Author: Phil Temples “Centre for Metropolitan History,” Ross Livingston speaking.” The youthful historian answered his desk phone with all of the authority he could muster given the fact it was only his second day on the job at the prestigious institution, situated in ...

Author: Rick Tobin Look at your moon, or so you call it. So much the lie. It isn’t yours. It never was, and worse, it is the trap, detaining me against my will. I am multi-dimensional. I traveled freely through the galaxy, using the unusual magnetic fields of this blue ...

Author: Hillary Lyon “Hand over your phone, please,” the officer ordered. He smiled a mirthless smile behind his plastic face shield. “Look, I’m fully vaccinated,” the woman answered as she extended her left arm. She pushed up her flannel sleeve and rotated her arm, ...

Author: Majoki It has been noted that the first few dozen steps tend to dictate the following few thousand. For sheep. I wonder what that makes me. I’ve been on this trajectory for 80,000 years, and it’ll be another 1000 years before I reach Proxima Centauri b. That’s ...

Author: Chana Kohl Walking down the alabaster hallway towards exam room three, I pass a row of windows overlooking the hospital pavilion. A flash in my visual periphery draws my gaze across the open courtyard. Crepuscular rays of golden sun escape passing clouds, leaving a ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer My name is Verity. I am senior columnist for the Moonville Daily Star. My name means truth. I’ve a friend, she’s obviously not. If she were then I wouldn’t be sticking pins into the pools of her cartoon fawn-like eyes. Oh, but I do it ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer When I crash-landed here, I thought my life was over. Sure, it might take a while to actually end, but nobody would be looking for a freak-chance survivor from the Fourth Battlegroup, who only avoided sharing their grisly fate by a twist ...

Author: Connor Long Johnson It began in 2049 as the Asimov Initiative and ended a decade later with the release of the Mother AI – the most advanced program in human history and man’s biggest undertaking since the Manhattan Project. Everyone wanted M.O.T.H.E.R. The brains ...

Author: David Barber Because they’d all turned up for book club and Kitty’s apartment was on the compact side, Jo-Anne’s Companion had to be left out in the rain. There were cries of appreciation at the period detail. There was even a bulky TV set in the corner. "Who ...

Author: Majoki When Misty smiled that big smile of hers I could see the cancer so much more clearly. It was hard not to say anything. I mean what do you tell the thirty-something supermarket cashier you see a few times a month and only know her name because it’s pinned ...

Author: David Henson Feeling drained, Walter Banks decides to prepare a homemade energy drink. As he tries to find a recipe online, he interrupts his search every few seconds to check his phone for email, headlines, sports, weather and more. Before he knows it, a couple ...

Author: Alastair Millar When we found her, the Marsport Mary should have been dark and silent, or a wreck. Instead, the lights burned, the life support systems ticked over, the computers hummed… but there was nobody aboard. The salvage crews are bringing her in this ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Approaching Stalag VII A — Moosburg — 1945 He walked and as he walked the cloth of his trousers stuck to his skinny legs as the rapier cold tried to eat of his skin. The tree on the hill to the side of his ice-pecked eyes felt too ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer It’d been a grim day spent fending off morning and afternoon assaults by enemy forces. Wave after wave of troops. Minimal armour, and a lot of their kit looks past third-hand. They’re low on heavy manufacturing capabilities after their ...

Author: Alyson Tait I moved across the state and into the apartment alone. My keys opened the front door on April 1st, like a prank to my former partner. During the summer, bright green leaves smear sap across the city, and streaks stain car windows, an improvement to ...

Author: Majoki Of course there were doubters. Of course they said it couldn’t be done. But, of course, that’s how it has always been done. Blowing across the Pacific on log rafts. Clawing up Everest in tweed jackets with brittle hemp ropes. Blasting to the moon in a tin can ...

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks When the migrant birds first arrived on this continent, they marveled at how few upright, two-legged hominids there were. They could fly for miles and spy only a few small gatherings. They found most of the hominids in meadows and glens, ...

Author: Ruby Zehnder Bobby aimed his drone-- a 2.4 GHz RC Glow Up Stunt drone with LED lights, mini remote-controlled quadcopter with assisted landing-- right at Uncle Jacob's big fat head. Jacob bent over to tie his shoelace at the last second, and the drone smacked ...