Sappel whistled as he walked to the construction site, the sound echoing off nearby buildings in a muffled way. It was early spring, and the city was bursting with the vibrant green of new growth.
Author: Timothy Wilkie Swathed in star shine and hidden behind the sun was our destination. I couldnโt wait to be buried in the bosom of old mother earth where the worms and insects thrived on bacteria not chemicals. A long time ago I threw away my mother for life among the stars. I had forgotten [โฆ]
Author: David Barber Across the gulfs of space, intellects bold and curious observe our world and hasten their plans against usโฆ Buried deep in our cold, slow cities, age after age passed unregarded and we cared nothing for the world above until fiery scouts began falling from the skies. The Elders would have ignored this [โฆ]
continued from Part 3) MICHAรLLE-ANNABELLE FEAT. JEAN-MICHEL I strap into my rig, take a really big swig from my hydration dispenser tube I call The Ultra Black Vig, and settle back to begin thisโฆ
Continued from Part 1) JEAN-MICHEL FEAT. KINSLEY CHASE Lรฒske jounalis sa yo gade mโ Hold up. Let me say that again. Iโll wait. Yโall go grab yโalls paper anโ pen. When these Stater journos look atโฆ
INTRO: ALL IโM EVER GONโ DO IS STAY BLACK AND DIE JEAN-MICHEL FEAT. KINSLEY CHASE Kinsley Chase sits on manman mwen plastic-covered couch. The InTell HumbleBrag subprogram Stanford Sutton Industriesโฆ
A comatose patient undergoes an experimental procedure that uses favorite childhood stories to pull the patient back into consciousnessโbut the experiment doesn't go quite as planned...
A new Lady Astronaut story! Dawn struggles to fit in with the rest of her team--the backup crew for the next lunar mission--but she and her colleagues may have more in common than anyone realizes...
You Donโt Belong Where You Donโt Belong - Reactor
With her friends vanishing and her home planet of Ayeshij crushed under the weight of occupation, gemologist-turned-con artist Mitayreโs planning a very special retirement--the kind with telepathic birds, sharp teeth, and gory retribution...
During one of the much smaller disasters that preceded the really big disaster, I met a lot of my neighbors online. I canโt remember if we set up the WhatsApp group because of the pandemic or the civil disorder or both. My Minneapolis block had always been reasonably friendlyโpeople would take their kids around on [โฆ]
Author: Mark Renney The moment is almost here. At last, after all the speculation and rumour, the grand reveal. A cage has been wheeled onto the stage, sitting at its centre, covered by a white sheet, pristine and perfect. Everyone is certain that, when the cover is pulled away, it will be intricate and ornate [โฆ]
Author: Beck Dacus Each time the floor shuddered, all our chains rang like windchimes. The shackles around my ankles were linked to the wrists of the โinmateโ behind me, on and on in a long line of us marching forward. As I stumbled I pulled on that manโs wrists, nearly bringing him down as well. [โฆ]
Author: Don Nigroni Yesterday on Christmas Day, I was at my filthy rich, albeit eccentric, uncleโs house. And thatโs when and where everything went awry. After dinner, he took me aside to his library to enjoy a cigar and a tawny port. โWe know our current materialistic paradigm is pure garbage, yet we still cling [โฆ]
Teacher is an old-fashioned bug with a blue carapace and eyes like two domes of gold beads. She is very pretty and smells like follow, but when she flutters her wings you better look smart or youโllโฆ
Author: Majoki When the founders of Providence made planetfall, they had but one credo to establish their new civilization on the uninhabited world: Blind ignorance is unfortunate. Willful ignorance is shameful. Manufactured ignorance is unforgivable. Two hundred forty-one local years later, when the invading conquerors of Providence divvied up the planet, they wondered why the [โฆ]
Author: Antonio DIsi Yesterday, I turned forty, without even realizing it. My life has become an endless sequence of days and nights, of bicycle deliveries, all dictated by an unrelenting app. Every morning, I wake up not knowing what the day holds. The only clue is my smartphone, incessantly vibrating, announcing new orders to deliver. [โฆ]
The Mote in Birdโs Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space - Lightspeed Magazine
Dear Aunt Harriet, If youโre reading this note it means you survived. Thatโs wonderful news: I always loved you the most. The notes I sent out with Aunt Anita and the cousins are friendly letters, I promise, us being kin and all, and I surely hope they survive too. But Iโm happiest about you.
The seven siblings sit in a place beyond the boundaries of space and time, where everything is made of stories. Even them. Especially them.ย People are made of stories too, but only the versions of their stories that they tell themselves. Curated, limited, incomplete. Many of the stories people tell themselves are lies layered on partially-perceived things to give their lives structure and meaning. The siblings that sit beyond sit true, for they are made of all the stories that were, that are, that are to come.
Escape Pod 936: Old Peopleโs Folly (Part 2 of 2)
Continued from Part 1) Kite was still curled into a bundle of blankets in front of the stove when Setti woke. The old woman sniffed, torn between surprise and annoyance. Sheโd have figured him for aโฆ
Escape Pod 935: Old Peopleโs Folly (Part 1 of 2)
Setti knew the woman for a ghost the moment she appeared. It was the pink hair that gave her away, short and spiky. Real people didnโt have hair like that. Also, you couldnโt see the scratchmarks onโฆ
Punk Voyager was built by punks. They made it from beer cans, razors, safety pins, and a surfboard some D-bag had left on the beach. Also plutonium. Where did they get plutonium? Around. f*** you.
Author: Bill Cox Sirens sound behind him and it feels like the walls are closing in. Always running as fast as he can down the street, but his legs are tiring already despite the adrenalin surging through his body. A small lane leads off into darkness and if he canโt run then hiding is the [โฆ]
Author: Elizabeth Hoyle โThere donโt need to be multiple universes for me to fall in love with you over and over again,โ Michael said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. โOne lifetime must be enough, though there is no such thing as too much time with you. Iโve seen you as a daughter, [โฆ]
At age nineteen, Robot Girl had dropped out of the most prestigious university in the country, had no objectives in life, and was now stuck pet sitting for the lovely lesbian couple at her old church.
Author: David Broz There is plenty of time to think out in space, in the middle of nowhere, just me and the dark and the pinpricks of the stars. And I think about how I miss you. I want to ask you, do you ever think of me? My mind is wandering. What if I [โฆ]
Nanlee was a woman with the sort of past that necessitated moving to a non-extradition treaty country, but that didnโt mean she hadnโt planned on enjoying her โretirementโ on Luna Colony.