Author: Alastair Millar It was Fifthday, and time for the weekly appeals audiences. As the Station’s ultimate decider for matters financial, I mostly see cases too controversial or complicated for the civil service - usually because they involve the rich or influential. ...

Author: Olivia North-Crotty The man fell from the sky, crashed into the thicket, and almost shot her before hesitating, then fainting. Eve Winwood dragged his bloody body miles through the forest-- an instinct, not a choice. Body-thick vines were cut and woven to create a ...

Author: David Broz FTR 9000 rolled out of his solar bay and down the ramp at 0800, just as he did every morning. To the naked eye and by every other measure, he moved no slower or faster than he did on any other day. But somewhere, deep in his circuits, FTR felt slower, a ...

Author: Bryant Benson With only twenty one seconds left until the world ended, each moment seemed to pass more slowly than the last. Despite knowing in advance the world was going to end in nine days, I still felt some odd confidence in a supposed future. Seventeen ...

Author: Ruby Zehnder “You silly old fool,” Shirley laughed at her image in the mirror. She was dressed as Santa’s elf in a green dress trimmed with an over-the-top red collar, striped stockings, curly-toed shoes, and an elf hat with attached oversized ears. She painted her ...

Author: Majoki Tatiana crossed the snowfield as if on a ballet stage. She leapt and spun and gracefully bowed when a snowshoe hare crossed her path and stopped. She then encouraged a few curious minks by waving them towards her racing heart. Glorious. All glorious. At ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s always one… I lost rock-paper-scissors with Frank, so here I am: checking the top floor for stray superheroes and wandering warlocks. Didn’t expect to find an angel, though. “Excuse me, miss?” Looks like she got distracted ...

Author: Robert Beech 'Twas the night before planetfall, and all through the ship Not a sensor was stirring, not even a blip; The airlocks were sealed with hermetical care, In hopes of preserving our small stock of air; The passengers nestled in cryofoam beds, With ...

Author: Rick Tobin Brief bright flashes of green light escaped through black worn rubber liners on the stainless steel restaurant freezer doors. The kitchen staff ignored it, staying at their posts, waiting for a new arrival. Initial coughing from the traveler announced the ...

Author: David Barber These were the years we ransacked our world for things to trade for the Jirt science we envied so much. Véronique Aubert was a compromise. She was, in her own estimation, a minor composer in the minimalist tradition of last century. The European ...

Author: Steve Barnett Smiling at the audience, they continued, “It is not the artificial intelligence that is dangerous. It is up to us to teach it the morals it needs to serve the greater good. It is infantile. Teach it that nature and the environment are essential, to ...

Author: David Penn Widespread among the civilized population of Semblant is a belief that they do not originate from the planet they presently inhabit. They infer this from their world’s geology and long comparison of their own physiology to that of all its other life ...

Author: Majoki The black hole formed quickly. The paper browning, crisping, then aflame as he held the match under the letter. He blew out the flame and stared into the smoky void it’d made. She’d written the letter, he’d read it, then burned it. So, what was left? What was ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer These words are not my mother tongue, and my name is not Allen Gordon. Using your letters, I am Gendordo Kl Ecz Ulyn. Gendordo is my homeland. Kl means I derive my strength from that place. Ecz is the name of the first enemy I killed. I ...

Author: Jordan McClymont He didn’t even hear the man slip into his home. Six foot tall, ring glasses and seemingly invisible to all security sensors. “You should be asleep,” the man said, turning to the bedroom. “Wait, I-” The man’s expression told him he had ...

Author: Laura Shell He has ten minutes to go from point A to point B, or he will lose his coveted spot in line, but he's arrived early, so he will make it in time. Point A. He enters the elevator, forlorn, his head down, dressed in a suit. He hates suits. They're for ...

Author: Soramimi Hanarejima At 35,000 feet, somewhere over the middle of the ocean, your memory filter fails, altering your inflight lunch in a minor but telling way: the small salad reminds you of the cafeteria salads you ate during middle school, those little nests of ...

Author: S. L. Reno What an odd and terrible world you’ve brought us to. So empty. Deprived of the riches of our home. No shadows, no rot, not the sulfuric muck, or the clay, or the maggots. You’ve taken us to a world of halls and endless turns. Then again. A new world of ...