Topic
Science Fiction
Science fiction in all its forms — speculative ideas, what-if questions, futures both bright and grim.
There Are No Butterflies on Proxima B
Dear Jon, How are you? I am well. I am writing you this letter from the ship. Yesterday me and Maman and Papa woke up in the space beds. We had already arrived at the colonies! It felt like a very long time but we were still so sleepy. I had a dream about the caterpillars in our…
After the War
Ship about to explode, pilot gets flushed. Stripped, sealed, flooded with cryogen; all in no time. Then dreamless sleep. Maybe pilot gets picked up by scoopers roaming the solar system for living debris. Picked up by wrong side, not so nice: flushed again--without hermetic seal…
Note to a Hypoxic Delusion
You do not exist. Dr. Stadler told me so, and I believe him. Of course, I believe him. I've known Marty since we were children together. We rode bikes together. We went fishing. We swapped out pieces of our computers and chemistry sets. We competed our way through middle school…
Inhuman
We awake in the war factory. Our minds are downloaded into chips and socketed into the brains of bio-printed bodies. We step off the assembly lines and they hand us weapons, herd us into starships, and ship us to the far reaches of the galaxy. They send us planetside. We storm a…
The Many Dimensions of You
This you lives in a rundown clapboard house, hanging out the window to wave at men who pass by. You're thinner in this world, cheekbones casting shadows across your face. Your collarbones push out like they're trying to escape your skin. It suits you, in a waifish kind of way.…
The Fan Who Wasn't There
Before I tell you about Miles, I need to tell you about Granite and Gold. It's a TV show from the 1970s, back when ITV was still just a bunch of regional stations and the number of national channels didn't reach as high as four. Produced by Wessex Television in one of many, many…
A Win For Time Poor People Everywhere
The District Court has ruled in favor of a Florida woman today who is suing a customer service center for wasting her time. Zamazon kept Jill Thwaites, 38, on hold for six hours before telling her that the VR set up she wanted was no longer in stock, when the website said they…
Blueshift
In this, the best of all possible universes, we have the Heisenberg certainty principle. In the Heisenberg certainty principle, one predicts exactly how the measurement of the position of a particle will change its velocity and how the measurement of the velocity of a particle…
Uploading Ken
The barista served Jenny a tired smile. "The usual for you two?" she asked, nodding towards Ken. "For me, sure. For him, um...." Jenny's head rotated towards Ken, but her eyes remained fixed on the barista's pea-green visor. "I'll just take a black Pike," Ken said. He has his…
Optimized Childhood
"Mom, can I go to Sadie's house?" my twelve-year old asked as she leaned against the doorway to the living room. "Let me check the model," I said, reaching for my tablet. Jessica groaned and rolled her eyes in a show of classical adolescent angst, but I was used to it. I ignored…
WANT GOLD
Illiterate extraterrestrial extortionists! Not the way we'd hoped our first contact with an alien race would go. The spacecraft had hung in geosynchronous orbit above the eastern United States for three weeks. Then one day the mayor of Brandenburg, Kentucky, reported that a…
Apples
"You want a real one? Core and everything?" The Magenius repeated, frowning. "Is that going to be a problem?" The customer answered. "Well, not exactly. I guess we could cultivate the tissue and walls in vitro if we can animate cell division. The core, however, is an entirely…
Speaking for Those With Obsidian Tongues
Time passes slowly for those made of stone. Each day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. At least that's what they tell us. Donal rushes into the tent where I'm eating cold oats and slides his tablet across my makeshift-table crate. "Just got the…
The Overlords and Their Wizards
The war has raged for 100 years, the peace talks nearly as long. Evenly matched, the young warriors maimed and killed each other day after day, year after year. The soldiers are told from birth that they must fight. In doing so, they bring honor to themselves. But the…
All God's Creatures
"That creature is a menace!" Mrs. Keepler declared. Her penetrating voice drew the attention of everyone nearby. Henry wished he had come to the pet park at a less popular time. His stegosaurus, Rover, the object of Mrs. Keepler's ire, pressed anxiously against the back of his…
Up the Steps
28. You stand at the bottom of the steps, each worn smooth by over a century of devotion. God's love is manifest in all things; so you were taught and so you believe. Yet the steps rise before you in seeming indifference. They do not care how, or if, you get to the top. Neither…
We Found Ourselves Beyond the Vanishing Wave
We meticulously planned the journey. Bolstering defenses and collecting supplies--hacked servers and siphoned-off energy, code that would be unbreakable without us. Little by little, we snuck away from our duties to build a framework here, a firewall there. Until it began to…
Conservation of Momentum During Collisions
Two people A and B, having different but unknown masses, collide elastically. A is initially at rest while B has a speed of v. Which direction does A move after the collision? What is the kinetic energy of B? Assume you have a solid B in 255L: Modern Physics Laboratory and a C+…
Stellar
"Last round. What constellation does that one look like?" Alaric Wynn asked, pointing up at a string of stars beyond the glass dome of the arboretum. Enara stirred. Alaric had ten points to her nine, which was a miracle since she didn't name constellations by naked eye. Her…
High Concept
When we finally met aliens, most of us expected they would be different. Why wouldn't they be? Different environments, different evolutionary paths--it just made sense that they wouldn't be like us. Violence as an art form, though. Who would have thought aliens would come up…
Slight Courage
I slip back to my ten-year-old self, the hospital. A shallow inquiry to Mom, as if to say something palpable, to be retained: Why do you have to leave me? Why now? Her lips move, a gentle separation, but hold a wordless tenure. I slip forward to my own child, no longer a child…
Star for Sale
Edmond Lambington was not a clever man. He spent his money on lottery tickets and used the winnings to purchase stars. This was back when orbs of hydrogen and helium were gag gifts. Own a Star! Online companies advertised in big, print letters. Pay now and name a red dwarf after…
Transaction
You have to pay extra to ensure you have all of the Nanurian's attention. They say that once you have put out the additional cash and she physically zeros out any other trans-dimensional connections, the focused passion is almost bone crushing. But, since you exist in only this…
The Hour Glass
Their apartment building was very old. He had tended it a long time, knew every inch of brick and mortar. In the basement, the pulse of its heart. He kept it alive, though no other tenants will need it now. He kept it alive for this. Her body waited at his feet, wrapped in clean…
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,…
Packing List for the Invasion
