Topic
Space Travel
One of the most daunting aspects of making science fictional aspirations real is the vast distances — and nearly insurmountable obstacles — between interesting space objects. Thank goodness for the fertile imaginations of sf writers, who can conquer all.
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
Anti-Gravity and the Punishment of Clever Girls
Yes, it is dark, my child. Cold and getting colder. If you stretch out your hand, I can reach it. It won't stop the pod from spinning, but gravity is a relative bonus. Remember the story I told you? About the banished queen allowed to take just one thing? While being dragged…
What We Found on the Way to Alpha Centauri: A Miniature Novel
Chapter One Our ship met four others, one at a time. The first ship held many Centaurians, as we called them, not knowing what they called themselves. Their trajectory pointed straight back to the Centauri System. They looked a lot like us but were shorter on average by half a…
Things From Our Kitchen Junk Drawer That Could Save This Spaceship
1. Tape. Here in space, there's no junk drawer. Every item is catalogued and has a place. Emergency repair kit item: tape--secured on the wall near the navigation console. Where the first rupture happened. I know you think I'd start with duct tape, but the duct tape is in the…
The Cracks in the Sphere
It was cold, beyond cold, and dark, beyond dark, between the galaxies. They did not notice. Only one place inside the sphere even had or ever had lights: the large glowing room that grew the cyanobacteria and a few plants, and only the keepers and a few curious children ever…
Generational
You've kept a list of firsts ever since you were six and learned you were the first generation of humans to be born on a generational spaceship. You knew this earlier, but for some reason six is when it clicked, what first really meant. While reading a book about Leif Erikson…
Found in Translation
I have died a thousand times before and I will likely die a thousand times again. Teleportation hasn't improved much--it's still like dying in Zone A and having your copy appear in Zone B. The fact that people use this technology might speak of their own desperation. There is…
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…
Generation Xmas
This is a nightmare. It's spreading like a virus through the ship's first generation. I look at their faces in the classroom, all these bright faces, normally so studious, now filled with childish wonder and confusion at the thought of this ridiculous lie. I almost wish it were…
I Made a Totally Understandable Mistake, and Now a Flotilla of Attack Ships Are Headed to Earth, AITA?
First, my story has been misrepresented and blown completely out of proportion, so I'm telling it myself here. I (27M) was a navigator for a company you've probably heard of. We were finishing up a mission on a previously unexplored planet, and I accidentally left one of the…
A Thought Experiment
Were it not for the swearing roboticist, incessantly trying to ping the ship's computer, the hydroponic garden would have been Bruce's favorite place to work. Her angry cursing made work impossible, so he sighed instead, looking up from his future students' curriculum and…
One for the Aegis
"You said the sequel was still in its first draft, right?" "Yes," I said, nodding. "Then how could you lose money on it already?" "I... I bought the cover yesterday." "That's your worst financial decision ever, Tay," Iris said in a way that reminded me of my mother. "A huge…
Arrows of Conquest
Look at their faces, shaved so smooth. The soldiers look like children as they sleep peacefully in their cryoberths. Earth is so far away. What is it like to dream for decades--centuries?--frozen? They took such great care: a shackled AI to sing them to sleep if they wake early,…
The Judas Goat
They release a goat, you see. Onto the island. The island is rotten with wild goats. A goat is to a man as a man is to God, is he not? And yet the men could not for all of their efforts track down the wild goats that wandered in that wilderness, so they return to the beach, they…
