Author: Chris Hammond Sometimes when I’m idle, I look up videos of other AIs out there just crushing their purpose in life. I found combat footage of one intercepting an anti-tank missile and vaporizing the assailants before its humans could even duck. There’s a fintech ...

Author: James Callan Our sad faces press close, one last communion, gathered at the stern as we gaze out at tiny lights growing dim, fading fast, much like any hope we might yet cling onto. Smaller and smaller becomes the last meager port, a derelict post on the fringes of ...

Author: Rainbow Heartshine For an idea of how wild reincarnation can get, just imagine The Padre and me hugging. The Padre has a shiny black round casing with a white sensor-band near the top, kind of like a priest's collar and black clothes. Hence "The Padre". They fix ...

Author: Beck Dacus I was alone on a park bench, far-ish from the city lights, eating a sandwich in the dark. It was a peaceful ritual, and in such a low-crime-rate area, not a very risky one. I started to question that when a random stranger walked along and took a seat ...

Author: Majoki “Can we get one?” Merl’s young son squeaked, tugging at his robe. “We don’t need one. You have me.” “But. But. But.” Merl sighed, picked up his son and put him on his shoulders. “Show me.” His son pointed at the crowd gathered around the demo ...

Author: Ren ElisaBeth Looking at myself in the mirror, I play with my transimulacrum and turn my human skin up to 100%. I've maintained a mostly solitary existence since I came to Earth some 200 days ago, so I have the luxury of turning off my skin at night, or any other ...

Author: F. J. Bergmann Only teenagers would work detasseling corn back in the late-twentieth, my grandmother had told me. Boys, or girls whom no one wanted as babysitters. But I was lucky to get any work at all, at my age. Unusually lucky if I lived another ten years to ...

Author: Huascar Robles Old Lady Pérez shouted one simple instruction: “You need to gulp it down. Todita la limonada.” Her command was an energy that traveled across Pedro’s skin, each pore. “I have seen the lemonade stand; it’s pink,” he whispered. Old Lady Pérez stretched ...

Author: A.J. Glen How long had they been here? There was no way to tell. After the ship, their suits and all their equipment had dissolved away, it became impossible to know what Standard Time it was. Attempts to mark the passage of time using their environment were ...

Author: Phil Temples I see them on the street corner again today. They’re an eclectic assembly of men and women. I count thirty-seven of them. While some are in their twenties and accompanied by young children, the majority are older—in their sixties and seventies. They’re ...

Author: Majoki “Follow your nose. Trust your instincts. What bullshit. Might as well say a bedtime prayer cause that’s all you’re doing when you go with your gut.” Traisa took a swig and set her highball glass down. “It’s worked so far,” Darte said, glowering at Traisa’s ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I watch the spheres orbit about one another as they spin within the space defined by the delimiter field. Fractal printers are fascinating. I find their intricate revolutions calming. “What do you think it is, Derry?” Gia’s always trying ...

Author: David Barber Kuiper-23917 tumbled lazily alongside the Ada Swann. The conglomeration of dirty ice was on the small side, and worse, the market price was at an all-time low. When Perry was last on Vesta, folk were saying the Ice Rush was over. She still had one ...

Author: Lori D'Angelo The problem with the time machine wasn't the motor, as I had first suspected. The problem was the inhabitant. John, in his infinite wisdom or infinite stupidity depending on how you regarded it, had made it so that the machine would only work for ...

Author: Bill Cox Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood everywhere! It’s okay, it’s not mine. Breathe. Just breathe. Slow it all down. Don’t look at Jones, or the others. Don’t look. The explosion, I’ll bet it was that problem with the gas supply that we reported. Those ...

Author: Alastair Millar We were fifty light years beyond Tau Ceti when the screaming started. The sound came up from the open hatch at the back of the flight deck, and if I hadn’t been strapped in my head would have hit the ceiling. It was inhuman, a wailing that rose to a ...

Author: Bryant Benson Timothy sat in a brightly lit, featureless room. Across from him was a woman with thick glasses and a tight bun. She was as institutional as the room and had yet to look up from her clipboard. After an agonizing amount of time passed, she clicked her ...

Author: Majoki “You’re a what?” “A panpsychist.” “Whoa. Trippy. You psychoanalyze cookware or something?” “In a way.” “Really? Double trippy.” “Panpsychists study consciousness with the belief that all matter is conscious. From a frying pan to an amoeba to a ...