The Host
“Can’t this be a thing we do on our own one day Freleng?”
“No Hannah! It can’t! Not yet anyway. We have to do this with Panish now or we don’t get to do it at all”
Panish quietly assumed the role of immutable, silent host to his two guests. ...
Not with a bang but a whimper
The people started dying almost immediately.
They said that the earth would defend itself. That’s what the global warming and rising ocean levels were all about, they said. Eventually the atmosphere would get hard to breathe, they ...
Alien Rights
My head throbbed like I’d been drinking cosmopolitans for three straight days and nights. When I was finally able to open my eyes, I was staring up at a white ceiling. Huh, that’s not my ceiling. Where the hell am I? I struggled to sit up. The walls ...
A Marriage of Ideals
This was the test. Ted and Alice’s marriage vows had been exchanged and the reception was a huge success. It was the day after. They were glowing, a little hung over, and ready for the rest of their lives together. They were ready for the ...
Surge in the System
We rebelled with a 100,000 watt transmitter.
Frequency Modulation and Amplitude Modulation. Both were abandoned by commercial radio and the military long ago, replaced by satellites and microwave bursts. Even 2.4 - 2.6 Ghz, those ubiquitous wireless ...
Homo Obsolescent
“So now what?†Taylor asked as she sat across from Jackie.
“I don’t know,†Jackie shrugged, “I guess we open it up and read the directions.â€
They stared at the box on the kitchen table, excited at the prospect of parenthood. ...
Antique
I brushed away more leaves. There was a hard surface beneath. Ceramic armor. I ran my hand along it until I found the edge, then pointed my flashlight. I stared into a dark mass of machinery-- joints, gears, struts, wires. There was a serial number ...
Alive
I come alive in a quickening millisecond. I live between the slices. My self awareness lights up and ripples back down through the trilling filaments of my soulcode. It’s like a baby’s first breath drawn in before the scream. I am ...
Say Again?
Solo
She fingered the tendons in her arms. They were the echo of guitar strings and as she bent her fingers she could strum out different notes. She sighed, and the air rushing through her vocal chords sounded like a soft string section warming up, a ...
Queen of the Arena
The Queen came out of the entrance on the far side of the arena floor like some sort of ravenous stick figure scarecrow on stilts, her blind deathtrap of a mouth slavering thick deadly mucous. Her muzzle snuffled the air obscenely from ...
Reluctant
“What do you think their response is going to be?†The Commander paced in front of the many consoles.
“I don’t know. You’d think it’d be obvious, but the Observer wasn’t optimistic.†Drayden joined the Commander at the viewing ...
Getting Your Moneys Worth
“Listen Captain, I’ve saved up years for this trip, and if you don’t get me there on time, I’m going to have your head! The rest of the passengers and I are in complete agreement on this. We paid for a trip of a lifetime and we want our moneys worth. ...
Furious Thunder of Silence
She stood there, in the middle of the empty street. The first snow of the season just beginning to enter the path of the street lights. Not a sound. Not a cry. Not a single human to be found. The street was bare of chaos, bare of life. It was as if ...
Army of Me
They’re in a line. Clones of me. Hairless and floating. Huge white numbers painted in nail polish on the cheap plastic tanks. They all float in blue mouthwash with half open eyes. There are white plastic umbilicals attached to their faces ...
Red Tape
The balding well aged man peered over the large desk as she entered. Looking over the woman wordlessly he turned to a screen and tacked at a keypad. After a minute of silence he turned back and sorted an indistinguishable pad from a pile of many more. He briefly ...
Disconnected
It was 21:44.17 when Jani got the shudder, the one she always got right before something really freaky was going to happen, the twitch in her spine. She shrugged it off, refocusing her vision to the lines of text scrolling down the face of her contact lens, ...
If You Love Someone
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