Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer Words fall like hawks. I know someone is going to die. As the Cantor finishes his brief condemnation, I see her move like a broken mannequin; a ballerina of sudden a…

Author: R. J. Erbacher He stood by the running stream, knees trembling, still panting, tears stinging his eyes, exhausted, wounded and numb with shock. And although the simple clear water was marve…

Author: David K Scholes I didn’t recognize any of the positions in the job search booth. Terra-forming Engineer, Change Field Manipulator, Short Tele-Shunt Engineer, Long Distance Teleportation Eng…

Author: Samuel Stapleton My brain was working faster than my eyes as I took in the flood of information through my augment hud at my desk. I quickly began realizing that whoever this person was, th…

Author: David B Anderson “And so you’re back from outer space.” She pulled him into her arms and hugged him tightly. Her former boyfriend smiled but didn’t say a word. “I knew you would return. Peo…

Author: Elizabeth Hoyle “What is this?” A pill rests in a plastic cup. “It’s something to make you sleep. We have all the nodes attached so we can monitor your brain waves and your vitals throughou…

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer I can see the lights of the screens up in the control room as I cross the silent studio. Nothing will be happening down here for another year. Up there, nobody goes …

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer The breeze from the windows is lethargic, like everything else in the oppressive heat and humidity. Tutor Phenedras shakes his head in resignation and puts down the …

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I hate women. I really do. I guess that’s probably why I chose this life. Or maybe it’s as they say, it’s this life that chose me. I’d heard that up here in…

Author: Jae Miles, Staff Writer The fan on the ceiling turns slowly, another kitsch feature of this fake colonial era hospital. I do not know when hospitals started to compete for trade, but the ‘h…

Author: Mandira Pattnaik Summer 2039, Tokyo: Goats read the evening news on TV. Goats? Yes! Take it, or leave it! Not goats, Sam! Kamala had once corrected me. I had been silent then. It’s so much …

Author: David C. Nutt We lost the robot revolution. Most of us missed it entirely and got the memo three or four days later when the internet came back on-line. Hey, we’re not as clueless as it sou…

Author : Alex Grover how to get my ex back One of those tavern junkies invited me to the Skev for a brawl. I personally enjoyed these screw-ups. The one I talked to that night, around a week ago, w…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “A Tamborda Eleven-Ess-Two should never be underrated. Treat each one as if it just came off the production line.” Master Needle’s words are soft-spoken yet carry u…

Author: Will H. Blackwell, Jr. Three PM: As per daily routine, a 15-lb. allotment of raw horse-meat is cast, piecemeal, into the uncertain hollows of this Ohio cage. The insouciance of the Lioness—…

Author: Carolyn Myers A well-dressed woman flung the office door open and collapsed onto the sofa across from me. I pretended not to stare at the woman whose body appeared completely artificial. Sh…

Author : Leanne A. Styles I reached across and tightened the strap on my kid sister’s tatty seatbelt. She grinned; through the breathing tubes, through the pain. The shuttle we’d stolen had been re…

Author : Samuel Stapleton Synthetic: a substance made by chemical processes, especially to imitate a natural product. The data analysis was grim. Predicted system stability – 62%. — My …

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The room is a stock F-Class residential dwelling. With three people and a forensics robot within, it’s one small child short of standing room only. A young man in a…

Author : Hillary Lyon “Just think of all the work you will complete, Connie, now that you have an extra month here.” Conrad ignored Tandie, the on-board computer that ran everything. Including sche…

Author : Aaron Koelker Two Cardinalis cardinalis, the northern cardinal. Five Zenaida macroura, the mourning dove. One Toxostoma rufum, the brown thrasher. And the highlight of the excursion – one …

Author : Sheryl Normandeau “See these skyscrapers here?” he says, jabbing a finger at the pile of photographs splayed out on the tabletop. “I made ‘em all.” I stare up into the red-rimmed eyes of P…

Author : Beck Dacus From Earth, the lie was invisible. Looking up would present you with a deep blue sky, maybe some clouds sometimes, and a bright yellow sun (white from Low Earth Orbit). But I wa…

Author : Janet Shell Anderson I don’t like the severed heads. Well, nobody does. I like evenings along the Potomac, down near where my father worked; a civil engineer in the White House, he designe…

Author : David K Scholes Galactic Commitment “You performed well,” said my unit commander mark 5A droid “courage above and beyond the call of duty and all that.” “They were only virtual reality sim…

Author : Gray Blix Patient 7 lapsed into v-fib, triggering his brain implant and the one in Dr. Gottfried, miles away, who dropped his tuna salad sandwich and slumped in his office chair. “Wh…

Author : Morrow Brady “Of course I’ll miss you Serge. I love you” Ren said over-compensating. “Don’t act rash. It’s a small glitch. The error log’s sent and the patch fix wi…

Author : Matthew Harrison The mood in the meeting room, dominated by the large screen, was subdued. Only the tall silver-haired figure of James sat unperturbed, yet like the others he was waiting. …

Author : Neil Herndon Looking out. Or looking in. Do we stare into the expanse, or does it and its inhabitants look in on us? Which one of us is the exhibit in a zoo? In space, windows are structur…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Just another day at the office, sitting on my ladybird, chatting with my blue owl friend. I named him Percy, and he’s smarter than your average owl. Which he should…