In The Belly Of The Desert
Jack Strap didn’t bother burying the men. Buzzards’ gotta eat, he thought. Same as worms. A man makes his own funeral. You wander in the Desert, you’ll go the same way all Desert creatures do. In the belly of something else.
Buzzards weren’t gonna do a thing with the corpse’s ...
Post-Biological Clock
Sometimes I pretend I have a metawomb inside me.
Things would grow there. Children, I mean. Dozens at a time. Girls and boys. I might not be able to stop. I’d populate my entire livingspace with pudgy pinkfaced versions of myself, and when I went to the recreation floor, strangers would ...
Family Business
“It’s a family business.†The shopkeeper trembled, his telltale American face-lights blinking. “My daughter and my wife make the simulations themselves. Very good, high resolution, but they don’t do any touching, they’re good girls, they don’t touch.
“He didn’t want the ...
Pluto Immortal
Marcus wiped blood from his chin. The thick red fluid stuck to his fingers. He stood slowly, pushing himself up off the ground with all the dignity he could muster as his foe stood proud and arrogant. Marcus’ feet were pressed into the soft Mars soil as he readied himself again.
"You fool!" ...
The Uncanny Valley
Purby Stolafson took a deep breath and regarded the man and woman across his desk. He recognized the woman—with her luxurious blond hair, hourglass figure and delicate features, she was unmistakably one of his. He still didn’t know what to make of the man, other than he wanted him out of ...
The Silence
It made Kara nervous that the wall of her quarters breathed, waves of slow expansion and deflation. Cloth was the only thing between her and the harsh explosive cold of space. Kara knew that the blended weave, was a hundred time stronger than steel, lighter, and cheaper too. Without this ...
Lord Of The Dance
First it was the blacks. That one was easy, like a warm-up. They’re a cinch to pick out after all. Then it was the commies. They were harder, but with such catchy slogans, who could pass it up? Then came the terrorists. That one must have been fun. I mean, when you think about it, who ...
The Shadow
Tsaro was the image, Tsaro was the shadow. During the hour-long commute into Osaka no less than seventeen people asked for his autograph, and when he transferred to a cab at the end of the line he could feel empty eyes squinting at him, searching for their reflections. An elderly lady ...
The New Economy
Don’t believe that bullshit they told you in orientation, kid. It’s always an easy sell. This is a new economy we’re dealing with. Trust the product. You trust the product, it’s an easy sell.
You ever been to Lagos, kid? In Lagos, there’s these big bastards, carry around hyenas like ...
Bugaboo
“This place is a dump,†Headley muttered, for what must have been the thousandth time. Foxworth rolled her eyes.
“Of course it’s a dump. It’s our job. If it wasn’t a dump, we wouldn’t be here.â€
“Yeah, I know,†Headley replied, “But look at this place. I mean, really ...
Conquest
Foolishly, my people thought the alien ships were asteroids on a collision course. We launched our most deadly weapons into the sky, which exploded harmlessly off the liquid hull of the invaders, raining poison onto our world. Dust flakes on my head as I walked to the sacred ground.
During ...
Who Forever Belongs To
The yard sale was one of those haphazard affairs, full of the kind of junk that no one in their right mind would actually take, damaged or torn or merely out of the realms of taste altogether. This is a powerful camouflage for the good stuff, and any experienced bargain hunter will tell you ...
Normal
There was nothing special about Ming, nothing unique. She had no exceptional talents, no carefully-kept secrets, no inventive thoughts, no special intelligence. She liked to go to parties and shop for clothes and wanted to be a good mother someday. Her face was pretty, her hair and skin smooth ...
Patchers
Talia looked out over the cacophonous melee of engineers in the warehouse. Each of them bustled about; porcupines of fused wiring and welding tools. It made her so proud. A rapid metallic pounding announced the arrival of a messenger.
"Take it easy, Dobs. What ya got for me?" Talia brushed ...
Temporal Dissonance
"Yesterday," Jason said, "I killed Marilyn Monroe."
"Right."
"No, I mean it. I really did."
"I believe you," Thomas said, in a noncommittal tone. It worked like this: Jason was lying, or Jason was not lying. Lying /= not lying. He hadn't been in the complex for long enough to ...
Curse
"We've had a problem with the cursing, haven't we, dear?" Mr. Olivestone said, handing an iced tea to his wife. Helen Olivestone took it with a slight smile, but didn't drink from it until she meticulously removed every drop of condensation from the glass with a paper napkin.
"Well, ...
Saving Throw
"You can't have a ray gun," Jolie said as she dragged her pen across Jake's sheet. "They didn't even exist back then."
"My character invented the ray gun," Jake clarified, and Tim snickered. "What? Somebody had to invent them."
Above the terradome in Jolie's mother's living quarters, ...
Checking Out
“Any personal belongings you’ll need accommodated in your craft, Mr. Mercer?â€
“Nope.†John shook his head at the distribution agent before him. “No baggage.â€
It was John Mercer’s last day on Earth.
He’d lived here for thirty-eight years, give or take a decade or so spent ...
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