Author
Rich Larson
Someone Else
Suddenly I can feel someone else in the machine--another presence, another dancing pattern in the simulated synapses. Foreign and familiar at the same time. It can only mean one thing: after a decade and a half of uninterrupted neural mapping, of mass-scale solar consumption,…
Business Is Suppurating
"What do we got this time?" Pidge asks, while the airlock cycles. "Lost colony ship? Ill-fated mining operation?" I check the contract in my helmet. "SaturCorp research vessel," I say. "Researching something highly classified." "What are the chances," Pidge mutters.…
Mind Blown
"Snappy dresser," Barbier says, taking a pull off his vape. "Professor," Shadrack says. Below the neck, the corpse is immaculate: shiny brown loafers, tailored trousers, a cashmere sweater over a crisp white shirt and lilac tie. He appears to have died in his favorite chair, a…
Feel Me
Ten more seconds allotted for happiness. Aster blinks. Grits her teeth. She hadn't realized she was happy--she'd been staring at the dandelion field, the first thing to pop up on her feed, without a single thought in her head. But the swaying yellow-green sea is beautiful, and…
Moose Trap
**********Editor's Note: Crude, adult language in this story************ I'm poking the moose carcass with a branch when Masha's call blinks onto my eyeQ. "Hey, sexy," I say, undoing my breath mask. "How's work?" "Why are you in the woods?" Her voice is terse. "Your map's all…
Pilgrim Problems
"You can't wear sunglasses while you're working. This is Colonial-era New England. There are no sunglasses. Our visitors deserve an authentic experience, Katherine." Kat got in one last eye roll from behind the safety of her sunglasses before she took them off and stowed them in…
Horseplay
Jaro only just joined external maintenance, but I can already tell he’s a cocky little shit. Walks around talking about all the sim time he’s done, like that makes him ready for real hullwork, and then this thing with the helmet? We’re not supposed to have favorites when it…
Petrosinella
"You did this, you know," the ogress said. She hefted the boy's head so Petrosinella could see the ragged scarlet hole in his throat. The boy, who had climbed so quickly and so cleverly, light as a cat, whose beautiful brown hands had caressed every part of her. He'd said he was…
Moving Day
The Sessie is the size of a redwood, a lattice of entwined stalks that tremble and swivel in slow ripples, reaching and retracting. It towers over the rest of the fungal forest. I've seen holos of it, of course, but in real life, viewed from the open fuselage of a quadcopter,…
We're Talking About Practice
The Andersons' Subaru was doing their best to drop Suz off at soccer practice, but the little girl was, yet again, having none of it. She was slouched in the back middle seat, staring out the window. "Suz, it's 3:32 on Sunday afternoon!" the Andersons' Subaru announced. "Soccer…
Some Of These Stars Might Already Be Gone
"Come on, Bea. I said I was sorry. Can't we just roll back?" Bea is sitting on the couch with one hand clenched between her knees, the other propping up her head. She is staring straight ahead, but her Stream is shielded so Tyus can't tell if she's watching a show or messaging…
Playmates
"I'm doing my very best, you know," Caretaker says, its synthesized voice cool and melodic and carefully betraying no trace of annoyance. Sybil only shakes her head. She is tucked up into the furthest corner of the concrete bunker, her skinny arms wrapped around her shins, nubby…
Safe Space
Novapolis was like no city Gen had ever seen in her life. The architecture flowed around her in graceful arcs and waves, all of it a gleaming white that seemed to gently press against her eyeballs. Battery pillars rose in small copses where denizens recharged their 'cycles.…
Pherobomb
***Editor's Note: Adult Story. Adults Only, Please*** Shadrack stepped through the swatch of yellow police hologram, slapping on his filter mask. "Thought you had a date," Barbier said. "Still do, if we wrap up fast." A writhing red-faced victim floated past on a gurney. "This…
Six Month Ocean
Cassie's six month contract passed like a fleeting dream, and then she was awake in neural recovery, sipping out of prepackaged cups of water and letting a bot festooned in yellow smiley face stickers check her vision, her balance, her reflexes. The wallscreen across from her…
The Sky Didn't Load Today
It was an aching white blank, with little fissures where code leaked out like drizzling rain, but nobody seemed to notice except Adelaide. "Nina, look," she said at recess, on the squeaking playground swings. "The sky's got a glitch." She kicked out hard, trying to soar high…
Chronology Of Heartbreak
Jack left the restaurant with red wine blooming through his shirt and Kristine sobbing into napkins. Tears had run tracks down her makeup and he almost, almost felt bad for her. But he'd cried just as hard eight months from now. No, harder. Kristine couldn't understand. This…
Last
He waited until Eta Carinae was in the viewport, roiling on its stellar winds. It was blinding. "Four hundred times the size of the old sun," he said. "Which, of course, fit upwards of a million Earths." She champed at the plastic in her mouth. "And at peak population, Earth…