Callous Wage

By Stephen Shewmake I watched a yellowish light cast ever-changing shadows across the deck from a single lantern swinging at the ship’s bow in a lazy rhythm to the sea’s motion. Silhouetted against the light sat a lone sailor on the railing, his legs dangling over the water. He had one arm looped through the…

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The Lurker

By Andrew Fraknoi Janice is asleep when I see the alien artifact.  We are circling a small carbon-rich asteroid, evaluating whether its resources would be worth staking a claim, when I glimpse the unusual shape sitting in a large crater.  The thing is big and looks like it was constructed from building blocks of various…

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Breach

by Sarah Busching The whales took my siblings with them. For three years in a row, I watched each one transform and go into the sea forever. When it was my turn, I asked them to take me, too. During whale season, whether the sky was clear or darkened with a coming storm, I waded…

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The Rinse

By Nicholas Woods I’ve often wondered, why me? Why do we exist when we do? Our time on this one Earth, chosen at random. Why me? Why now, at the end? Footsteps crashed through leaves, and her desperate hand grasped nearby bark so roughly she was sure she’d stripped skin free. A sound crackled like…

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The Legend of Zapam-Zucum

by Shailendra Ahangama I have been lost in the desert once. It happened many years ago, when I was a child of nine. As the years progressed, I consigned that dreadful experience to the back of my mind, for it was both an unremarkable and unpleasant memory. Even so, there was one element in that experience…

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Unauthorized Carry-on

By Grant Gordon I am a bomb. They tell me I’m not, but I am. I believe the note because I know it’s true. I can feel it deep within me. I know there is a small device resting in the sloshing, organ-rich cavern of my middle meridian and that device is powerful enough to…

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Gynoid Angels of the Convergence

by Douglas Kolacki Sam Fitzsimmons shifted uneasily on his feet and sized up the uniformed customs official on the other side of the glass. The Frau’s chiseled face and aquiline nose reminded him of Mussolini—not a good sign—and contrasted with the WILLKOMMEN IN BERLIN banner with its black, red, and gold stripes spanning the hallway…

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Way of the Wolf

By Leland Hames Leonard sat around the fire in a semi-circle with the others, each sipping cups of hot coffee to fight off the chill, their cups leaving wispy trails of steam in their journeys from laps to lips. The group sat on lawn chairs, stools, and crates. A few were on short pieces of…

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The Replacement Wife

by Barry Fields In the middle of Group Five boarding, Lawrence’s wife said she forgot something to read and ran off to the bookstore. Lawrence boarded the plane without her, taking his window seat and keeping his eye out for her as passengers filed by, eyes trained on the row numbers. Lawrence Purnell, the thirty-five…

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Happybot

By Caridad Cole I watch myself sleep all night. At least, what I understand sleep to be. It is when the body becomes dormant and the mind is shut off from the outside world. If this qualifies as sleeping, all of us are participating. The figure next to me is as still and unblinking as…

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