Author : R. A. Jackson Each step came slower now. Her back hunched so that the long grey strands of her hair trailed across the stairs as she climbed. Counting the painful strides one by one was th…

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer Time travel has always been possible. We’ve been doing it for centuries. Even the most archaic craft in our earliest space faring ventures used to bring back bra…

Author : Gray Blix The sign on the wall read, “180 ACCIDENT-FREE DAYS.” For the umpteenth time since the accident, UR4-51 climbed into an electronic parts recycling bin and positioned i…

Author : Rick Tobin “O holy night, the stars are brightly shining…” She choked off her singing of the next phrase, unable to overcome phlegm from fearful regret as Marcus lay still next to her in t…

Author : Joshua Reynolds A little flare. Just a flash on the other side of the sun, our sun, and it was gone. That was when we knew it had escaped. We made it in a generator the size of a grown man…

Author : Bob Newbell I raise my hand and wave to get Scott’s attention as he walks into the restaurant. He comes over and joins me in the booth. He gestures at my drink. “Is that whiske…

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer I work in a nursery. I’m about to kill six hundred babies. Where does life begin? That’s the age-old question. It plagued the pro-lifers and now, here, at the …

Author : Ian Florida Metal grates against stone as my cell door shrieks open. They shout as they slam their rifle stocks into my ribs. I laugh. They pause. They think I should be afraid. They think…

In 2198 Earth Standard Time, Jonas Fox, a pilot for the Interstellar Defense Crew, spotted a few pirates off the southern hem of the moon. He got on the radio to contact his fighters, who then zoom…

Seamus dipped the greasy piece of bread into the even greasier layer of oil in his plate. “Mm. It seems so much easier when you know your own sin, doesn’t it?” Carol hadn’t touched her food…

Author : Anthony Francis Greed never dies. It had been forty years since my consciousness graced a human body, but the attraction is irresistible, universal, born of the survival instinct, an unque…

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer Three aliens floated a few dozen meters beyond the ship’s forward observation viewport. They were formless blobs approximately two meter in diameter. The cen…

Author : George R. Shirer “Well,” murmured Agent Dumphy, “you don’t see that every day.” Brillson didn’t reply. He was too busy squinting at the luminous graffiti covering the alley wall. “How many…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The external camera pan across a steely – if a trifle motley – flotilla of guard skiffs, arrayed before a Griffin-class Space Dreadnought painted in the…

Author : Ken McGrath I’m taking my time, figuring it’s best to be patient. By letting him feel secure and safe he’ll never suspect what’s happening. Never realise that I’ve been slowly bleedi…

Author : Ilan Herman Koy, the sky-blue alien, explained to Jeff that life on earth was really an experiment conducted by him and his associates, an anthropological study of how life evolves from th…

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer Drop capsules are virtually impregnable to anything man or xeno can throw at them. They have consistently proven themselves many times in combat under the on…

Author : Jason Frank “I felt a drop.” Laurine looked over but her cousin was facing away from us. She talked to herself so much that you didn’t always expect it when she wasn&#821…

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer We meet every six years. The project churned out over two hundred of us. When they ordered us terminated, twelve of us escaped. There are eight of us left. The…

Author : Ian Clarke The air-bike hovered perfectly still and silent a couple of cms above the floor of his apartment. It resembled an old style jet-ski he had seen once but had a toughened clear ca…

Author : K. Pittman Sometime before midday’s full blaze, Susan threw down her skein and stopped walking. Georgia broke pace steps later and trod back, face flattened, hat shadowing her glare.…

Author : Bob Newbell The passport control agent looks at me and sighs. “Another one,” he says succinctly. His use of “one” rather than the epithet “shellhead” pr…

Author : James C.G. Shirk cheap camel cigarettes The automated countdown clock flashed: one hour, twenty-one minutes. Commander Albright grimaced and adjusted the controls to retract the dome above…

Author : Tim Hatton The black is total. Oedi’s life is devoid of light and endlessly deep. Only stars prick the canvas. He stares at them, each in turn, for entire shifts. He finds it odd to real…

Author : Charles Paul Wallace The microscope sat on Lena’s desk exactly where she’d found it. It had been there when she got home from school. Her mother just looked at her blankly when…

Author : Damien Krsteski The receptionist was tapping her pudgy fingers impatiently on the desk. Leaning on one hand, her pale face hid momentarily behind an inflating chewing gum bubble until a lo…

Author : Bob Newbell It’s been a subjective month since we changed history. It feels like ten years. In reality, an infinitesimal fraction of a second has passed for us in the Stopwatch. That…

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Aimee propped herself up against a transformer just outside the halo of the lone streetlight. A kilometer up the road in each direction, red and blue lights pulse…

Author : Philip Berry “Is it surprising, really? After what they did to you, that you can’t feel a thing.” But I could feel. Too much. My skin was on fire. “No Lana, I mean really feel. Perceive em…

Author : cchatfield I didn’t want to show up to work today. By the time my crew arrived for the usual day of loading and unloading, packing and unpacking, signing and releasing, I’d rehearsed a lit…