Recruiters

Author : Todd Keisling, featured writer My brother used to tell me about the glory days, when the Government was less unified and there was more than a single state. Usually what he told me went along with what they taught us at the Academy in history class, but sometimes he'd add ...

The Forsaken

Author : Debbie Mac Rory

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

Author : TJMoore

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

Author : Viktor Kuprin

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

Author : Todd Keisling, featured writer Mr. Serling entered the cafe and took a seat at the bar. He ordered the lunch special which, for that day, was a bowl of vegetable soup, carrot sticks and a peanut butter sandwich. His arrival did not go unnoticed. Rob watched from his booth ...

Taurus

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

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

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer

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

Author : Todd Keisling, featured writer It's the smell that gets to me. Agent Lennox ducks his head out from the kitchen just in time to watch me vomit into the hall. "You okay, Church?" "Yeah," I tell him. "Just peachy-keen." The smell is that of burning meat Inside the kitchen ...

Time Assassin

Author : Daniel Rosenblum

“This wasn’t what I expected the past to be like.”

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

Author : Robert Niescier

“Why do you keep writing in there?”

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

Author : Debbie Mac Rory

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

Author : Todd Keisling, featured writer Dr. Watson and Dr. Blair watched as the orderlies interned the patient in observation room three. Dr. Blair scratched absently at the back of his hand. "So," Dr. Watson said, "what's his story?" He gestured to the nameless patient in the ...

Let Him Dangle

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer It's a strange thing, knowing exactly when you're going to die. Luther had become accustomed to the idea; the arrest, the charge of treason. He knew it was a death sentence the moment they'd kicked down his door. He was surprised only at how easily ...

Jarima

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

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

Author : Todd Keisling, featured writer Colt was a block from his apartment when the curfew alarms went off. The firing klaxon startled him, and he dropped his smokes. Heart pounding, he retrieved them and ducked into a nearby alley. It wasn't long before the first patrol sped by, ...

Lives

Author : Michael Varian Daly

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

Author : Grady Hendrix

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

Author : B.York, Staff Writer Kale made a habit of playing only in his backyard. The public display of toying with small action figures in the park or at a friends house made Kale a shy boy indeed. Instead, he would enjoy the comfort of solitary imagination in his backyard. The young ...

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