Author: David C. Nutt “I didn’t think it would be like this.” “How did you think it would be?” I dunna know… softer focus, less light, warmer. “Yeah. That’s the expectation. But really, how many times have our expectations ever been met especially since our ...

Author: David Henson When I was a kid, a couple buddies stomped on ant hills and bet baseball cards on who could sizzle the most bugs with their magnifying glasses. I didn’t play. Oh, I wanted to. But I didn’t have a magnifying glass. Sometimes you do the right thing for ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The sign on the small shack reads ‘Booth 7’. The gate next to it is a long steel pole with heavy chains hanging down. The uniformed man looks unimpressed, in the way that gate guards have honed to perfection in the many centuries since ...

Author: Christopher DePree The probe was named Starchip. This marvel of miniaturization contained cameras, a battery and processors, and only weighed a few grams. Several of the wealthiest people on Earth had funded the tiny trillion-dollar spacecraft whose ambitious task ...

Author: Gorilla Sapiens "You know, not everyone here, is... mortal?", she said, as she sat down next to me. A wedding feast, the ornate cake had been cut, the waitstaff had cleared away the tables, the DJ had played "their song", the bride and groom had shared the first ...

Author: Christopher Bresnahan David clings to his notifier, its screen illuminating the unshaven shape of his face with implosive, blue light. He can flit to any camera screen in the world, and out of the millions of options he chose the Vishnick Ophthalmology ...

Author: D Mackey I’m setting up as the Pleiades come on shift. Like a lighthouse, their beams cut through the dark and cast long shadows over the forecourt as they turn slowly towards the Sun. Orion cycles out, and switches off one by one until it’s just the galaxy on the ...

Author: Connor D Trulock The Captain of the deep orbital station opened their eyes as they came back to life. They shivered, but not from cold, the artificial thaw ensuring the entire body was nearly instantaneously and uniformly raised out of the cold near absolute ...

Author: Joseph Hurtgen In his F16, Judson Steel bore down on the speedy bulwark, the alien flying fortress that had focused its heat rays on what used to be downtown Chicago and was now within range of New York City. “Missiles away!” cried Steel. The tank’s armor ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room is spotless. There are clusters of four chairs, divided from each other by transparent acrylic screens. The walls are covered in posters, white letters stark against black backgrounds. The grey-haired woman in the chunky-knit ...

Author: Andrew Dunn My grandfather writes me letters. They are the old-fashioned kind, written on small sheets of paper with blue lines his calligraphy ignores. I imagine it takes him hours, maybe days, to write each one with lettering so perfect it seems a shame he only ...

Author: Alan Moskowitz Other than a bottle of curdled milk, there was nothing in the refrigerator. Desperate, she grabbed the bottle with a skeletal hand and drank the brutally smelling mess down, hoping for a least some nutrition. It only took a few moments for her stomach ...

Author: Dave Ludford I’d just entered the orbit of the planet Obran when the form of Senator Drex materialized; a not very welcome visit. I set the controls to manual and prepared myself for whatever was to come; Drex and I had crossed swords on several previous occasions. ...

Author: Patricia Miller It was an odd commission, but no one but Grimbello Brothers had the wherewithal to pull it off. The client was quite specific as to the size and shape of a cask to hold the finest jewel in the kingdom. It had to be a masterpiece, she insisted, but ...

Author: David Henson I hold my breath as Dr. Wocker studies the results of my full body scan. “Well, Stan,” he says, “it’s fortunate we included the FutureScope diagnostic in your physical this year.” I sit straighter as if that will influence what the doctor’s about to ...

Author: Gorilla Sapiens Well, spit it out boy, what did you find down there? Machines, sir, self replicating machines. I see, what were they doing? As near as we can figure, sir, they're consuming enormous amounts of power and generating vast amounts of waste heat ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room is unadorned. No evidence of tooling; not even a scuff mark mars the bare rock. No dust, no insects. Nothing moves. This place is still. It’s uncanny. Unnerving for some. Jeffrey Palist found it fascinating. He wiped himself down ...

Author: Josie Gowler “What do you see?” The last bandage came off and I opened my eyes, blinking hard. Even in the low lighting, everything was stark and clear. And astonishing, vibrant, like I could taste and hear the colours. But I wasn’t going to say that. That just ...