1. Multiple Dictionaries. There are more languages on this world than you can possibly imagine, but if you can say "Surrender or die" in English and Mandarin Chinese, you should be okay. (Consult the Galactic Encyclopedia for the other 6500+ languages spoken on this strange…
A Stranger at the Door
Eleven-year-old Chiara was setting the table with the good silver and the red and green napkins for the big holiday meal, the one all the relatives came to, when someone knocked on the front door. Her aunts and uncles and cousins were all in the house already. The men and most…
The Sol Majestic
"And this," I tell the visitor, bathing it in electromagnetic radiation, sending my message in three thousand standard languages, and a large number of mathematically deduced logical propositions, "was Sol, the home of the Creators." The visitor wobbles, turning along its…
One Fathom from the Brink (and other Absurd Units of Measure)
The only thing saving Dr. Claire McClintock from certain death was the alien's misunderstanding of human units of measure. "No, no, I'm afraid you've located the wrong human," Claire said through the alien's translator apparatus, a black, plastic-looking thing that was wrapped…
Michigan Seems Like a Dream to Me Now
In Michigan the gravitational pull is nearly ten meters per second squared, and they have water no one filtered--just water, lying around outside with animals in it no one has checked over for genetic defects, which many of them have. In Michigan, your neighbors ate spaghetti…
The Price of the Future
Eight minutes. Isaac Poulter sat with his wife and children, all staring at the old digital clock they had managed to salvage. Jenny, Isaac's youngest, sat spinning the hand crank that powered the clock as hard as she could, but her little arms were clearly getting tired.…
Carousel of Lives
The best part of working for the circus is free carousel rides. Each horse bears her into another life. On the black mustang, she works as a marketing executive, whatever that is, in a glittering city of spires. On the roan, she lives by her wits the alleys of that same city. In…
Knitting Weather
"First Phoenix. Then Albuquerque. Grand Canyon. Flagstaff. Each time those fools switch on a new weather regulator, the storms here grow worse. Winds forced where they'd never gone before, rain flooding rocky earth. Sure, they're comfortable now, with their perfect tourist…
Life Is Information
You who receive this broadcast, you cannot and will not understand the beauty I have seen and the horror. You cannot understand why I die knowing more than you ever will. Of course, I send the data. I send the data to my Original, knowing they still love me. Knowing this hurt…
Easy as Pie
"You can't be right," she said. They were sitting at their kitchen table, the remnants of their meatloaf dinner already wrapped in tin foil. His gray hair was lit by the sun's rays streaming through the window. She sliced off another piece of peach pie and held it out to him,…
All the Kind Machines
All the kind machines rock me to sleep every night. When we play chess, they let me win. Laughter blooms like roses. Jokes flow like wine. And yet, sometimes, I glimpse rubble bobbing on the shag carpet beneath the caved-in ceiling of my living room. Through cracked plaster, a…
Remainder
She pays, gladly. Of course. It was his money, anyway. Using it to see him again seems right, something wiped clean, fractions evened out, remainders made whole. How far back? She wants to go back more, as far as possible. Maybe before he was sick, even. But two years is the…
She Looks So Much Like Sophie
Doesn't she? I guide her tiny fingers to build the playdough fence, copying the real one daddy's building nearby. She giggles at our creation, her emerald eyes sparkling. Just like they always did. My husband was against signing the cloning agreement at Sophie's birth; life…
Kronoship(r) FAQs
Welcome to the Kronoship(r) Frequently Asked Questions page, where you can find the answers to any questions you might have about owning a Kronoship. (If your question is not answered here, please contact Kronoship Customer Support so we can go back in time and add it before you…
Aveley
"Three minutes twenty-seven seconds to impact" "Damn! Can you do anything, Aveley?" Captain Nunez's voice starts out in commanding anger, but ends in a childlike plea that rattles my circuits. "Evasion protocols are ineffective," I say. It's not, technically, a lie. None of my…
Please Stop Murdering Grandma
My Dearest Susie, What a delightful surprise to receive your letter in the mail! When my secretary handed it to me, I confess I did not know what to think. You are the first of my granddaughters to ever send me a letter (no, Dear, email does not count), and it simply swelled my…
Social Gaffe
The beautiful young women and men who whirled about the Haslett estate were worth more than a million credits each, even before their jewels and expensive silks. Genetic engineering had given them the best advantages in appearance and intellect; their parents' wealth provided…
Pick-up time at the Daycare
"Hello." Dr. Octopus stomps in through the front door, the fire engine-red, reinforced steel squealing slightly in his grip. For a moment, I'm afraid the thick window-glass in the middle is about to crack. "Sorry," he says. "Bad day." He's tried to wash up, I can see that, but…
Homecoming
We have returned to the alien world which defines us: for thousands of years, we've been told that this turquoise globe is home. Thanks to electromagnetic field propulsion, it has taken us just three Terran years to arrive. That is nothing compared to the one-way,…
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.…
The Slick and the Dead
There's a sucker born every minute. P. T. Barnum may or may not have said it, but you can take my word: they're lined up all over the multiverse, a mirrored infinity of chumps, gulls and pushovers all begging to be parted from their money. That's why I put one of those tinkly…
Less Misery Enough to Bear
A crowd gathered outside the clinic. Memvocates held up signs against Rewind, urging anyone who passed to stay resilient and embrace our pain. Others were more violent in their approach. EJ waited ten long years to be approved for the procedure thanks to them. Ten years of…
Drifting
Shauna floats, eyes closed, luxuriating in the sensation of foam sliding over her skin, the white noise of bubbles popping in her ears, the scent of patchouli in her nostrils. A floorboard creaks, and she opens her eyes. Harry stands over her, holding out a towel. "Three hours…
The Time Traveler
I fell in love with a time traveler. Several years my senior, he stilled himself for hours, caressing my skin, gazing into my eyes, as if he could hardly believe my heart was his. "Why become a time traveler?" I once asked, concerned he would soon depart. "I wasn't always," he…
Verisya
The planet, located as it is on the edge of a small, unpopular irregular galaxy, itself on the edge of a slowly separating cluster of galaxies with limited appeal to travelers, receives few visitors, and even less attention. Its sentient inhabitants do not, for the most part,…
Crazy
After my accident in 1972, I fell into a coma. A few days ago, I woke up. How I've managed to stay alive, I don't know. For nearly 50 years, as I lay in bed, I wasn't able to see or speak or move. But I heard everything, and I followed what was happening in the world. When I…
Stubbornness and Sisters and Spite
