The Rings of Naduskar

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The planet Naduskar is a technological wonderland without visible natural surface, be it land or water. At some time in the distant past, an advanced race converted or covered every last piece of open ground. There’s the mystery: is it ...

Deathmatch

Author: Chana Kohl When my ship touched down on the small moon of E’lyrvst III, nothing struck me particularly outside the ordinary. Host to the largest salvage yard in the sector, V’hara, the proprietor, was known across the explored galaxy for her business acumen and ...

The Program

Author: Fatemah Albader The only certainty in life is that it will eventually come to an end. But what if there was a way to know exactly, with 100-percent certainty, when your life will end? Would you want to know? If you said yes, I’d rethink that if I were ...

A Woman of Many Facets

Author: Rosie Oliver An idealised woman never existed. She is an imagined blend of traits in a single glorious perfection, a beautiful Frankenstein of personalities. Not one considered as part of the crowd or an asset to be used or abused by another, but a woman who stands ...

Sorry For Your Loss, But You Can’t Sue Us: Excerpts from the Official Consent Form of Experimentation

Author: Maryfaith Ocampo I authorize the usage, study, and replication of my gametic cells. I grant the genetic clinics permission to edit my Genetically Modified Human (GMH) as they deem fit. I understand that there are unknown risks of experimentation with newer ...

Commensurate Service

Author: Rick Tobin Meds failed Jeremy Paloo, leaving him restless, sweating under the ship’s ventilation over his bunk. Newbie deep space fever—no crime struggling with it during maiden voyages outside the solar system, but embarrassing for executive officers. He felt ...

Memoir of a Helicopter Mom

Author: Fatemah Albader “When you install a family of your own, you’ll understand,” I said, though I wasn’t convinced she ever would truly understand. She’s 30, successful, wonderful life, but still acts out like a child, even though we took her back to the adoption agency ...

War No More

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer In a room darkening as night falls, lengthening shadows are rearranged by the flickering of a grimy display screen. White, blue, green, yellow, black. The night briefly reforms. An image of an emblem flashes up to fill the view. It ...

On Time and Intent

Author: Brian C. Mahon Posit this: If post-singularity, the lucky ascendants have their consciousness uploaded to a massive mainframe, they would have two rewards. One: As long as the servers are powered, time is untethered from sensory perception. A second could be a ...

Automated Living

Author: Carmen Condon 'It was one of them …' 'One of the robots?' 'Yes! They think a robot smothered him …' Variations on this theme drifted between the deceased's relatives; their eyes averted from the aged care automatons whirring gently down the aisle. Verity ...

Lesser Androids

Author: K. A. Williams The steel android watched the aluminum android cleaning the window and said, "I overheard that the humans plan to destroy all older model androids by melting them down." "Thank you for telling me, I will inform the others." Walter 99 finished his ...

Transform

Author: Amanda Leon I live a life by a thousand cuts. I’ve died too many times to count. I always feel it towards the end, the straining of my old self on new muscles, my bone edging out, ripping slowly through flesh. Some humans never change. They occupy the same body ...

Kan, Ya Ma Kan

Author: Majoki Once there was and there was not a place. a time. a man. a woman. a child. a robot. The medina was a maze of alleyways and shops largely unchanged for centuries. Until this one. Saad, Buchra, Abbas and Rafik sidled through the dark, narrow footways lit ...

The Food Lives of Aliens

Author: David Barber "There's the official version," said Lev. "Where First Contact was that signal from the Jirt ship out in the Oort. Then there's what really happened." The old hands round the bar had heard all this before, but it was Lev's birthday and he was footing ...

Phylliroe

Author: Georgia Scalise It's common knowledge that eyesight is a thing of the ancient past. Ask any kid and they'll be more than happy to tell you the stories about how millions of years ago, humanity supposedly lived above the surface, basking in sunlight and using their ...

Snarge

Author: Majoki What do you think we hit, Captain? Can’t say. We went through the critters pretty fast. I’ve never seen anything quite like that flock: multicolored, almost metallic, circling in a protective formation. Very strange. We’ll have to wait until the techs ...

To Be Sold the Very Atmosphere

Author: Angela Acosta Juru steadied the nozzle skyward, working his way up the curvature of the inner dome. It was tricky work sealing in the pleasant mixture of breathable air for the new inhabitants. The locals christened their new home Stoda, short for Standard Dry Air, ...

Coming Alive

Author: Fatemah Albader “You look beautiful today, Maggie,” said Barry Chambers, of Barry Chambers & Associates. “Thank you, Master Chambers. But I am obligated to answer that I always look the same.” Maggie wore the same yellow dress every day. It complimented her ...

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  • Dismal Nitch

    Author: Majoki Every galaxy has its Dismal Nitch. Every member …