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 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 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 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 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…
Read moreUnauthorized 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…
Read moreThe 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…
Read moreMoney Problems, A Level Head Story
By Nicholas Woods Image Courtesy of Nicholas Woods Some mornings start off slow and light and easy. And some mornings, a man gets his heart ripped out. Cliff Fonseca stood in the corner of his bedroom staring at several bills, each tagged with ominous red letters of warning. Menacing words like overdue, interest, and account…
Read moreHappybot
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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