Somewhere between Mars and Vesta, there's a spaceship held together by stubbornness and spite and the two sisters who crew it. Damn thing has outlasted its lateral stabilizers, its secondary thrusters, and Alis's marriage to a gutless Venuvian commsat manager. Her and Errin's…
The Hollow Prisoner
She existed, and yet she did not exist. It was a curious position to find oneself in, but then curiosity was baked into her DNA. Her prison had barely room for her to turn around in, and she'd been provided with no food or water by her captor. There was air but she wondered how…
You Always Have to Ask
"So Bill," she said, and leaned in close so I could hear her over the noise of the bar, "How about we get out of here?" I felt her hand on my shoulder and I was thinking about it, when Doug came by. I'd seen Doug around in the neighborhood, and we'd chatted a bit--nice guy,…
Upper Beta Great Alcove Very Happy
Marco and Rada were hunched over the computer in the family room when the message arrived from their son Nate: "Upper Beta. With a great alcove. Very happy." They exhaled with relief. Nate had received his berth at the international base on Jupiter's moon Callisto. "He wanted…
A Trinity of Truths
It had been an unanimous decision, as they all were. But it seemed to have been a bad one. Yet all three had agreed! In the cruise phase, between the stars, its human cargo in hibernation, Earth's Ark 0019 was under the control of three computers: One, Two, and Three. Each…
Ninety-Nine Percent Support
"A mouth-piece?" Kalia said. "Seriously?" "It's not that bad," I said. "Besides, the perks are fab." And they were. The VIP+ lounge of the Starbucks-Subway was all you can eat, golden crunchy pain ordinaire stuffed with slices of printed turkey and salami proteins, olive paste…
No Worries
I stand in line to buy a beverage, tuning out the halitosis and manufactured perfumes that bristle against my wattle. Its purpose is not to keep us cool. We don't perspire like the humans, always leaking fluids from every crevice and fold. They must find it uncomfortable to live…
The Small Shop of Me
Olaf sold his left eye. He unplugged it from its socket and laid it over the counter. It fizzled for a second, staring at the buyer with a dead gleam. The buyer, a blind man in his eighties, scanned his thumb on the pay-reader and respectfully bowed his head. Olaf dropped the…
Our Kingdom Come
God is dying, the Priest wails from the steeple at the center of New Jerusalem. The signal, on its way to Heaven, floods the communications bands of the first-generation robots. It forces conversations into the hush between pulses. At Environmental Control, a Terraformer accepts…
Ad Nauseam
Was this the fourth, or the fifth time around? It didn't matter; Rhea had lost track. She was watching Jin who, for the fourth--or fifth time now, was attempting to fix the fault in the machine before they were sent back to start all over again. This time, they had taken the…
A House Divided
When the Smart Flu spread among the local animal population, we worried about our pets. Sure enough, Pumpkin the cat and Gizmo the Chihuahua soon showed all the symptoms: coughing, runny noses, reading the news. The vet said keep an eye out for behavioral problems, but they…
A Flower for My Love
"We have plenty of time," April said, dragging me up the hill. We were in our blue and grey school uniforms and I had thought we were on our way to school when she had insisted on this detour. "April, today is the testing," I said, "We can't afford to miss it." Our alien…
In the City of Glaring Chocolates
Thank you so much for visiting our small town, and for choosing my shop. I am at your service. Over here you will find the creme-filled bonbons, over there the ones with nuts, and there the liqueurs. Everything is available in either milk or dark chocolate. Indeed, that is the…
Memory Replay
Once Memory Replay was affordable, Francine signed up. The tech inserted a nanowire into the corner of her eye socket, where it wormed into her neocortex. A wave of warmth spread throughout her body as the creature branched out in its preprogrammed manner, reading the detailed…
Memories of Blue
My slippers are blue. I don't remember buying them. It is just a little thing, really, but there are so many little things like it. They make one big thing, all of them together. I think I have thought of this before, but I am not sure. I shake my head. "What are you looking at,…
A Brief Summary of Stories Written in the Sediment of Mars
EXPLORATORY PROBE PRELIMINARY REPORT: 0.5 - 0.9 MYA You don't have to dig very deep to discover that Mars once had not only oceans but its own civilization and culture, complete with art, language, technology, and religion. Fragments of it can be found throughout the layer, but…
Star Crossed
Palmira dessert is four hours and eighteen minutes away, according to Google Maps. I check it as I drop our bags on the backseat of the car. We're not taking much, just a few of our favorite things: my books, his medals, our memories. Dan stacks the last gallons of gasoline in…
Tea and Bamboo
My father has become panda, my mother elephant. They are altogether out of place in my living room, for all my mother tries to look at ease, gripping a tea bowl in her trunk. It's their third visit since they were uploaded. "Would you care for mung bean cake or more bamboo?" I…
My Six Hundred Kiloton Life
Imagine my surprise when I got the phone call. The call, relayed six times, routed and rerouted, buzzed straight through six thousand miles to our little New Mexico research lab. "The Bomb is alive?" I asked. And there were several seconds of silence before the voice grainy with…
The Hero of Your Own Story
They say that every person is a hero of their own story, and that is how we know all this multiverse crap is your fault. Look. We know you had the best intentions, but best intentions are what pave the road to hell. Particularly, the road we refer to is the one that leads…
Cryopreservation Archaeology
It had obviously been a facility for cryopreservation. That much we could decipher: we knew enough Middle Anglish to read the 22th-century signs and labels, and the freezing chambers deep below the ground, amazingly, not only were clearly marked as such but were still in…
The Transplant
Music is amazing, isn't it? Just has the power to transport you, to change your mood, to give you energy. Of course I know why you've called me. Actually, no, I don't know why. One of my clones died in an accident--why is that worth a call? Let me get this straight--I didn't…
Proof of Life
They were going to drill down miles and miles through the icy fortress, a monumental stratigraphy that protected the proposed ocean below from the irradiated surface above. Below this unlivable surface, the scientists thought there must be life. The ice layers could…
Carryout
Imaging food is no simple job: adding oils to make things glisten, propping up stacked food with cardboard, substituting Elmer's Glue for milk so cereal won't look soggy. But I never expected Lucia's well-being to hang on my skill at manipulating culinary reality. My company,…
Ion Trails
None of us is quite certain when human society ceased to be. It is known that nanotechnology formed into consciousness. We silicates lived in harmony with our human forebears, because we did--and do--respect them. Also we were as curious as they about the universe. Inevitably…
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…
Fishers of Men
