Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer I hate old servers. Not ‘old’ like they peddle on the upgrade-your-old-one-now streams, but genuinely aged kit still running despite all odds. There’s a lot of it o…

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer Mareck’s Sensei had spent countless hours sitting in front of his bonsai tree, studying it, almost communing with it, and occasionally making an almost impe…

Author : Owen Vince We suited up to see it, the last star. We donned thick helmets and heavy gear and passed from the airlocks into emptiness. Some would not come, could not face the terrible sadne…

Author : J.R.Blackwell, Staff Writer The recruiter says that you are a dumbass. He tells you he wouldn’t put you in the infantry for the eighteen worlds, because you would get someone shot. Later…

The thousand babies slept in the high, dry grass as late summer breezes caressed their cradles. Local farmers, paid by the government not to grow food, had abandoned the field and left their farm e…

Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer Darwin was wrong. The Burgarii Collective is living proof of that. Watching the massive arcologies floating above the old city is surreal – mountains literally…

Author : S. Clough aka Hrekka She bent the corners of the cards up off the table, as if checking their values. She didn’t even see them – her focus was on Mayweather across the table. S…

Author : Kate Runnels Saree had been sentenced to five hours on the alien planet where her crime had been committed. Where on any human controlled planet or sector, what she had done would not even…

Author : Bob Newbell “Captain Ree’Eer’Ak reporting as ordered,” said the alien who, from a human perspective, might have been described as some nightmarish character from a …

Subject 643-M, age eight, sits cross-legged on the floor. Before him, a wide array of screens flicker rapidly, some with pictures, some words, some numbers. Thick tubes connect from the ceiling to …

Author : Suzanne Borchers The hot breeze whispered through the sparse vegetation around their home. Heat waves rose choking Sybil’s lungs with the acrid fumes. She knelt on bruised painful knees in…

Author : Jules Jensen I stopped and sighed, and then crossed my arms. This wasn’t a normal game animation, but there was no one out this far, so I didn’t have to pretend. A field of short gra…

Author : Sarah Mendonca “Luke.” Slumped in the alley, the woman repeated the name like a prayer, mostly forgotten long ago. No, that wasn’t it. “Jason.” Passersby ignored her: just another failed r…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer Old Avon looks up: “That’s going to cost you.” He always says that. Doesn’t matter if you pick up a piece of twine or a gold ring, his opening lines are fixed. I gr…

Author : Jules Jensen The world is dangerous. “Yes, I know this.” No, you don’t. People will kill you for water, for food, for anything you have that is even slightly better than what they have. Th…

Author : Leanne A. Styles The Guardian: I watch with sadness as Anna tugs her brush through her damp hair, yanking unsympathetically when she hits a tangle. She never used to be so angry and uncari…

Author : Bob Newbell The low rumbling sound in my starship goes up in both pitch and volume. Even through the Koliada’s graviton fields and inertia attenuators, I can feel the vessel shudderi…

Author : Duncan Shields The black non-stick plastic of the cop’s fist presses my fat lips up against my teeth until they split. The drugs from the gas are slowing all this down and adding the col…

Author : Gordon Day The man was dressed in ivory and on his chest for all to see was a red bolt, declaring his allegiance to the Militant Atheist order. His audience did not know it yet, but he wou…

Author : Sarah Klein I sat in the dark doom of my living room, gazing absentmindedly at the television screen. They’d be drawing numbers in about two minutes. I knew my number wasn’t go…

Author : Bob Newbell As the sun went down over the giant dome that covered Mesogaea on Mars, moisture condensed on the dome’s inner surface. Soon, it was raining over the enclosed metropolis.…

Author : Matthew Harrison Susan led Tommy by the hand into the kindergarten forecourt, past the big red climbing frame. “No, not yet,” she said, dragging him back. “Wait until the break.” “You know…

Author : Elora Powell Just an ordinary day. Woke up. Had breakfast. Went to work. Came home and made coffee. Sat down in front of the TV. Some old movie was on. Black and white. About a mad scienti…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “Abomination!” “You’re very rude.” I rotate my right forearm through a rapid one-eighty. There is a ‘snap’. “And dead.” Bamid rises from cover: “Weren’t you suppose…

Author : David Atos You look like a worm to me. No, please, don’t be offended. That’s the best way I can describe it to you. To your poor mind, trapped only able to see three dimensions, while you …

Author : Philip Berry Carl insisted that he travel alone. The invitation was sent to him, the wording made it clear that they were interested in his ideas, and the fact that he was only fifteen mad…

Author : Suzanne Borchers The black button seemed to sneer from its instrument panel at the two technicians facing each other with their hands resting on either side of it. They were the only two h…

Author : D.J. Rozell Liam’s eyes wandered down the conference table of potential investors calibrating what level of formality would be perceived as both confident and competent. “OK, so there are …

Author : Jules Jensen He looked like the most average business man in the world. He even carried a briefcase in one hand. I wondered if he packed away a pitchfork or angel wings or horns or a halo …

Author : David Henson Ro and Ju are holding hands on a platform under a busy leviway when a sparrow lands nearby. Ro releases Ju’s hand, draws his DeathRay, and fires. The sparrow glows brigh…