Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer Billy-Jim Crenshaw was snoozing in his swamp shack when the explosion shook him fast awake. “What th’…?” He scrambled to his feet and, throwing the crooked door …

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer “Brigitte! Slow down!” I thought I loved Adrian. I really did. I even fooled myself for the first year of our Outer Reaches tour. Then on Certys I had to stop him t…

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The white Silracan clicked its chest-legs together and reared back in what was the human equivalent of a bored sigh. Between it and the hologram of the Earth f…

Author : Kellie Warren We never thought we would be the ones. We weren’t smart enough. To discover new worlds, new planes of existence, new life. You had to be intelligent for that. Some might have…

Author : Glen Luke Flanagan “These monstrosities are a threat to national security, to morality as we know it, and to our very sense of self.” Senator Ethan Calhoun punctuated the last statement by…

Author : Desmond Hussey, Staff Writer I needed to disappear. Fast. I never wanted a criminal life. It’s not like I killed anybody, or stole the nation’s pension plans, unlike some governments which…

Author : Thomas Keene Every metal surface inside the cabin sang, and the readouts flickered. A steady, pure note that Charles called “the Banshee”. Evan clenched the crew telemetry read…

Author : Scott Shipp Ian was cornered. He had run straight into a dead end alley. Right on his heels were two cyborg cops, and he had the money credits hacked from the bank all over his data stores…

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer John Jones leaned heavily on the counter in the hotel bathroom, a haggard face he barely recognized staring back at him from the full width mirror. Six o’cl…

Malcolm should have been thinking about shrimp, but he was thinking about Sumitra’s smile instead. He hated himself for it, but he was almost glad for the leak in the shrimp pond, since it ga…

Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer I’d always wanted my own planet, and now my dreams were about to come true. Sure it was my entire life savings plus everything of value I had. But what a deal! I…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer The cigar from the dead guard’s pocket has a red and gold band that says it’s from Havana, the first pleasant surprise of tonight. “Ricky. Help me.” I look across t…

Author : Dina Leacock I sat at the table for two and waited for my date to arrive. We’d been emailing since we first “met” on “Find-True-Love.com and now we were finally going to meet. Taking the m…

Author : Mordecai J Banda Michael had come back from his daily walk. He had eaten his breakfast and attended to various things to keep himself healthy. Now it was gaming time. This past month the F…

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The shapeshifting aliens are untrustworthy. It’s not their fault. They see the world for what it is, through a kaleidoscope. Us humans, we only get to se…

Author : Philip Berry “Just see what you can do with it Tak, if you’d be so good. No great urgency.” muttered Johnson, Alec Tak’s immediate superior in the Office of Colonie…

Author : Steve Smith, Staff Writer My eyes were the first to go. They’d been deteriorating since my mid thirties, and after a bacterial infection in my early forties I couldn’t focus on…

Author : Joseph Lyons A few years ago I was lucky enough to land a reasonably well paid job. Like most well paid jobs in this system it meant not great work in a not great place. It was a mining fa…

Author : Tiasha J. Garcia “This was not how I imagined this going.” The words drifted into the pristine silence, disturbing nothing and no one. “I–I thought there’d be more time.”…

Author : Joseph Lyons I put my mother in a home a few months ago when her Alzheimer’s became too much for me to deal with. Now here I stood with early-onset, refusing to go the same route. The doct…

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer He’s at the door ag- BANG! Loud. Never try and creep up on a paranoid woman with pre-menstrual hypervigilance and a pistol. I usually spend three days screaming at …

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…

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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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…