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 ...

Author: Dmitri Christopher The tapping starts up again, rousing Walter from unquiet sleep. He flattens himself against the door and peers through the peephole; here they come, creeping down the hallway. Some roll on thin wheels spliced between their toes. Most creep on ...

Author: Josie Gowler I take my time putting on all the rings that the King gave me; they form an effective but innocuous-looking knuckleduster. The autobot buzzes around my head, brushing my hair until it gleams the stunning reddish-brown that – I’m sure – helped King Ivar ...

Author: David C. Nutt “I’m begging you, don’t flip the quantum motor drive switch.” “Oh, I’ve flipped it hundreds of thousands of times, not flipped it just as many. The result is the same- I wind up back here, locked in, and we eventually have variants of this ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I hadn’t visited it for many years. It’s like anything I suppose, the more time rolls forward the more things get left behind. But this place was special and I never should have left it alone for as long as I did. My grandfather was a ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Words fall like hawks. I know someone is going to die. As the Cantor finishes his brief condemnation, I see her move like a broken mannequin; a ballerina of sudden and grace. There’s a falsetto gurgle that bubbles into a dying sigh. She’s ...

Author: Jeremy Marks “People of Earth, we have come bearing a divine message: Your God is tired. He is announcing his retirement.” A traditional flying saucer had landed in the badlands of the continental United States. The saucer broadcast its message on a frequency ...

Author: Harrison Abbott They slapped on the door. Their saliva lashed the glass, and their wings pounded on. But they couldn’t get to us; the glass was too strong. We’d already beaten them. I had the box with me. Our species was saved. Marcy was crying below me, like a ...

Author: David K Scholes I didn’t recognize any of the positions in the job search booth. Terra-forming Engineer, Change Field Manipulator, Short Tele-Shunt Engineer, Long Distance Teleportation Engineer, Unified Mind Sustainer, Alternate Reality Coordinator, ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher He stood by the running stream, knees trembling, still panting, tears stinging his eyes, exhausted, wounded and numb with shock. And although the simple clear water was marvelous it wasn’t distracting enough. The weapon he held in his hand was stained ...

Author: Glenn Leung This high up in the exosphere, sound is not a concept that exists. Even so, Savan could hear the clash of the fighters below as he projects an impression of the battle in his mind's eye. This was his anchor into sanity. Savan had never done a job in ...