From the couch, engineer Stanislaw Hast looked past the grey-suited, female psychiatrist and through the broad window. The star, a long dying sub-giant, threw a dusk of burnt ochre over the orbiting city, its rays painting the sunward face of tall b…

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer “It’s a pure stroke of genius that I was able to downsize the stabilizer assembly in time for the conference.” Stuart fiddled with his bowtie with his free hand while piloting the sedan with the other. via Pocket

It emerges from whatever variety of nowhere that allowed it to traverse the vast distances between the worlds of the Beacon, and I know that it’s a Stranger. via Pocket

A software bug killed 64 people this month before it was discovered. The administrators have brought the system down and a patch is working its way through the emergency release process. via Pocket

Slumped in the alley, the woman repeated the name like a prayer, mostly forgotten long ago. No, that wasn’t it. Passersby ignored her: just another failed rebel unable to move on. via Pocket

It’s the lack of sleep that’s the worst. I can live with the brutal beatings, the agony of untreated broken bones, the drugs that fuck with your head, the insidious cold, the gnawing hunger, the burning thirst and the routine rape, but I would liter…

“He’s up. Turn it on,” someone says. The doctor. As I open my eyes, the whiteness hits. It’s like I’m having an idea, but it’s too much for my brain to hold. I squeeze my eyes shut and gasp, trying to… via Pocket

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Doctor Jessup is terribly polite. We’re stirring our coffees before he asks his first question. “What started it?” I smile: “Why do they all add up to six?” “Pardon…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer You had to fall into mine. Lord, but you are a sight for jaded eyes. Hair like liquid night, eyes a man could drown in, lips that form a bow Robin Hood would kill f…

We’re glaring at each other across a gap that is – as we have repeatedly tested – exactly nine metres wider than either of our best reaches. The ground for kilometres around us is nothing but churned mud and scoured rock. Not a leaf, not a lifeform.…

Lieutenant Tann wiped his fuzzy torso. Months in a Chrono-tube caused the growth of a downy hair that matted together on the backs of his legs and arse. The computer suggested both Lieutenant Tann and Major Spar rub themselves with oil before taking…

I took my shot and it landed true; a beam of light, passing briefly through the void and extinguished in a collapse of reality. Well, not exactly. There is no direction, or time, in the Manifold–only the roiling chaos of the quantum fields. I’ve wal…

‘I’m sorry, Darling but I’m just not in the mood,’ said Martin Riley. ‘I’m nearly seventy and you can’t expect me to have the same enthusiasm I had when we first met.’ ‘I did not mean to upset you, Martin,’ said Mary. ‘I do not wish to put pressure …

Solar flares were partially blocked from pillaging the threatened planet below the behemoth spacecraft. The Bohemia created a cascading, billowing shadow across the Jagron’s continents. via Pocket

Richard was forty, paunchy and balding when he came home early and found Susan on the bed they shared. via Pocket

Valeria knocks down Devis and scores. The 10-year-old girl then stands over the boy and laughs. Later that day, Valeria is having supper with her parents. “Don’t play with your food, Sweetie,” her mother says. “We don’t get vegetables from the hydro…

She danced across the living room in a yellow sundress, her heels tapping to flamenco on the smoky hardwood. It was Charlie’s favorite outfit–the one he’d gotten her for their anniversary. Her hips swayed like magic, he thought. She paused for just …

Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Featured Writer “Then stop putting your money in it. Now come on, we’ve got to go, she‘s coming back tomorrow, so we only have a little time. We have to get to the lab,” Jess scolded. via Pocket

Under a sweltering summer sun in southeastern Ontario, an aerial camera watched as two boys walked through a wheat field. Each boy dragged a heavy wooden plank; as they traversed the land, stalks of wheat bent and flattened underneath them. via Pock…

The aliens dug our tunes. It was sweet. They came to down to us in these big blue ships, all curves and awe-inspiring slowness through the clouds like settling continents. Freaked us right out. We, the human race, didn’t even try to attack. We’d see…

Vapour coils along the bough, drifting away in little skeins of dissipating light. Tobias grins. Luminous breath: sure sign of irrevocable infection. “How do you feel, my son?” He looks up at the white rectangle glowing at the throat of the padre’s …

How much is enough? When is it time… for the end? She’s just a reporter. This is just an interview. via Pocket

Dino’s at the hatch, jigging up and down like he does when he’s worried. “Table Seventeen, the Lantoran’s getting antsy!” I flip the trout end-over-end in the pan: “Tell the lovely cephalopod that his trout is being sautéed in ox butter and I will n…

My daughter is born into the whore spit snarl of a Cape Hatteras hurricane. Beautiful and waxy, her delicate scent distilling the shedded taint of my own sweat, piss, and blood. Blue nostrils flare as tiny lungs struggle to fill, but for this, I app…

I’m staring at the clock. Just staring at it, waiting for it to tick off a minute at which point I will have exactly one hour left of this hell. My brother the crazy artist says I’m not living my life. He says that I’ve sold my soul. via Pocket

The tech switches on the IV and they hear the gentle hum of the pump kick in. She’s correct; a deathly cold is already gripping his extremities. Hayden lays back in the foam recliner and shuts his eyes. The woman smiles as she tidies up the medical …

Author: John Xero “The storm is upon us,” Barrett states grimly, finally looking away from his monitor, finally acknowledging the absence of hope. “How bad?” As if I need to ask. “Bad enough.” He shakes his head. via Pocket

Zach opens his AI tutor and selects “Asteroid Belt” from the index. In his learning visor, 3D images of spinning rocks reflect the sun. A male voice narrates: “The Asteroid Belt is located between –” Zach fast forwards. “There are three major types …

Author: Rollin T. Gentry Despite what Detective Bouchard still believes, I did not kill Cassandra Gibbons. I didn’t kill her two years ago, and I sure as hell didn’t kill her again this morning. via Pocket

Pillars of flame smothered the Trac’s windows as it descended swiftly through outer atmosphere. The craft’s accommodations were quite decadent: cushioned seats, masseuses, and gleaming trays of food and liquor crowded to the edges of the heat-blaste…