Author: David Penn As with many worlds in the Small Megallanic Cloud, Ah! presents intriguingly aberrant evolutionary features. The dominant species, dubbed “exploders” by early missions, has, over several million years, developed a unique response to danger. Each individual possesses the ability to shatter into thousands of tiny fragments whenever threatened and reassemble itself once […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The room is full. The courtyard is too. They’ve put up holoscreens in the grounds for those who couldn’t get in. General Perkiss gestures for me to come up front. “Warriors, I can’t end this memorial. It wouldn’t be right. Major Cyo Surtees will.” He steps back and bows to […]

archived 25 Aug 2022 13:20:40 UTC

Author: Alastair Millar It should have been paradise; a warm, azure sea lapped the shore, separated from a verdant pseudoforest by a broad expanse of golden sand. When it came to xenobotany, this was as good as field trips got, and Maggie still couldn’t believe the grants committee had agreed to fund it. Nevertheless, here […]

archived 25 Aug 2022 13:16:52 UTC

archived 25 Aug 2022 12:57:39 UTC

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archived 25 Aug 2022 12:43:35 UTC

Author: Steven French “Professor? If you’d just like to press the button, that’ll initiate the experiment.” Professor Sarah Roberts looked around the control room, with satisfaction and pride. It had taken so long to put all this together, starting from that first idea, only roughly sketched in conversation with a graduate student as they barrelled […]

archived 10 Mar 2019 20:09:02 UTC

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archived 18 Nov 2019 16:13:17 UTC

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer Shadows dance across the wall as the spotlight swings from its broken mount. I see sparks in the darkness of the crack left by my blow. Too long looking! Its backhan…

archived 26 Aug 2019 17:33:13 UTC

Maggie's father disappeared in Strange Circumstances; her mother died watching reruns of Bonanza and Rawhide. And so begins the rocky road to fortune, success and romance, with a little help from a guy who claims he's an alien.

archived 7 Jul 2015 19:03:44 UTC

archived 24 Aug 2022 14:20:43 UTC

The pink frost coating my face shield is, evidently, my own blood. The gas jetting from the pea-sized hole in my wrist spins me around, and for a panicked moment, I wonder if I have somehow been shot. I think I am screaming, but that would alert Station, and Ocampo is silent. Evidently, I am holding my breath, only wanting to scream, like the nightmare of being on the wrong side of the airlock. Now the hissing has stopped and pain nails me to the ice.

Hello Senator. Thank you for returning my call. I’m so glad to speak to you at last. Yes, I did say in my message that this is a matter of life-or-death. It is. Absolutely. Oh, no---you misunderstand, sir. It’s not your life that’s threatened. It’s the life of a child. The life of your unborn child, in fact. First, congratulations are in order. I understand that Julia Banks, your former intern, informed you that she is pregnant. I believe that was just over a month ago. She’s just entering the second trimester.

archived 4 Oct 2019 13:28:28 UTC

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archived 17 Oct 2019 20:45:05 UTC

archived 10 Sep 2019 12:35:42 UTC

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 backgroun…

archived 22 Oct 2019 12:50:56 UTC