Author: Andrew Dunn Tina played bass in a psychobilly band on Mars. She was telling Tim all about it, how she leaned skin and bones into that carbon fiber instrument and thumped those heavy strings in time with the beat. Tim was taking all she said in, because Tina had neon ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I didn’t want to write this, but here’s the thing: I have to. Sitting in my study, looking out the window at a glorious sunny day, with kids running riot in the playground and old folk sat on benches watching the world go by, it’s what ...

Author: Judith Pratt The statues were falling apart. I knew they would. Poseidon’s trident cracked. Hercules lost an arm, and the Discus Thrower lost his discus. Aphrodite still tried to hold something in her hand, but her robe had disintegrated. The bosses of Gods ...

Author: Michael Hopkins Dr. Arden Hart floated through the airlock into the International Space Station IV. “Well, well…daddy’s little girl finally made it.” Captain Gianna Moralez, the ranking office on ISS IV, hoped her new recruit would get sick. “So you have Doctoral ...

Author: Robert Beech I woke with a sense of unease. Some sixth sense told me that all was not well in the world. Blearily, I turned on the light to see that my sixth sense had been right. It was midafternoon, I had overslept again, and the cage was open. I slid into my ...

Author: Claire Scherzinger Before you overload the reactor, have a drink next to the pilot’s seat; make sure the gravity is still on; otherwise, you’ll have little drops of moonshine floating everywhere, like rogue planets. Take a long last look at the deck, the pale metal, ...

Author: Asher Wismer Sleeking flashing light through every little hole. Seventy holes. Counted them. Many times. Nothing to see outside but silver Sleeking, never-ending explosions. Shell keeps me alive. Eddo's Star is a low-impact system and there's still nothing out ...

Author: Abigail Hughes “What did you think?” “He’s nice.” “Nice? The bar was ‘nice.’ This walk is ‘nice.’ Denver is perfect. When he told me he was single, I was absolutely floored! You don’t run into a guy like him often. Did you see the way he inhaled that live ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “We all call it ‘safe space’. The inventors of the concept called it ‘social distancing’. It was only two metres back then. They used it, along with increased ventilation and personal masking, to slow some respiratory epidemics. ...

Author: Justin Anderson He watches her tiny arms cast the line again. She’s already working the makeshift fishing rod with ease. She beams a proud smile up at him, one with all the warmth of a miniature sun. A foreign little star. He smiles back, and she continues ...

Author: Andrew Dunn I called her Jingle-jangle. I told Christiane she reminded me of the way it felt to hear the sound spare change made in my pocket whenever I was fading, and I found a machine that would take coins and give me a soda or candy bar. My hands were on the ...

Author: Ed Nobody The last day goes by unfelt. No change. Time turned glacial under rubbled roads in thick tar, sticky black thick leaking sun of dead summer. I didn't breathe and felt nothing. Wind stopped bothering; leaves not leaning, unswayed by final wind to ...

Author: Don Nigroni Twelve years ago, during the first year of the Ultimate Crisis, the Special Problems: Organized, Researched, Explained and Solved (SPORES) think tank was presented with the perplexing Adjoining Door Conundrum. Our scientists knew about a spot near Mars ...

Author: David C. Nutt I pressed “play” on my digital recorder. “See doc, I wasn’t always a hoarder. Yeah, I know what my place looks like right now, but if I didn’t have clutter, I’d have nothing at all. I was up late watching a classic movie from the 80’s. I noticed ...

Author: Chris Preston I just turned six years old and, for my birthday, Dad gave me a grown-up mask. It was supposed to be Mom’s, but she didn’t come home when she was supposed to. Before the sirens started. I was only four years old when we went into our hideout under the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “A different feeling since you’ve been gone.” Yeah, that’s it. Too many times I catch myself looking down and back, only to find some scrub looking horrified, or empty air because one ran off. “Ten, left.” This one has a different feel. ...

Author: Barry Boone I could see Damian's girlfriend wanted to sock me, but she knew she'd break her fist against my brass jaw. So she held back. Which I knew was hard for her. She was even more kickass than Damian. Damian might be her first love, but a good fight was a ...

Author: Sabrina E. Robinette The choice was obvious for most, but I struggled. Should I die freely on Earth, or live in debt on Mars? “In debt”– that’s what they called it, but everyone knew better. There were rumors of labor camps and brutal mining colonies, none confirmed ...