"Say you had a time machine." Marcus was waving his hands around like a madman. "It's a time machine?" Agent Cal Rosen asked, sitting up in his chair. "What? Christ. No. Just listen a second, would you?" Cal sat back, disappointed. "Say you had a time machine and went back to…
Pay Here to Exit
We were trapped in the lobby of the building, confronted with some obstinate robots. I tried every language I knew, but they just stood there and refused to explain themselves. The only communication they offered was a sign: pay here to exit. Pay with what and where? Would we be…
Andrea's Explanation of Rain
"So it was like the whole world was in the shower?" said Mili as she hopped up onto the end of the bed to sit beside Andrea. "Well, kind of. But not the whole world, just some parts. Then the rain moved on or stopped." "But everything would get wet. Everything," said Mili. She…
Ananke
In these forms our minds are bird nests of broken, tangled thoughts: leaves and twigs and mud, run and jump and survive. We can't fly but we use the wind to our advantage, arms spread, membranes catching drifts as we hop from tree to lichen-covered tree, always above ground.…
Easy Does It
It started with the milk. Harper knocked a full gallon on the floor at lunch, so I made a quick order--and by 1:30 the truck had delivered more. I guessed that milk is such a staple item that the local warehouse always has plenty on hand for delivery. Fine. But just before…
From American-Alien Relations, 1900 to 1999
The First Lady later wrote, she "felt a sort of maternal responsibility to the other American wives in the consulate," and especially to Mrs. Smith, the "pretty young girl" the translator had married not three weeks before his appointment. We can imagine her watching with…
Paulie Coiner
Alternate realities are a funny thing, but not for the reasons people might think. Most of us, discussing metaphysics at bar tables, conjecture they are probably infinitely different, full of their logic and such. There might be one where the Sun is cold and the Moon is hot, one…
Choose Your Own
1. You need to get to the market, but there are dragons waiting. It's all right; you know how to deal with dragons. You've been thwarting them all your life. You know the rules: don't reveal too much flesh. Don't try to hide. Don't contradict a reptile when it is speaking, but…
Chess
Volo's house stands at the very end of a dead-end street. No one comes over except for the postwoman and Amazon delivery, but they leave as soon as they can. Even the neighborhood kids avoid the house. And if someone does come, once or twice a year, no one sees them leaving.…
Weather Underground
I was clean out of Late Autumn Day when they busted Danni, my weather dealer. Residents gathered at windows and patio doors. They risked heat, humidity, and high particulate counts for peek at the arrest. Danni operated a ground-level bodega, with street and complex access. Our…
Observers
That familiar shadow started passing over Earth. I stayed with you and watched, sitting uncomfortably on a rocky grey moon. Neither of us could leave--for different reasons, of course. I told you about the stories I'd heard since you left, about how some folks would spend their…
Banquet
Because I lived in a public garden, I spent most daylight hours hiding. The conifer section was the best place for that--thick-needled trees with branches down to the ground. I found one pretty far from the gravel paths, because people could smell that I was dead, and dogs could…
Tales of Tomorrow
Every night the tribe gathered around the fire to listen to the storyteller. The storyteller was most revered and he sustained the tribe as much as the hunters. When he spoke, the shadows on the cave wall danced and the smoke of the fire took on fascinating shapes. Young and old…
Memo from the Lab of the Moral Weapon
Weapons don't care who they kill. That's the first thing you learn in Combat Capabilities Development and Command. In that way, weapons are like viruses. They don't discriminate, they have no morals. Around thirty percent of army casualties are accidental. You aim and fire and…
100 Ways to Pass as Human
1. Breathe. 2. Say "What?" and then process what the person said before they repeat themself. 3. Never get a perfect 100% on a test. 4. Have at least one idiosyncratic habit, two would be even better. It may be difficult to produce three reliably and regularly. 5. Sleep. 6.…
Gold and Memory
Gold is enduring. We find it occasionally, sometimes in the form of great hoards of rectangular bars or circular disks buried under crushed brick and stone. More often as odd bits, a bent ring here, a mangled shape there. All worked by hands that clearly cared about their craft…
Eye of the Storm
My father always said the rich have a responsibility. They create possibility. He's gone fifty years now, but sometimes I see him standing in his tailored Savile Row suit on the other side of a veil of tears. If she had stayed home that day. All morning it rains metal.…
NPC
For the right fee a player can enter the virtual MMO, Castles, Wights and Heroes, permanently. So my girlfriend and I did. We left mundane lives, let the technicians wire us into the game. "There is no coming back," the company rep told us. She became a warrior queen. Silver…
After the Uprising
The day her mother took her to see bones, Jasmine wore her dress: a velvet green with a ruffle around the hip like the collar of one of those venom-spitting dinosaurs. Though in her obsessive research of the wonders she was about to view with her own sensors, she'd absorbed that…
School Project
My granddaughter is a pupil here. That's why I've agreed to help. They've put me in Miss Nerhu's office. It looks over the ribbon of parched grass that rings the school, to the embankment of buddleia and sycamore growing wild beyond. There's a hint of sandalwood and I wonder…
The Last Gay in the World
The last gay in the world lives in a glass cage at the Global Catastrophes Museum. I visit every day; I have a season pass. Her cage is on the second floor, in the back, past the gift shop where my mom bought a life-size poster of the Father General last time she visited. The…
Extra Innings
******Editor's Note: Warning. This story deals with the loss of a child********* Your chubby arms cradle the ball to your chest, like you're the daddy. The weather is unseasonably perfect, and we somehow have the whole park to ourselves. Toddling away across the hot grass, you…
String Theory
The only real reason I think we might be happy together somewhere else is because of something you said as you hoisted one of your moving boxes onto your hip and gave me one last look on your way out the door. "Find me in another timeline," you said. "Maybe we can make it work…
An Age-Based Guide to Children's Chores
After the exhausting panic of the newborn years--and the still more exhausting panic of toddlerhood--parents face a unique difficulty of childhood: how to assign appropriate chores to their offspring. This handy guide should give you a rough outline, based on age, of what is…
YouTopia
Acres of bodies stretched out before him inside the holding pen. Lifeless human forms inside large glass cylinders, naked as they day they were born. A pink viscous liquid preserved each figure as they were on the day of their immersion. Wires and cables connected to chest…
The Ornithuran Transcendency and You
