Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “This is the Stop Fraud hotline of the Department of Employment Assistance. My name is Flynn. How can I help?” “I want to report the woman across the road. She’s ripping you off.” “I can certainly assist with that, madam. Do you know her ...

Author: Majoki “Hustle, hustle, hustle,” Selse hissed. “In this universe, you gotta go fast to go slow.” Her training team was darting between a random course of high stone pillars, low walls and short ledges, crouching low, praying not to mess up. Selse was praying how ...

Author: Michael Kerby A guy, licking the carpet. He's on all fours, in a Doctor's waiting room. And he's licking the carpet. Tongue out, dragging it across the rough blue carpet like it's the most important job in the world. It's the kind of carpet designed for ...

Author: T. Francis Curran People stand in the vestibule peering in, hoping to spot someone they know. Some enter, making that “am in the right room?” face. Some linger out there, pretending they are waiting for someone but sooner or later, everyone summons the courage and ...

Author: Brooks C. Mendell “Happy birthday!” said the spectral dame in a form-fitting doctor’s gown standing at my door one hundred years ago. “This is a milestone for you.” “More like a millstone,” I said, leaning on my staff. “Feeling weighed down?” “I feel ready ...

Author: Majoki Iowa. It didn’t take me long to figure out. That all of us selected for this mission were from the heart of the Midwest. But I didn’t really get it until we came out of cryo-fugue beyond Eris. The earth is patient with us, the heavens are not. If you ...

Author: David Henson “Dort, take a break,” my wife, Maureen says. “You’ve done the laundry, cut the grass, cooked three meals and washed the dishes today.” “Yes, Dort, rest awhile,” I say to our android. Dort smirks. Sarcasm. He’s acquired another human ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The auditorium is full to capacity, aisles filled with standing attendees as well. The rush and lull of a thousand conversations fades as a single figure strolls out onto the stage. Pausing by the lectern, the figure picks up a remote ...

Author: David Berger inside , eddie is a strange combination of blandness and aggressiveness . he has a gift for sales , so he can always get a job selling something . eventually , he figured out that his gift also worked online . so now he buys and sells electronically , ...

Author: Dan Nicholas Dr. Tracy Walker cradles his coffee, gazing out of the room’s portal from his orbiting outpost. But the beauty of the celestial cycle cannot hide the sins of man as the sun moves across the lunar landscape, exposing the grotesque scars of this human ...

Author: David C. Nutt This is the worst part of my journey. Around me are the decaying sins of my ancestors. Giant earth chewing machines, empty vats that still have the acrid reek of gluttony and greed. Tangled pile of cables, some as thick as my leg, and everywhere in ...

Author: David Barber Trey was chatting about being an alien sex-worker with the Mr Lu franchise. She was booked into a clinic on Pallas for cosmetic surgery, and what with expenses and everything, she was grateful to hitch a ride with Perry. Perry piloted a bucket, ...

Author: Bill Cox Welcome, old friends and assorted strangers, to my first blog post since my somewhat unexpected and of course deeply tragic death. I would like to thank everyone who attended the elaborate and tasteful funeral. I understand that it was a deeply moving ...

Author: Alastair Millar I was on my way to Marvin’s to relax after a crappy day when opportunity reared its ugly head. It had all started with my boyfriend telling me that “we weren’t working out” – but only after he’d stayed the night and let me make him breakfast, of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’s dark in here. Which is both true and false. To my limited perception, there’s no light. In reality, I’m a long series of binary digits running in RAM somewhere in the world: my senses are irrelevant. 97 years ago, 20-year-old real ...

Author: Sara Lynn Burnett It wasn’t until the plane began its corkscrew landing into Kabul that the marine sitting next to Anne spoke; he offered her a ginger candy to help with nausea. Aside from the pilots they were the only two aboard, strapped into a windowless cargo ...

Author: James Kowalczyk “I’ll get the head nurse on the late shift to translate and write it out for me,” Oscar said. Toby stopped playing with the ball of gauze he’d swiped from an orderly on the third floor, took a deep breath and shook his head. “Not going to work. I ...

Author: Majoki The guild meant trade and the guild traded in corruption. It was such a corporeal term: corruption. Bots experienced corrosion. Breathers experienced corruption. Entropy always had its way. SevenTen was in a thick crowd of breathers. That was Cheapside: ...