Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer The shrimp trawler ”Treadin’ Water” plowed through the calm gulf seas on its way to Baratana Bay. Clasping the wheel in his massive hands, Captain Noyent eye…

Author: Ian Hill “Alright, lads; go pick some sick.” Firs and the others went out under the risen portcullis, backs humped with bloodstained baskets and heads low beneath burlap hoods. The sand of …

Author: Moriah Geer-Hardwick “I wanted this to mean something.” He looks back at me over his shoulder. “What are you talking about?” I start to reach for him, see his body tense, stop cold. “This!”…

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock I needed a big brother, so I disguised myself and went back in time to become him. I’d lived all this before, as my kid self, so it was pretty easy. I just had to …

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Life has always been hard at the bottom. My grandparents survived the collapse of 2013 and my parents made it onto the first exodus in 2055. It was considered simpl…

Author: Rick Tobin Deuteronomy 28:41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. Just a toe. That’s all. Just her pointed phalanx appears. …

Author: Robin The silence in my ears woke me. I lay there, ocean rocking the docked boat, and mentally rewind to the beginning of the album. I couldn’t think of anything else to listen to. This is …

Author : Alicia Cerra Waters Don’t they understand that we have no room for them here? Think about it. We are on the only blue planet in a galaxy of gas giants and colossal boulders caught in orbit…

Author : David Maskill Look below: gravitational lensing but with added sugar. Ocean currents were rendered hazy and golden. The whole planet was swathed in caramelised whorls of cloud turned syrup…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer I’m reading his thermo-image through the door before he knocks: average human temperature distribution, no suspicious cool patches. Something chilly in his hand. Tu…

Author : Samuel Stapleton I stared at our instructor, unsure if I’d heard him correctly. “You want me to what?” He sighed and stepped back. “Everyone here believes that any human that loses contact…

Author : R. S. Alexander v1: Derek Taylor was sipping coffee in a Los Angeles restaurant when a recruiter from XygmaCorp walked past his table, accidentally brushing against his shoulder. 57,143 do…

Author: Timothy Goss The aroma was delightful. The sweetness of a caramelising crust and the tender white meat contained therein. Tao remembered honey glazed ham; his mother would buy it from the S…

Author: Richard M. O’Donnell, Sr. At near light speed, the starship Genesis sailed into the wormhole. Two-point-five nanoseconds later, the ship neared a rip in the wormhole, a rip that had a…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Ninety-eight gazillion miles from anywhere I want to be and some teenage alley-captain and his squad manages to get the drop on me. That’ll teach me for daydreaming…

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer Blue. That’s the colour I remember the most in that operating theater. It was the last honest colour I would ever see. I had them installed as part of my train…

Author : Duncan Shields I’d like to remember her the way most ex-boyfriends remember their exes. That is to say, when I’m drunk and missing her, I want to remember that space right under her ea…

Author : Alla Hoffman When he opened his eyes, it was a special kind of dark. The sky was a dull purple, and what light there was came from the ground beneath its stygian spread. He sat up stiffly …

Author: Shaked Koplewitz The orders were clear: As tempting as it was, we were not to let the psychics process the alien message. Instead, we were to send it through to an old-fashioned linguistics…

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer “Your lights are too bright.” The fresh-faced lady looks nonplussed. The bearded man behind her taps something into the rig on his wrist and the brightness cuts by h…

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Ten kilometers out we dropped to below a hundred meters, sea-skimming and churning the water behind us as we split the night. We made landfall and proceeded to fly…

Author: J. H. Malone “Happy Valentine’s Day!” “Oh, Honey, for me? How sweet!” “Open it. Then I’ll take you out to dinner.” “Ok, just let meR…

Author : David Henson “So, the Missus qualifies for a full body refresh, but you don’t,” Georgie says solemnly, looking first at Beverly then Michael. “Too much HoverGolf, n…

Author : Samuel Stapleton I stared at our instructor, unsure if I’d heard him correctly. “You want me to what?” He sighed and stepped back. “Everyone here believes that any human that loses contact…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer I’m reading his thermo-image through the door before he knocks: average human temperature distribution, no suspicious cool patches. Something chilly in his hand. Tu…

Author : Beck Dacus “VEYAN! COME LOOK AT THIS!” I looked up from my bio-sweep and bolted to the sound of Carlos’ voice, knowing that the rest of the team would follow me. After rounding a few corne…

Author : Casey Cooke All robots had been programmed to fear the ocean. A few level fours, who had also been programmed with risk-taking protocols, would walk right to the edge of it. But even they,…

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer Another flawless afternoon. “Spin for me.” I smile and cut a perfect seven-twenty, poised on one heel, arms spread to imitate the mantling of an eagle. As I come to …

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The Prisoner Lucian Lockley is in a cell on the moon. He lays on the stainless steel bench and his eyes take leave and run up the side of his cage. The walls seem…

Author: Mark Joseph Kevlock “They all came to see me: the man who could age — or de-age — at will. They all thought it was a trick. When you reach one hundred years of age, the body becomes e…