Author: I.W.Ray I don’t know what I am anymore. My river is the Styx but am I a ferryman, a passenger, or a trespasser? I fear no coins will ever pass through these hands. I am alone, the singular soul who has devoted an eternity to this endeavor. No, that’s not the right ...

Author: Rick Tobin My sister’s eyes would never be warm or human again, now showing only metallic, sparkling haze from a Tantalus Worm wriggling in her infected body. She could walk, again, after agonizing, bone-breaking seizures evaporated from the powers of her ...

Author: Adam McDaniel In the world, there are many secrets--those  that bare themselves to the mighty, those that bare themselves to the wise, and those that bare themselves to the fool. The mighty find the will to lead. The wise find the strength to rule. The fool only ...

Author: Stephen Dougherty The four-month voyage to The Mirror came to an end when the faintest light of the instruments filled Navigator TwoJade’s eyes with figures. The engines fell silent and a barely perceptible feeling of fulfillment bathed the deck of the Excitation. ...

Author: David Barber “What did you say this place was called?” repeated the alien. “The Large Hadron Collider.” The man’s name was Theo Jacobson, and before the aliens came, he’d been in charge here. This was where debris from colliding protons had sparkled through ...

Author: Tyler James Russell We shook her and asked if she was okay but she wouldn’t budge. Even when Davey tugged on her jacket and said Mommy she held her position on the sidewalk like it was something that might be taken from her. She clutched her briefcase, a paper bag ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer She studied his naked body as he slept, unconsciousnessly comparing the network of scars to a mental map burned into her subconscious. Every knife wound, bullet hole, piece of shrapnel, every evidence of every torture session, a testament ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Two guns: one an Earther automatic, the other a Lenkormian beamer. “Holy Marduk, that’s a Grifone!” And we have an enthusiast. I grin at the young trooper. “Only by looks. It’s a custom Perez .557 automatic. I spent some time at his ...

Author: Emily Wilcox She died today. Blonde ringlets trodden down into the hardwood floor. A world overlooking her, eyes slick with awe and grins stitched firmly just below. A kingdom, a fandom, whatever we were, we were building from the inside, elevating the pedestal in ...

Author: Tyler James Russell When a wall of bone and fascia bloomed from the earth a hundred miles from our village, my dead almost-girlfriend stood over my bed, waiting for me to wake up. “You,” I whispered. We’d been longtime girlfriends but only vaguely girlfriends just ...

Author: Gwynfryn Thomas Shena’s fingernail glistened under the afternoon sun. This one didn’t hurt when it came off – it fell like a mere petal onto the dusty ground. A breeze stung the exposed skin. Wrapping his tongue around the sore finger, he kicked a spiral of dust ...

Author: Dick Narvett It sat on the shelf behind a T-Rex action figure and a feminist coffee mug with the saying “If they can put a man on the moon, why not all of them?” Finding a laptop in Mr. Chapa’s secondhand shop was like discovering an Apple watch on an Egyptian ...

Author: Steven Holland “The owl isn’t an owl.” “What?” I asked. In retrospect, this was a stupid question. Far better questions to ask would have been “how are you able to talk?” Cats aren’t known for doing this. Or better yet “why am I on a spaceship?” At least, it ...

Author: Connor Long-Johnson We haven’t forgotten the moment the monsters came, and we still pass on the stories of that day. They descended in their rocket ships, cutting holes through our peaceful skies and filling our air with their toxic fumes. First, they came in ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “Hey, Pete. What’s the name of this station again?” “Celeste.” “Appropriate.” “Hush up, Davy. Get back to duty or the captain will murder us.” “If he does that, he’ll have no-one to pilot or fix the ship.” “Good argument, but I don’t ...

Author: Jatayu When David first met her she seemed sad, but afterward, when their time had expired she held him close, asking him to stay a little longer. When he came back the next week her eyes lit up and she smiled just a little, unsure if it was okay. They made love, ...

Author: Kathleen Bryson We only travel at night and we only travel in a small pen. The pen is an invention that means we can keep our time travelling in a small place so we can’t create anomalies. We only travel at night is a phrase that popped up in a dream of my mine and ...

Author: Kathleen Bryson We succumbed to space tourism at last and went last week to see the prickly end of the sun, you know it’s always got those jutting little rays like in a good graphic design, and we petted the end of one sunbeam. It was furry like a sun kitten, oops I ...