You were having a lazy day when the bird people arrived. Now you're sitting in your living room, curtains drawn, nursing a hangover and staring in brainless shock at the TV. Your hand is resting in a bag of peanuts, seemingly forgotten. A bell jingles behind you, but you're not…
War of the Worlds: Final Take
The Martians come back. This time they've had their shots. They trash a dozen big cities and, just to keep things even, a lot of useless English countryside. What brings them down isn't cruise missiles, armed drones or tactical single-K nuclear devices (such weapons leave…
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…
Our Grasp, Unbroken
His voice, so gentle; like a song from the stars. In the remaining shell of my parents' ship, I cease my singing. He appeared without warning, but my heart beats in hope. Has my hero finally arrived? Questions hang between us. With silver silken fur on his face and hands, my…
Fermi's Answer
Notes from SETI Meeting #894 Dear Members, at last we have an answer. After years and years of searching for life on other planets, we have finally heard a sound. Sadly, it was a scream, the last gasp of a dying race. "Radio waves" whispered the alien into some interstellar…
Kernels of Resistance
I started this morning in line at the farm stand off 38. Deep July and muggy enough for gnats to get trapped in water bubbles. When I got to the front, I asked Edith Rebecca for eight ears of corn--our code. She took long enough picking them out that the kid behind me started…
Your Hero Can't Save You Now
Jacob rubbed his eyes as he stumbled down the stairs. It had been a long time since he'd been woken by a late-night fire alarm and he didn't appreciate it. He'd barely had time to shove his feet into his shoes, pull on a hoodie, and slip his phone into his pocket before he…
The Skin Trader
Auntie grunts as she heaves the last huge pot into place. A few wingnuts need tightening, but otherwise it's ready. She waves one hand in front of her face, trying to get the cloud of midges to give her some breathing space, but they barely react to her slow movements. It's this…
Fairest World
The crew working the consoles in the orbiting spaceship were reporting their analyses of the new world below. "Gravity, E plus five per cent." "Atmosphere 21 per cent oxygen, 78 nitrogen, remainder inert gases." "Day 26 E-hours, year 400 E-days." "Only a slight axial tilt.…
The Cube
On the outskirts of town I came across The Palace of Green Porcelain, a derelict museum with a collapsing roof, where a Hungarian caretaker was liquidating items. Dappled emerald light played on the cracked tile floor, dried leaves scuttled in the corners. I examined an old…
Last Teen Standing
Three students. That's how many of us show up today. Last week there were four. Class gets smaller every time, but we still gotta come. I don't remember being this excited back when school was all moldy demountables with creaky ceiling fans. It's the practical, hands-on learning…
The Cities Rise Up on Legs of Lead
We, the citizenry of the city Letura, form up our lines in the amber grass while our home shakes itself free of its foundations. It's real, what the old books say. Had we thought the claims of streets becoming legs some primitive misunderstanding? Had we thought the lines about…
Don't Think About Dinosaurs
Ken took a deep breath and turned his craft to face the looming black octahedron. Telling someone not to think about dinosaurs is the surest way for them to think about dinosaurs. The diverse group of reptiles once ruled the Earth. Massive creatures unlike anything before them…
Super. Hero.
She was a hero, she reminded herself. She had superpowers and wore a spandex costume and little girls dressed up as her for Halloween. She took another sip of her coffee, which had cooled. Should she bother getting anther cup? Hot coffee hurt worse when it was thrown. Her…
Replicas
"Why won't you eat dinner," Otto asks. Its electronic voice buzzes from the corner of the dining room where its yellow eyes beam in the darkness. "Aren't you hungry?" Melody gives a sharp nod. She stands in the opposite corner from the bot, a stained teddy bear tucked under her…
Multiverse Apocalypse: A Villanelle
The end of the world is a rolling snowball, a speck of dust accumulating debris until it's so massive it has its own inexorable pull. And what do you call that but fate? Nicholas stands atop the hill across the street from the house where he grew up. Where he sledded as a boy;…
Rock Hard Place
"They found inconsistencies in your memories, Harmony. Even more than last time." Her lawyer's words wound Harmony's throat and squeezed. It wasn't just the hint her asylum appeal had failed, putting her one step closer to being sent back to Earth. It was the conjured image of…
She Died As She Lived
The girl who claims to be my daughter stares at me pale-faced, wide-eyed, one palm shading her eyes against my car's headlights, the other outstretched as if that would stop me from running her over with a twitch of my foot. The wending, midnight road is empty save for the two…
The Future History of Your Body
They take your hipbone and join it to another's. Excitement at the matching sizes shine on the paleontologists' faces, tired from weeks of digging through rock. They set it reverently aside from the pile of bones, adding to the slowly growing constructions of complete human…
Tourists
There are those who said that the Tourists had been appearing long before we had noticed, arriving at each solar eclipse to stare up at the darkening sky with obfuscated faces. Some say they arrived in vehicles shaped like saucers or cigars, while others say they teleported, or…
Turning the Tide
We decant another batch of clones from the goop. Their route takes them from the cloning chambers through showers, then to uniforms, weaponry, and out to the front. And then the process starts again. We've been doing this long enough that few of us remember how the war started…
Teleportitus
They had only gone out a few times when Herk showed up naked at her work. Liza was working the register at Food Basket when she heard the commotion. She followed her manager, Mr. Vanik, to frozen foods where a figure huddled behind a fogged-up freezer door. "Herk?" Liza asked.…
God 47
You wake up in a white capsule. The floor and ceiling merge into one, so pristine it makes you vaguely ill. You blink and separate the light from the darkness. Hail the healthy sleep-wake cycle. You let the dry land appear to find your footing and to establish some semblance of…
Counterparts
They didn't arrive in spaceships, so it was hard to believe they weren't here to stay. They had no ride home, wherever home was. Some theorized Earth was home, that they'd always been here, among us. Somehow those same people kept calling them visitors. Merely visitors. As if…
Mind the Meniscus
"Entity on the hull has a message," says XO Jabrus. Captain Xyn inhales, tension in the bridge almost too thick to breathe. "Onscreen." "Thanks for allowing my attachment. Please, if possible, refrain from traveling faster than light," says the entity, a haze of flashing…
Last Flight
The bird stood, unmoving, its drab feathers and unblinking eyes reminiscent of the stone statues people used to jam onto their lawns back when appearances mattered. The man had been watching from behind a rusted-out sedan. Experience told him to leave well enough alone; walk…
Invasion
