Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The ancient evil that lives and breathes and seethes beneath my grandmother’s house has nothing to do with Hell. This rotting husk is not the place that villains go when they die. It is not some construct tasked with offering context and ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Rex Christus, I ache this morning. Forgive the profanity, Lord, but it feels like my bones loosened themselves in their joints overnight. There’s a harsh light on the streets, as if Heaven is searching the dimmest corners of its mighty ...

Author: David Updike A shadow slid along the crowded sidewalk, and we instinctively stepped aside and opened a path for it to pass. Looking up, we saw that it was a Mini, the kind they dispatched for someone who wasn’t going to mount much of a fight. A sleek, white wafer ...

Author: Glenn Leung The wail of sirens grew louder as I ran towards the control room. We had drilled for this at least a hundred times in the past year, and I had hoped this was yet another drill. The image on the Heads-Up Display said otherwise. 'Comet inbound for ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Her name was Ruth, I think, or something like that. We didn't talk much. I used to help her when she came home from the library with her cart full of books; she liked physics, and biology, and quantum entanglement. Heady stuff, way beyond ...

Author: Ken Carlson Maxx was puttering away with various adhesives and synthetics in the attic of his government-issued pod, one of the perks of being among the few humans on the Gliese 163 c mining colony. Encased in a series of domes and tubes, the inhabitants lived a ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher Power reigns supreme. “Come, Bia. Your Master summons you.” The man who came to get her was a slob, big-bellied and slovenly. His mouth drooled as he barked his order and stared at her. She dressed in a simple sparse tunic, her feet were ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer “I love you, my dearest”, I say folding back and patting smooth the sheet that is tucked at her chin. I look at her and trace the thick welts at my cheek and feel within them my own mother’s bottomless affection. I, too, will ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The magic came back. It went unnoticed for a while. Then a couple of bane magic covens got nasty surprises. Apprehension turned to fear as authority figures came up with increasingly implausible explanations. ‘Magewinter’ is the term ...

Author: Timothy Goss Moulju squeezed his hand. Bernard reciprocated as best he could in his feeble condition. Moulju was thankful for the liquidity of her natural state. She wanted to cover him, become with him, aid his breathing and allow him to rest. But she knew it ...

Author: Matt Ingoldby 'Room' conjures three dimensions of no specific shape. This will have to do. 'Waiting room' seems speciously appropriate except that it conjures time - not apt for eternal, infinite multitudes like us. Nonetheless, we are all waiting, most of us since ...

Author: Glenn Leung The fog in my brain had lifted, and all I saw was the rubble. My memories were there; my family, my friends, my comrades of the ill-fated revolution, the building blocks of my identity. But these blocks lay in heaps and piles, the cement and the steel ...

Author: David Barber The morning Ethics Officer Summer flew in for duty aboard the USS Grover Cleveland, a pair of ancient Tornados jinked in at sea-level, heading for the task force on Golf-Bravo Station. They were still twenty miles out when they were brought down in ...

Author: Edwin Tam She's waiting for me as I get out of the elevator. Smiling, but her eyes look sad. Dressed all sexy-like, but you could tell it wasn't natural for her. Short black dress and heels, and even stockings. Classy. But she looks awkward in it. Just like she ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Thick vines encircle in an ever upward choke of the huge concrete pillars that support the spine roof of the great cathedral. It is not a cathedral but, rather, a great subterranean chamber in which building supplies were once stored. ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer We smash through the door barely a minute after Abernacke entered. It’s an empty corridor. The air is about twenty degrees below ambient and the floor is gloss black. “Goo?” Felps is wary. I nanoscan the floor, finally a chance to use ...

Author: V.B. Crossett //Fatal error detected. Unblinking, I stared at the dialogue box. When this unit's programming had showed an error, I had been ready with necessary updates and a software patch on hand. However, the error report's endless script confirmed—I was ...

Author: Samuel Stapleton I let myself in through the airlock and dropped down to the kitchen. She was on the couch. “Hey,” she said without looking up. The stream mumbled quietly into the background of the cramped sitting area. I plopped down next to her, but not too ...