. So we don’t get lost as just two ...
Chameleon
My knee is still bleeding from the last time I fell and my trousers keep sticking to them, bringing forth fresh darts of pain. But I’m too scared to use my torch here. I’ve already been stopped by two division patrols on my way here; I guess my research ...
Level Seven
Let Him Dangle
Jarima
It was always slightly embarrassing for me to watch Jarima try to pick up a guy.
She had a bodybuilder’s physique. She had a wide rubbery mouth and a strong jaw. She had bright red hair kept short. A little spray of freckles danced ...
The Mad Man
Lives
Paln gently cupped the small green vegetable in the attachment designed for its harvesting. The steel segmented orb closed – a soft 'snick' - cutting the stem. Paln carefully placed the hard round vegetable among its brethren in the bin strapped to ...
Physical Therapy
Danny Leeds really wanted to punch his wife in the mouth. Over the last two years she had managed to cast their relationship as one where he was constantly the oppressor and she was eternally the victim. If he said anything she didn’t like, it was an ...
Pocket Change
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