A Useful Trinket
Boyd pressed himself tightly to the crumbling brick of the library’s colonnade. As the thin layer of scaled fiber-optics bent the light of distant streetlamps around him, his mind raced.
There’s an old thieves adage; The theft itself is rarely ...
Red Tape
“Ms. Anderson,†the bot said as he leaned forward, his fingers steepling and making little chinking noises of metal against metal, “tell me once again why you are requesting such a drastic career change?â€
Lori shifted uncomfortably in ...
Running On Empty
The field was nothing special, drying knee high grass and a few scrubby trees, but to Ed it looked like paradise. It pained him that the battle would tear apart these few acres, churning more land into waste, but the Smarts had reported burrowing in this location ...
Deserted Island
The sun forces itself past my eyelids and wakes me up every morning. I lean over and make another notch in the tree next to the bed I’ve created. There are four hundred eighty three of them. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth as I get up, and I ...
Undoing Schrödinger
Loren's Triumph
The now-empty desk stared back at Loren, equal parts accusation and despair. “So you’re really going to leave?â€
“I don’t see as I have a choice, Bruce.†Loren had ignored the usual protocols and devised her own names for the AI appliances ...
The Bedtime Story
Jared begged his father for a bedtime story. Mr. Edgars sighed, and reached for the book that his precocious seven year old son was handing him.
Jared eagerly settled on his back on his bed.
“Immigrants from Another Galaxy†his father ...
I Won't Let Her Kill Me!
She was trying to KILL him! Well, he wasn’t going to stand for that. Sure he only existed on paper but that didn’t mean he had any less of a soul nor that he did not want to live same as everyone else. He had seen her kill off too many of his ...
Rootkit
The jewelry tinkled like wind-chimes as it fell over the candlesticks and crystal. Gently, Momsdroid replaced the lid to the box with slender polymer fingers. It shouldered the shopping bag and walked out into the hall. It looked first left, than right, a ...
Alienus Sapienpula
The spaceship was shaped like a flattened football. It had no obvious external doors or windows. Although it appeared to be metallic, we couldn’t cut it, penetrate it with X-rays, or scratch it with a diamond. The only thing we had to evaluate was an ...
Present Tense
The Mythical Princess
The Damage Done
The Hero and the Man of Saiyen
“Is that a crossbow? ...
Recruitment Tactics
The stark woman set the blue incandescent lamp on a nearby crate and turned off her flashlight. “…Erin, would you like to sleep in a real bed again?†She wore black – military cut. The figures behind her were similarly dressed. ...
The Blessing
The priest’s pointed helmet hung at his side. His vac suit was completely black.
Engineer Beketov didn’t get it. It was too strange, too … medieval. The holy man waved the crucifix over the salt package and recited a prayer. Beketov had been told ...
Staying Home
"You can't kill me. No one else to fly this crate." He turned and walked over to his personal kitchenette, poured two cups of coffee and ...
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