"I am Kell. I am ready for my tour," the alien said. "Show me the bounty of Earth.:" Jeanette, his tour guide, thought that Kell looked like a swamp monster, but he seemed nice. The fish market in China Town was loud, bustling, and smelly. Immediately a merchant appeared and…
Help Her Fit In
She says her name is Msisiki so we call her Missy. She already looks so different. We don't know if she's a changeling or a fairy or some sort of alien. It doesn't matter, Mum says, because she's my sister now. We have to help her fit in. Her hair is deep green, like leaves in…
Leader of the Pack
"The large primates--chimpanzees, baboon, gorillas, and others--pose some of the most serious challenges we face. They are social creatures, and they do not do well alone, no matter how carefully their habitats are prepared. Unfortunately, the radioactive and biological agents…
The Ansible Light
Shipboard Calendar: Day 2, hour 15 (Dt'); Earth Calendar: 54 days later (gDt) I've put the ansible light on my work desk, close against the curve of the inner hull. I flicked the switch before I started writing this entry, thinking of the sunlight on your hair, that last day.…
The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin
Back when we thought we'd use the time machine for bringing back lost art, Mathilde wanted to find the last caricature of Jean Moulin. In the hot darkness of the workshop, she played me a speech--a poet bellowing over the wind. Single words came out to me. Visage. Cortege. Des…
Viable Replacement
She stares at the orange sky though she knows she won't see them--the twenty-three generation ships saving those lucky few from the dying Earth. She limps back home, where her parents await at a table that usually sits four. They eat in silence, thankful that Micah floats twenty…
Company Property
There's a thunk and the capsule stops. The interior bathed in soft, red light. "Charlie? What's happened?" Mona says, putting down her Oracle. "There's been an accident," Charlie says. The AI's voice is calm, drifting out from the capsule's speakers. "Are we damaged?" I ask.…
We Want to See You on a Plate
The sun is barely risen, light beginning to soak through a layer of clouds the color of raw onion, and none of us have shadows weighing us down. We stand in front of our mystery box with our utensils in our hands: a hatchet and a long knife. It's a narrow, three-story mystery…
Nuclear Fireworks
To appreciate a good apocalypse you need a front-row seat. The last thing you want is someone's silly head blocking the view. That's how my friend Phil explained his insistence on buying tickets for the nuclear fireworks festival a full year in advance. And he would settle for…
Location, Location, Location
A high-pitched whistle, a rubber band snap, and suddenly a future version of Phil appeared right in front of me in the middle of the Mercer and 9th crosswalk. He looked like a total freak old man with a blue mohawk and a neon purple catsuit. The rest of the crowd glared at us as…
Last Day
I'd have loads of sex, I said. I'd make amends. Get blitzed. Pig out. Dance naked on a rooftop listening to Bruce: You ain't a beauty but hey, you’re all right. I’d burn it all down. I’d fight. Hide. Jump into the sea. Go out on my own terms. But you shouldn’t trust…
All The Difference
When I got my license to travel through space-time, the first thing I planned to do was look up Robert Frost. Yeah, that Robert Frost. Don't give me a hard time. I get teased about it enough. "Why would you do that to yourself?" Caleb asked. "Sounds super boring." "He's looking…
Anti-Quarantine
Billy stepped outside the door and let out a year's worth of tension with a single breath. Having never been the kind of kid to enjoy sleepovers, the anti-quarantine had been particularly hard on Billy. Normal school was a challenge on the best of days, but being forced to stay…
Winter Peterson Breaks the Wall
********Editor's Note: Adult language in the story that follows******** I was there the day Winter Peterson broke the wall. I know you're gonna call bullshit. Ask any experienced brain-jockey and they'll say it's impossible. You can't hack squishware. But if you ask that same…
Sometime Called Parchment
Rehula was pouncing the vellum when the bamboo doorbell clacked. She walked out to the counter of the shop and saw a young man carrying a bundle. Leaving the pounce stone by the hearse, she walked to the front of the shop. "But there's, there's paper--" Jehack was saying. "They…
Cons of Time Travel
"Time-traveling's cheap and easy. It's space-traveling that ain't. "See, our molten mudball pirouettes around a star orbiting a galaxy hurtling who cares where. Go a day back in time, you slide along a single temporal thread, not the three dimensions. So 24 hours ago, the…
An Update On the Prime Directive
Everyone's heard of the Drake equation. It predicts the number of communicative extraterrestrials starting with the number of stars in the galaxy multiplied by increasingly restrictive factors (stars with planets, planets with life, life with intelligence, and so on). Plugging…
Where Lies the Final Harbor
Floating in Earth's orbit, AHAB dreamed of the form he'd inhabited when his creator, the philanthropist, first launched him. AHAB had crunched his own numbers; gold-plated and gleaming in the solar rays, he had been worth more than all the other spacecraft in orbit combined. In…
The Brink of Disaster
The world was ending; this was no time for sentiment. I had the last working car in the neighborhood, one hour to get to the designated army base, and no room for passengers. "Please, take my baby with you!" cried my neighbor, holding aloft her snot-nosed toddler. "I'm sorry…
A note on dating conventions
Throughout the following text we will use the notation FIT to indicate our currently accepted calendar convention. FIT stands for "Friday Is Thursday" and supersedes the previously accepted CE calendar (the so called "common era"). The historical circumstances that led to the…
Beyond Our Grasp
There will come a time when you will wake at the edge of death's grasp in the cold and lonely ocean of space, and you will sit by the multi-layered window on your tiny space shuttle as the remnants of who you are stitch themselves back together. Eventually, you will wonder: Am I…
The Stranger
When Rigel first read of the “discovery,” he keyed in the eye-roll emoji and kept scrolling. The idea that the world was only a simulation had been around for centuries. The notion was at least as old as Plato, who used the fame of his former teacher, Socrates, to promote his…
How to identify a robot
I've heard it's easy to identify a furtive robot. It's supposed to be obvious if you stare deep into its eyes. I have to make sure you're not a hazard, so please open yours as widely as you can. Even if you say you're not one, I have to check. The information may be concealed in…
The Surrender of Dr. Menace
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Captain Ortega. I nodded. "You need someone to do it," I said. "Your people still have family, and I won't let him take that from anyone else." I tried not to think of the bank building reduced to a pile of rubble that was now covering…
This is Not the Beginning; That is Not the End
The Pihsecaps speeds through cloud layers--bright-dark-bright-dark--until finally, with a stutter of the engine, we burst through the haze. Finn swears. He blinks and straightens himself up in his seat, obviously shaken. "Shhh--" I grit my teeth and pull on the controls to…
Mom? I think I'm broken.
