When he first approached me in the train station, I batted him away. I thought he was homeless. The weird, ellipsoidal neck tattoos creeping into view from his collar didn’t help. He persisted…

Author: David Dumouriez THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT: THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Lieutenant-Commander Rane had received the warning minutes before the alarm sounded. The destiny that nobody wanted was hers. It was happening on her watch. Eight distinct generations of ‘peacekeepers’ had been trained and deployed at Station 48 without any sign of […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The clearing lies deserted in the last light of the moon. Amidst the silver glow, two indistinct figures flicker into view, sat on the weathered altar stone at the centre. Of the two, the smaller is clearer, appearing as a pale woman with translucent butterfly wings. The larger is greener […]

A short story by Malon Edwards

Author: Philip G Hostetler Maggie’s been gone for a while now. But not into a black hole this time. Normally she’d discorporate into the metaphysical unknown but this time, she’s just been… …happily traveling. I miss her, like a solar system misses it’s rogue planetoid, flung out beyond and returning every 4,000 years as a […]

Author: Daniel Aceituna The new AI phone app used the latest research in non-linear regression to predict the future. Local data combined with GPS and relevant global data was all it took to give a remarkably accurate prediction of what would happen within the next minute. One billion downloads occurred in the first week alone. […]

An AI car is caught between its ruthless employer and the people she hurt…

Author: Mina ALENA’S ADOPTED MOTHER, CAROL: We consider ourselves blessed with our adopted daughter. It hasn’t always been easy – we had to teach her not to stand out. It’s hard to dim your light, but she understood by the age of three that she would be taken away from us if her gifts were […]

Sometimes, Narae can almost convince emself that the AI’s Voice was a dream. Some kind of minor stroke misremembered, a neurological glitch retroactively given recognizable shape.

I’d always known Calam would run. He had all the signs. A taut restlessness, body brittle as an overstretched lute string, when we stayed too long in one place. A gloom in his eyes…

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The little lights bob and weave, but they’re definitely getting closer. I check behind me – the remains are unidentifiable: just more victims of this horrific incident. How close should I let them get? No, wait. I sit down, putting my back against an upturned desk. Oh, yes: I take […]

Continued from Part 1) Jenna gave herself a few moments to seethe in silence before she spoke, to make sure her voice was calm. “I can’t move.” “Did you hear that?” Daron took a swig of his water…

Author: David C. Nutt Dear Alive, To begin with, I absolutely hate the word zombie. I also hate the terms walking dead, animate corpse, and un-dead. I prefer the more PC term altalive. Look, I don’t know who is tapping into this- a researcher, psychic, or hacker, just get the word out. We ain’t dead. […]

Love, friendship, and real estate, thirty years after we all stop aging.

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

This is a story about a bird. A bird, a ship, a machine, a woman—she was all these things, and none, but first and fundamentally a bird. It is also a story about a man—a gambler, a liar, and a cheat…

A faint, steady vibration carried through the igloo’s massive ice walls—a vibration that shouldn’t have been there. Jayne heard it in her sleep. Age had not dulled her soldier’s reflexes, honed by decades spent on watch against incursions of the Red. Her eyes snapped open. She held her breath.

A powerful science fiction story about an architect on Earth commissioned to create (via long distance) a masterwork with materials from the last abandoned Martian colony, a monument that will last thousands of years longer than Earth, which is dying.

Read a new short story by Linda Nagata, the author of Pacific Storm and The Last Good Man.

Rupert Weard leapt into the drawing room, escaping a hallway dense with impossibly angled, tentacular horrors trying to sell him insurance. “Ye gods, it’s bedlam out there,” he said.

Author: Janaya Young In space, hyper lanes operate like traffic lanes but with one important difference: you aren’t entirely in one place or another while traveling through them. Most people can’t tell. Maybe you feel a slight shudder of the ship, or for a moment you look down and your hand is not where you […]

Author: Andrew N. McCue I was 15 when I left home. Replacing schoolbooks from my pack with clothes and food, I steal my mother’s favorite can opener, some flatware and a small stash of cash. I walk mostly or hitch. Standing on the side of a road I read stapled, tacked and nailed sheets of […]

Author: David Barber “This is a rare photograph of Christ, taken before time tourism was banned,” said the Director of the Temporal Institute. The Senator stopped to examine it, and his entourage jostled and bumped awkwardly behind him. A picture-lined corridor led to the gallery overlooking the wormhole, and though each picture was an actual […]

Author: Majoki “I’m trying to tell you, Clem, I’m a Dusty Oyster. Just like you and Billy Lee, Davy, Sherm and Stevie. It’s me, Fizzy. You remember, don’t ya?” Clement Ellis stared unbelieving from his wheelchair at the young man jabbering at him. “Dusty Oyster? You? Nonsense. I’m old, but I haven’t lost all my […]

Author: James Flanagan Lying on the gurney, I slowly succumbed to the anesthetics. The last thing I recalled was a bright light and a frantic “Oh, shit.” *** I opened heavy eyelids and blinked. “He’s back.” My wife’s voice, distant, unsure. “Dad?” Andy, my son. They each held one of my hands. Restricted, restrained. I […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The scream of fighters passing overhead fades. Silence resumes. The three sat at the undamaged end of the table return their gazes to rest on the woman sitting at the other end. Minutes pass. Finally, the middle one of the trio speaks. “I’m not sure ‘you’re late’ adequately covers this.” […]

Author: Steve Kemple For one thing, they don’t prepare you for continental drift. How could they? We aren’t equipped to think on a geological time scale. You live eighty, ninety years and the tectonic plates move what. Thirty feet? Try this on for size: “I remember the Himalayas.” Not “I remember when the Himalayas were […]

Author: Alastair Millar Heeeeeeey starfolks, it’s me, the Galaxian Gourmet, back to bring you the lowdown on another extraterrestrial eatery! This week, we’re on Marchioness Prime, checking out the famous Black Hole Brasserie, this is an episode you DON’T want to miss! Before we get into that, don’t forget to check out our sponsors, who […]