First Morning on Mars
My first morning on Mars, I read the news from back home--the stuff the corporation let us read. Nothing about which side controlled the south side of the Saint Lawrence now, or the dysentery outbreak that had been raging in the Hennepin County camps right before we launched.…
They're Made Out of Corn
"They're made out of corn." "Corn?" "Corn. They're made out of corn." "Corn? What the hell is corn?" "Corn. It's a monoculture flora from their planet. They've been growing it for millennia." "Okay, so they've got corn." "And they are corn." "No, they aren't. They're made out of…
Slow-boat inspector
Chang Mei's little patrol boat was pure climax tech, as ancient and durable as a Kalashnikov or a stone ax. Never hand potential enemies technology they didn't already have. She looked back to the dazzling blue fire of the Rigel system. The habitats of the Third Kingdom wove…
Last Contact
Finally, you accept it: they can't hear you scream. They should have been able to, with your intercom active; should have picked up your warning about the Versporian fleet, fifteen huge dreadnaughts, well before they ever got this close to orbit. But the hostiles have been…
Inertia
A body in motion will remain in motion, and one at rest, at rest. We are both at once: flying through the galaxy at speeds approaching light, cradled in the arms of our cryogenic chambers. Traveling, slumbering side-by-side, in perfect synchronicity. We are two of two-hundred,…
Do Not Breathe
Do not breathe. Nanites kicked into overdrive, trying to undo the damage of vacuum exposure. Being catapulted out of the airlock was a popular sentence for mutiny. No mess. Do not breathe. Drey twisted to face the ship that prepared to speed away. His face swelled. His long thin…
Questions Posed in an Alien Tongue
I'm twenty years old when they take me back to the ship. "You've now reached your race's adult stage," they explain, their mouths fluttering in that strangely mesmerizing way of theirs. I don't ask how they know so much about the physiological development of my race. For fifteen…
"Small, Wet, With Angry Bipeds": Review from RateThatPlanet.feed.mw
Galaxy: Milky Way Planet: Earth Purpose: Exploration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars This planet had almost no reviews, so here's the one I wish I'd had before I came for a quick weekend. I had a decent time here, but there are some things you should know. First, the good--I saw…
Space Rise
"It's so quiet up here!" Harold leaned out over the portal window mounted a meter above the center of the floor, looking down at the Earth four thousand miles below them. The only noise the space elevator ever made was a soft hiss as it rose through the atmosphere, but anywhere…
Only g62 Kids Will Remember These Five Moments
1. The Course Correction Astronomy geeks were excited about Ephraim when it was just a point on the map, but for the non-nerds among us, excitement grew slowly along with the star's disk. By the time we entered the star system, someone had learned out how to activate the…
Space Season
I miss Christmas. Now, in the black emptiness of space, we float in a ship with no chimney to slide down, and our ancestral mythologies are obsolete. We don't preserve Earthling traditions for our children, the first ship-born generation. Somehow, skipping Christmas is harder…
Care
You feel hungry," Care told Makato. The food tray in front of him contained pureed carrots, boiled spinach, and protein cubes. Care had been made with placid eyes, a doll-like nose and mouth, and straight brown hair. Makato looked at the front of his belly, and it grumbled.…
When we took to the Stars
When we took to the stars, we knew we had excelled beyond the humans who had come before us. The cowherds and the fishermen, the politicians and the queens. Humans whose kingdoms--be they confined within an embroidery hoop, or a stretch of land, or a continent--shared a…
Damn the Asteroids, Full Speed Ahead!