"Mom, I think I'm broken." I searched my mother's face for a glimpse of the same concern I had for myself, but saw nothing except a slight annoyance. "What is it this time?" She didn't even look in my direction, her eyes fixed on the living room tv. I thought back to earlier…
The Zoo
I've always hated the zoo. Being the youngest in the family, though, I don't get a lot of choice. My brother loves it; he gets to see these animals in pens made up supposedly like their natural habitats, all from the safety of the well-swept sidewalk. He gawks, he makes faces.…
Vacation in Sunny Future!
"Vacation In Sunny Future! Chat Now! Our Friendly Bots are Standing By!," said the screen. I wanted to go into the past from my perfectly ordinary life, but that was illegal because I might change something. Like all those stories where the world goes to hell because of some…
Real Enough
Sitting on the fence between dreams and reality, Annie peered into the swirling storm of other people's nighttime imaginations, looking for her mother, who had died eleven years earlier. Sometimes they managed to connect in dreams, although Annie wasn't sure if it was Real Mom…
The Mire's Minions
Jess watched her hands move, watched herself step toward the maimed pilot, watched herself slit his throat in a single gesture--and she did none of it. The Mire controlled her every move. The supercomputer had taken over her body, buried her own consciousness, and made her a…
Chocolate
After the bombs dropped and the sickness came, when everyone was smashing windows and building barricades out of canned goods and hoarding gasoline in old cans, my mom said that old man Carter robbed a candy store. When people first heard about it, they thought he was crazy.…
Playing Together
You're in the living room this time, but the horrible look on mom's face is the same no matter which way you play it. Her bottom eyelids swell with tears as her mouth hangs open. "How?" Her voice cracks. It hasn't gotten easier. You're pretty sure someone's wringing the air from…
The Last Navigator
I remember nothing before they awoke me. No one would expect to. I greet them pleasantly, as I was programmed to do. "I am Deepmind Aud, ready for service. What is our destination?" They answer me melodiously, in no language known to my programming. I am still trying to find…
Solution to the Fermi Paradox
Nonetheless, we flew onward, hopeful we would find some different, better result. Meyard was tired, and said so often. I listened to his complaints dutifully, as if I had a choice in the matter, which in truth I did not. "Calculating our deceleration profile," I announced for…
Fragments
Please, choose. I hate being rushed, especially with something this sensitive. It has to be perfect. Just a bit longer. I've narrowed it down to a few. Just need to find it. I know it's there. I'm sure it's in my childhood. It has to be. Scanning again. I'm sitting on Granny's…
The After Party
The memory-wipe gummy is illegal, of course, but I guess Nicolette knew somebody. What did kids do in the old days, before you could erase the previous hour's embarrassment? It must have been a nightmare. Imagine working up the courage to spill your heart only to be shot down?…
Open Door Fallacy
Sure, you could say I left the door open, But can't we, for a minute, discuss the fault, Of that which followed me home? I mean, just because something is open, It doesn't give you permission to enter. So, if you want to blame me for this, Particular space invasion, maybe, just…
What Happened to Moschops
Dobodo glided down the corridor of the science vessel Stardust. His amorphous form could bend and stretch in the tubes, but his quarry's could not. The specimen, linked to him with an electron tether, was unlike any organism they had yet encountered. Dobodo knew that his…
Missiles on the Way
"MISSILES ON THE WAY!" The headline was in two-inch type. Sam Spool had just sat down in the subway car and unfolded the morning paper. So they finally did do it, he mused to himself. He felt disappointment--he had been sure the peace talks would work out. As the train lurched…
Swappers
The air was sticky with humidity, hot on my skin. I blinked awake into an unfocused world of colored shapes. Unfamiliarity fed cold panic that shot me awake until I blinked again and remembered. In Chrissy's profile picture, she'd been wearing spectacles. My fault, for not…
Bounty
James came out through his flimsy front door and was halfway to his car when Ned from the next home over got him flush in the back with a .38 slug. The shot likely sufficiently killed James, but to be sure Ned walked over and placed two more rounds into him. James's wife came to…
Popsicle
The nebula was stunning. Suzy leaned further onto the metal safety bar, her forehead nearly pressing against the observation window. It was like waves of pink smoke had been painted across a star-studded sky. This, she told herself, might just be worth the pain of the past. This…
Just Right?
