Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I can’t find the words to describe what Jerome is eating. “How can you?” He grins around a mouthful. “Crash land on Lear II. Spend a month waiting for Integral Retrieval to realise your beacon is not a test, and a further six months ...

Author: Warren Benedetto The last man on Earth leaned on his shovel, then wiped the sweat from his face. He was almost finished. He had been digging for hours. He started around noon, when the sun was high overhead, when his shadow was nothing more than a puddle of ...

Author: Don Nigroni I replied, "So it's an open and shut case. Your client was seen by three witnesses entering the room through the only door. The window was latched from the inside. They heard a thud or two and upon entering the room seconds later saw the victim lying on ...

Author: Richard Albeen I was in New Beirut. Another planet. Another aftermath of another war. I was walking down a bombed-out boulevard that had once been majestic. It would never be so again. Craters half-filled with rancid water festered on each side of the street. ...

Author: Brooks C. Mendell “Conspiracies require a lot of goddam work,” I thought, walking down the aisle of shipping containers. Each metal box, rather than stuffed with widgets or t-shirts, housed a humming transporter tuned to a predetermined time and place. A rusty ...

Author: Suzanne Borchers Cedric BotIV noted the blanket of artificial feathers had slipped off the old man’s shoulders. He lifted them back onto his master. Master preferred to dream of flight and the soft feel of his blanket mellowed his dreams. Cedric BotIV whispered, ...

Author: Craig C Lipman Once there was a human crew. Once, things only happened when the crew gave orders to me, the ship’s Synthetic Intelligence System (SIS). Once, the crew confided their secrets, love, and hopes to me, never considering I would betray them. Once I was ...

Author: Benjamin Davis The world ending is a slow news day. A bit faster than the ousting of a third world tyrant, but quite a lot slower than a celebrity wedding. The astronomers were the first to realize. They tried to warn people in a series of boring essays entitled: ...

Author: Ken Poyner Coming back from work, I pass near the Post Office, so I thought I would stop in to see if the expected package had arrived. And it had: there in our box was the slim three inch by four inch by two inch box, the code autoloader with its new programming, ...

Author: Mina Voice ad on the New York subway, London tube, and Paris metro in 2067: Buy your V.O.L.E. now while stocks last! This compact and sleek e-bot can take over the running of your house from cleaning and stocking up your fridge to paying your bills. Why waste ...

Author: Paul Garson Billy Forester sat in the rocket ship waiting for fuel. There was a big splotch on his helmet's faceshield. It looked like one of Saturn’s moons. Then he remembered. His mother had kissed him good-bye. Suddenly there was a knocking sound on the ...

Author: David C. Nutt His laugh was annoying, his smirk maddening. His attitude… beyond human arrogance. I suppose that was the point, as he wasn’t exactly human anymore. As a parole officer, I had to deal with plenty of his kind. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, and I ...

Author: Brian C. Mahon The Ultimo stood high on the pinnacle of the spiraling, marble-faced steel staircase, the dais of control, his seat of power. “Come, Sarai,” his voice echoed in the white chamber and in my mind. “Ascend. Join me.” I took in the height and climbed, ...

Author: William Norberg Dreams. Were they pleasant? I can’t remember... Sleep used to come easily in the darkness of the night. But now I trudge endlessly through choking shadows. Where neither sleep nor death will come to me mercifully. Naked, cold, starving. A sickly ...

Author: Samuel Stapleton We work with law enforcement often, but we’re not cops. We work with business beings from every populated system, but we’re not economists. We work with medical professionals, but we’re not even versed in basic first aid. In our cheapest job, we ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer When they first met, it wasn't the clumsy exo-rig she was using to navigate the university halls that caught their attention, or the baggy tie-dye jumpsuit her body was hidden inside. It wasn't the way the students parted around her as the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The observation tower runs up through a hollow tree. Not sure which was here first, but it sure looks real. From the top, you can see damn near to the horizon in all directions. A view which is, no matter where you look, shades of green ...

Author: Rick Tobin Nondescript gray gruel drifted over the worn stainless spoon stirring in a prisoner’s brown wooden bowl. Two ragged, worn men sat facing each other, heads bent down toward a stained wooden picnic bench, one lifting a metal water cup to dilute rancid ...