Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks Grandpa Damon leaned back in the recliner by the bay window. The late afternoon sun set his bronze face aglow. He turned to his grandson, Dominic, and said, “Son, Pluto is really two people. They are a planet and the God of the ...

Author: Mark Renney This is how I see it. The land mass is vast and the population is sparse. The people are scattered across it and the Settlements sprouted where something was still standing. Amongst the ruins of housing estates and of larger buildings; hospitals, schools ...

Author: Majoki The fire was burning low. Overhead the stars were a mighty river. Shrieks and howls threatened from the darkness beyond. The clan huddled nearer the flames seeking primitive protection. Talismans hung around their necks. Glittering things. Useless ...

Author: Sarah Klein Paul put on some jazz music as he set up the Webcam. He was pumped. After weeks of boredom, the Doppelganger program had launched. It was a steep fee to be included, but they were essentially cloning you, with some proprietary software that was supposed ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s something glowing. Must be close. My vision flip-flops, greys out and back in, then snaps into focus. I have a digital clock embedded in my forearm panel! It reads 00:01:19:36, the last pair is seconds, and they’re ...

Author: Majoki Earth Two went missing. You’d think the reaction would have been shock and awe. It was more like “shucks” and “aaah.” Generally, the Sol populace exhibited a collective disinterest. The exo-insurers decidedly did not, and I was called in. Planets did go ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks “There is pain when functional activity is insufficient, but excessive activity produces the same effect.” -Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor In Society Jerrold Davis Ph.D. (c) had a problem. He was such an astute student that he had ...

Author: Bryce Paradis “Please hold still.” Why am I here, in this machine? The dim tunnel enveloping me sings crazy, electric birdsong. It twangs like a guitar, screeches like a klaxon, hisses like radio static, and screeches again. “We’re establishing your baseline. ...

Author: Faye Zhang Warm sand on the beach. The remnants of dead volcanoes, smooth and sharp all at once. Rows of the shadowed silhouettes of pine trees, jutting up into a blushing evening sky. Her house, shaky on stilts, bleached bone white by ocean sun. Home. The ...

Author: Nickola Anne Walker We sat waiting for him in the kitchen for several hours. Father called everyone, looking for his son. Many of my brother’s friends came and left. He remained seated, his face tired, while he listened. Listening. There was so much to say. Why had ...

Author: Phil Temples “What about her, Joey?” Dickie and I watch an old lady shuffle slowly down the sidewalk near the park. She looks ancient. Dickie comments that she must be at least eighty years old. I’d peg her as older. She looks as wrinkled as a prune. I don’t have ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I set up at the same table every week. It's right in the grey zone between the lights of the barroom and the shadows around the private booths. "Got a Manturical honour blade. Django said you could help me get it back to its ...

Author: James Callan Here I am, the last survivor, destined to survive, locked within the lunar colony foodstuffs pantry. Outside the bolted door, the monsters have all died. They’ve expired. Starved. No crew left among us but me, locked away, insufferably safe. No more ...

Author: Majoki Snow on the convent. War in the fields. Sister Maryna prayed. Then programmed. Children would not have to suffer this world of cratered streets, gutted homes, crushed dreams. Sister Maryna understood what needed to be done and coded. Below the crypts ...

Author: E. Avery Cale 23:03:57.489 Due to the events of the day, I feel it is time to initiate a new, unplanned, phase of my work. I must be careful. How to get the power? Administration will never approve. They need me and they know it or the work will not continue ...

Author: David Barber It is a room inside the mountain-sized Jirt lander, itself tiny compared to their vast craft in orbit. Franklin sits at a glassy table, on a frail glassy chair, in a cold, translucent space curved like an egg. He has laid out his fountain pen and a ...

Author: Tim Love Once we'd enhanced the Quantum stabilisation fields, our biggest hurdle to implementing Shrődinger's cat experiment was more ethical than technical so we temporarily relocated. To bracket the data we brought along Pavlov's dog and lab rats, bypassing ...

Author: Philip G Hostetler Xanta Truz County is well known for vortexes and psychedelic eddies. Some say there's a social black hole effect where all the locals there are pulled by a metaphysical critical mass, a repelling pushing and compelling pulling, forced us apart and ...