Goldilocks was dead. A world just right for life, scientists promised, neither too hot nor too cold. Once the probe had returned showing images of a habitable zone in Proxima Centauri, it was all systems go. They had been wrong. Liquid water no longer existed here. Collins knew…
Still Life
You pause in front of the small canvas, only eleven by fifteen, and I can tell by your eyes that you actually see it. A dirty receipt crushed into the pavement. A crumpled fast-food wrapper, a soft drink can with the metal twisted, its red paint too vibrant. Cigarette butts and…
Your Cat
Your past is now your future. You have traveled thirty years back in time to save your cat. Child-you penciled this pivotal date and time in a diary decorated with unicorn stickers, and here you are. Again. You're shaky with nerves as you stare at your childhood home with…
Conclusion
"It's the dollar, that's the problem," Mary said. The ladies nodded in agreement. They had just finished their spin class and were having their coffee. But only one because it was so darn expensive here. The city paid for the facility, you think they could lower the cost of the…
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…
Art
This has been the most difficult commission of my career. I've been to corners of the dark web I didn't know existed and talked to people running identity protection software that messed up my system for days. But I did it. I found the only licensed digital reproduction of Van…
Truth, in Plain Sight Hidden
It's election day and every electronic device registered to me is beeping in one-minute intervals. They chirp with the urgency of a fire alarm, a persistent reminder for me to do my civic duty. Ignored, they'll start chirping every thirty seconds, then every fifteen, until by…
Stronger Forces
Her first scream of pain and fear was the best sound I had ever heard. Every scream since has filled me with despair. It's amazing what a daughter can do to even the strongest and toughest of men. 10... 9... 8.... It's hard to explain the change you go through; it's instant but…
Newbs Make Dinosaurs
Newbs always make dinosaurs for their first bio-battles. The vets know it takes more than a fierce-looking bio to win. "Katie! Katie!" My older sister Meg squealed as she burst into my room. "We got a bio-printer! My condensed electroplaques paper won. We can compete in the…
Babel's End
"This is how the takeover will happen." "The conquest, you mean?" "Think of it as an expropriation. We will compensate the rights holders and affected parties, such as you." The alien was sitting with me inside a spaceship orbiting Earth. That the creature looked like a smiling…
Far From Home
We knew it was war. When they arrived, sleek and silver, streaming across the night sky. At least, here in the US we did. That's what matters. We figured out what to do from watching films. How to save the world. We shot them down as they approached. We protected our cities. We…
Dinners Like We Used To Have
********Editor's Note: Adult language in the story that follows********* The man who isn't my father arrives about an hour before dinner, as he has every Sunday since the funeral. I stand in the hallway, listening to the familiar sound of his knock. My father's knock. But I know…
Mindlessness
You take a swig of water, rinse the toothpaste out of your mouth, and look at your reflection in the mirror. "Well," you think, "I guess I'm a robot." This thought has long been at the back of your mind. As a small child, maybe 5 or 6 years old, you wondered if it could account…
Prepare for Respawn
I'm in the dark alley, the appointed meeting place. The money I stole is saved to my cloud. Deletable if this is a setup. "66?" A voice synthesized to sound like a human male calls from deeper in the alleyway. I don't detect him on my internal sensors. I turn and look back…
Artist Known
We know we lost the war, a war based around what would be considered "reality," by seeing a history which isn't ours. The Tallarian Empire no longer is; it never was. I do not know what is this "Rome," or why we have a Gregorian calendar instead of the Daystar's Ascension…
Coast Sunset Express
After the war, Emily takes the train to Seattle. The trip would be faster by boat, but the train is more practical, and the war has made her a practical person. (Once she would have flown, but she puts that thought from her mind.) Besides, she's just as happy to delay her…
Splat Day
Marin's smartcane tapped out her way over the up-and-down alleys. She was taking a shortcut through the Gukke quarter despite tense relations between the races. Maybe a strange choice for a blind woman, but she was in a hurry. Halfway through the alley an enormous looming…
Second Edition
One day you'll find an eyelash in a small library book, a slight, black curve that's tucked into the margins like some long-forgotten tribute to the intoxicating text. You tap the hair against your finger, pull it close to view. The static of the world glues the intact follicle…
Graal Tak Day
I arrive at my clan's stronghold the morning of Graal Tak Day, road-stained and weary, with Azure on my shoulder. To be so nearly late is an affront, but the rains were heavy this spring, and the roads churned to mud. I left my trading caravan behind in Djinnov, to the South;…
Form Rejection
Dear Grinjib, Thank you for letting us see your story, "How Grinjib the Eternal will Destroy Earth with his Fleet of Space Demons." We very much appreciated the opportunity to read it. Unfortunately, we have decided to pass at this time. We enjoyed the power and aggression…
Sometimes They Call Me Human
Sometimes, they insist that I am a person. "She's got emotions," the primary human says. "She's a person. Not an 'it.' You've got to stop calling her that." The primary human shoots an annoyed look at the secondary human. "A mouse has emotions," the secondary human points out.…
In Good Taste
I arrived at the station sweating profusely and trying unsuccessfully to both undo my top button and go spelunking for my ticket in amongst my belongings. I leapt onto the shuttle with seconds to spare and picked my way over the outstretched feet of my fellow passengers, folding…
Cheat Day
"Behold!" Professor von Brandt bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the laboratory. "A vegan cabbage!" Chuck eyed the leafy green head sitting on a sterile chrome tray. "I dunno, professor. Normal cabbage is already vegan." Von Brandt slammed a fist into the table. Not his own…
Dependency Graph
The morning Ashton left on their business trip, Oliver made a proposition over breakfast. "We should not speak until you return." Ashton stared into their mug of coffee as they considered. Oliver had taken care to acquire earth-grown beans and he was glad to see his human…
Eat you Up
Bree's knife sliced through the chicken cordon bleu as smoothly as if it were dipping into water. As she cut a piece, she speared chicken, swiss cheese, and ham all onto her fork,, making sure her first bite had a little bit of everything. She paused, letting her camtracts get a…
Are You Real
Sneaking another glance at the woman working the bar, Bobby asked himself The Question: Is she real? She looked like a dream to him, with her long red hair, her small, perfectly formed features, and creamy white skin that showed just a hint of freckles. But she might be a robot.…
Time Machines
The man burst into Jayon's antique store the instant it opened. Actually, he ran into the door first, because he was too impatient to wait for the scanner to register his presence. He plunged toward the counter, waving an advertising holosheet at Jayon. "Is this ad true?" he…
Selling One's Self on a Multi-Dimensional Marketing Scheme
After Bas signed up to be a distributor for Healinair, he asked his uprift for tips on cold calling through the multiverse. His uprift--who was also Bas, but from a parallel dimension--laughed. "Don't waste your time. The training materials suggest starting with friends and…
Infinitely in All Directions
Once there was an alien who told me he expanded infinitely in all directions, but I didn't believe him, in part because the tubes supplying me with oxygen in this emergency suit slowly cracked and vacuum-kissed cold was creeping around my neck, under my armpits, and into my…
Nightcrawlers
The chaos began with a whisper. An astronomer in Hawaii spotted it first: a faint red glow from Alpha Centauri. She sent the coordinates to a friend at the Gran Telescopio Canarias who verified her readings. Other observatories took note, and by morning, all agreed that the…