By Sean Marmon For weeks, the restless energy had undulated upon the Sea of Tranquility. It violently writhed in its desperate search for stability, pulsing with colors and cycling through countless shapes and structures, evaluating and rejecting them all until, finally, the erratic bounding slowed. Edges began to establish a foundation in the dust and…
Read moreThe Bandits of White Bend
By J.G. Proctor Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash The tavern door slammed open, letting a gale of boisterous voices blow over the tavern’s patrons. “Break open your finest reserves, my good man, my brothers and I have a thirst,” a young man called out, carrying the rich vowels and self-serious tones of an…
Read moreAbner 2000
By Paul Stansbury On Saturday, May 16, 2195, at 8:36:31 a.m., Binar stepped out of the shadowy woods into the sunshine. Ultra-rapid micro photovoltaic cells embedded in his composite framework began collecting their energy. Across the way, a ragtag group gathered on the flat square of grass once known as Devol Field. Amid raucous laughter…
Read moreRat Race
By Nino Bonura I’ve always been a speed junkie. The first time I looked up at the tricked-out ships screeching in and out of the spaceport that raised me, I knew it was where I belonged. No wind resistance. No gravity. No friction. Just you, your ship, and the void. Everyone around me’s always been…
Read moreThe Rhythm of Enchantment
By Blessing Gibson Sylva sensed the stranger entering the wood long before he arrived. With dirty, travel-worn clothes and wind-tossed, tangled hair, he reached the cottage at last. With relief and surprise written equally on his face, he took in the smoke rising from the cob chimney and the chickens clucking in the yard. He…
Read moreLeap Years
by Paul Booth The Leaping in was easy. The Leaping out was proving more difficult. Cindy Garratt flinched at the fireworks outlining the locked door. She swatted madly at the Leaper 1G she’d just stolen, intending to toggle the night-vision setting of her contacts off, but it was too late: it felt like sparks exploding…
Read moreCallous 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…
Read moreThe 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…
Read moreBreach
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…
Read moreThe 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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