Author: Lewis Richards I remember my first week here, exploring the neighborhood, seeing the power walking soccer moms and their husbands in their little bubbles of suburban bliss, stopping by the park and watching their children play, doing the maths, and realizing just ...

Author: J.D. Rice "Everyone, I've come to a decision." My voice echoes into the warm air of my helmet, the moisture fogging my visor and obscuring the view of the stars. The fog lingers for only a few seconds before the air filtration system of my suit recaptures the ...

Author: Katlina Sommerberg Scarf concealing her throbbing face, Terry stumbled down the bus’s steps. Her employer, a real estate corporation masquerading as a burger chain, was twenty feet down the shit-stained sidewalk. A child tugged on his leash; the tethered man ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I have an idea said the Bee, although he indeed had no method of audible speech. Just a prickle that happened to happen in her mind and spin and tickle across the surface of the sticky glossa in its face. I believe that I will engage in ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s a knock at the door. I look up as Baxter goes to answer, his pale green panelling catching the light as he moves with silent grace from kitchen to hallway. “I’ll get it!” Susie must have just come out of the bathroom. Hope she’s ...

Author: Mike Davis A slab of stone laid vertically on a southern continent. It was polished and carved not by the waves or wind, and towered into the clouds, allowing them to pass through the single, circular hole penetrating the otherwise perfect surface. It was a ...

Author: Siewleng Torossian She could not believe the diagnosis. Longevity. Another two hundred and fifty years. She was one of the lucky few. Jumping to her feet, she thanked the doctor. Even the blue sky seemed bluer and the sun more golden. She practically skipped ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “Would you look at that,” Clarence said, with enthusiastic admiration. “The last remaining Orion series robot—what a unique example of animatronics united with early computing! Like something out of a mid-20th century, black and white sci-fi ...

Author: David Close "Messages, Ivi," Rafe said sullenly, still wet from the rain. "It never rains in California," rang the lyrics in his head. He hung the umbrella on the leftmost coathook by the door. His overcoat, a thing he wore to make him look as out of place as ...

Author: David Barber Christine Chiu was sniffing round the Ada Swann, wondering if Perry wanted to sell. "You and I," Chiu declared. "We are too old for this kind of life." The old woman assumed a calculating familiarity, as if their age made them members of a ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I am pulled. They grab at my dread-locked skull and I buckle and my bare breasts faze into the camera. I am plucked and fucked into the light. Adrenalin moans into the gorging veins of the hand that cuffs the ends of my spasm arms and a ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer February, again. I remember, it was today I first heard it. You left your window a little way open so I could hear you playing our songs as I walked to work. Those grey mornings, snow blowing by. They always seemed a little less bleak ...

Author: David C. Nutt No matter where you go in the universe, the rules stay the same. Not just the rocket stuff. The old, old, rules. I’m working construction on a standard habitat cylinder around the latest chain of habitats orbiting Venus. Dull as dull can be, but ...

Author: Majoki Life is strange. Living in the mouth of a SHARK is stranger. Many would dispute my use of the term life. Technically, I don’t get to claim that I’m alive. No remora gets to have a life in the classic sense. When you are of a class of scavenger bot with low ...

Author: Byrd Stryke There is a rural Luxembourgish hamlet called Schwebach where I am hated by all residents. That is not what makes it unique among human settlements. I’m subject to near universal disdain on Earth. No, this township stakes its dubious claim to fame as ...

Author: Robert Beech Susan looks at the man lying naked in the bed next to her and wonders how they got to this place so quickly. He looks at her with an odd expression on his face, then rolls out of bed and begins dressing. “You’re leaving?” she asks. “Do you want me to ...

Author: David Tam McDonald “A young fringling, Madame,” the waiter said with surprise and unconcealed offence, “is a delicacy like no other, I assure you. The taste is close to a sweet potato but with a satisfying umami undertone. The texture is sublime. Creamy and soft, ...

Author: E Rathke Have you heard? Have you heard! There's a new one in town, a new body to play, a new song to flay, and, for only today, all is for free, all given away! Oh, yes, the fate phantastique! We run, now, much work to be done, much singing to be sung, much ...