A Marriage of Ideals

Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer

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

Author : S. Clough

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

Author : Henry Otis Clarke

“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.”

They stared at the box on the kitchen table, excited at the prospect of parenthood. ...

Antique

Author : Curtis C. Chen

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

Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer

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?

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer The waitress took their order reflexively, their speaking the words were just a formality after so many visits, their orders never deviating. 'All day over easy, bacon, white toast. And coffee. Please.' 'Same.' Emma would just nod and smile, and ...

Solo

Author : Pyai (aka Megan Hoffman)

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

Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer

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

Author : R. A. Jackson

“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

Author : Trevor Fitch

“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

Author : Kimberly Raiser

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

Author : Duncan Shields, Featured Writer

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

Author : A. Reynolds

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

Author : Justin W. Hall

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

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Judy knelt on the pavement, struggling to process the confusion of the moment, the familiar form on the ground before her, the woven mass of tubing and wires snaking off into a sea of blinking lights and chirping boxes. She was kneeling beside a man ...

Wired

Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer "Does it hurt?" asked Tom Dana brushed her fingers against her straight black bangs. "More than ever." "Mine too. You're lucky you don't have them on your face." Tom motioned to the blue, red and brown lines that twisted on his cheeks like veins ...

Sedition

Author : Don McCoy "I don't think you ought to post that one, Sam," Liana said over Sam's shoulder, looking at the monitor, "they're really cracking down on hate speech." "I told you not to use that term with me," Sam said, tensing, "an opposing viewpoint is not "˜hate ...

The Bottom Line

Author : J.S. Kachelries

Kram Vidda occupied one of the twelve holographic cubes in the Executive Conference Room of the Planetary Reclamation Corporation. He would be the presenter in the meeting to discuss the possibility of salvaging Sol-3. The images of ten board members, ...

Random Story :

  • Freedom

    Author : Clint Wilson, Featured Writer The eighteen foot tall …