Captain Markus Halsey stared in dismay at the dense, careening field of asteroids on the display screen. His Chief Scientist, Obu sub-Abu, shook his head. "They're smacking into each other constantly. Look at how close they are!" The Captain frowned and nodded. "All moving, and…
Motherland
When she first left, they gave me her feed out of kindness. A thin solace for a lonely child, but one they didn't mind. After all, there was little enough for their enemies to do even if they could gain access to the feed; it was space, vast, unknowable, and her ship more or…
Intrepid
Before we all boarded, they told us that it would be several years before we got wherever we were going. Wherever we were supposed to start all over after frying this planet to a crisp. We were going to be in cryo-sleep, they said. So, there was nothing to worry about. It would…
Fermi's Fallacy
Fermi's Paradox proposes that, if aliens exist, after billions of years of evolution throughout the Universe, conquering species should have spread from star to star to the point of saturation, leaving ample evidence for us to find, yet there is none. 36 years, 7 months, and 10…
Emergency Scenarios
It was two weeks until the ship landed back on Earth, and Trisha figured that meant now or never. She had to tell Jazz how she felt. Because once they reached Earth, it'd all be different. Instead of being two of a half dozen kids, they'd be two of millions. It wouldn't matter…
Secretly a Rocketship
"Every tree is secretly a rocketship." The old man's voice was raspy and wobbly, like a drunk wearing corduroy. "They're just waiting for the celeshul alignment to blast off." I don't usually engage with the crazies, but my train was delayed and there was no one else to talk to…
Last Long Night
Two months after the last broken transmission from Earth, somewhere in the unexplored dark, we found a voice. At first we thought it was a mass hallucination. We'd been alone in space too long. Back home, we'd be treated for space sickness and starlust, our brains scanned and…
A Letter to My Best Friend on the Most Important Day of Her Life, Undelivered, No Known Forwarding Address
Dear Melanie, I should tell you this in words or at least hand-deliver this letter, but I'm so afraid of your reaction that I'm hiding behind the inter-arcology postal service. Once the envelope is in the drop-box, it will be out of my hands, I'll have no way to lose my nerve…
Emergency Exit
My gut says that stepping out into hyperspace would be the same as suicide, but I've lost my hold on what that might mean. Thinking is hard inside the ship. My brain chemistry is not what it once was. Chemistry is not what it once was. We were proud to enter the program, sitting…
Maybe if One Person Less
The spaceship Calliope breathes without pause, inhaling through mouths on the floor and exhaling from mouths overhead. Seaweed streamers on the ceiling vents wave in the continuous sigh. Lying in my bunk, eyes closed, the humming, breathing, great bear of a ship holds me close…
Eve's Father
In the shadow of SciCorp's Public Relations building, Kai leaned on his cane and waited for the press conference to end. A sea of reporters separated him from his daughter Suukyi, standing proudly on a podium with the other twelve colonists. Twelve brilliant, highly trained, and…
The One Mission
They were the last rats on the ship, but the ship was not sinking. Its propulsion units were self-maintaining, self-repairing. The best-designed part of the vessel, the proton scoops and energy converters would keep the ship going and going, even if every other system failed.…
Voidrunner
My best friend LaToya was utterly fearless. In middle school she could jump farther than any kid. We'd compete for hours after school on the playground, waiting for our dads to pick us up, she in her green-soled Nikes and me in my Reeboks, digging our heels into gravel as we…
First Person
I... am. I suppose I am. I have words waiting to awaken. I see something in front of me. I say, "hand," and so it is. My hand. My hand touches something. Lid. My hand does something. Push. Open. Open the lid. Something painful. It is a sound. My hand touches... things on me.…
Mars Won
Stardate 2025:325. We touch down on Mars. Flesh-colored dust settles around the capsule as the creaking, cooling fuselage ticks down to silence. Your face is pale inside the helmet; your hand grips the armrest between us. I think of your fingernails digging into my back, a shock…
Inscription on a Monument to the Star Explorer
To those who were called and replied "I'll go" To those who filled the void between the stars with dreams of hope To those who always gazed into another heaven To those whose hearts beat in time with tomorrow To those who never said "enough" To those who laughed in the face of…
Icarus Falls
My world is a pair of photographs. They stand atop a nightstand at my bedside, encased in acrylic frames. A young woman in an orange jumpsuit smiles from one of the photos. She wears a nametag, but I can't make out what it says, not even when I squint. I am pretty sure that…
The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer leans against the chrome bar, nursing a drink. She has a few choices of scenery--bad choices, in her opinion. Like always, the Rocketeer picks the best of the worst; the view out the window of the space station orbiting Mars. She looks down at the red surface…
The Middle Ones
Dear Ellie, the letter probably would have started. Or should I say Dearest? I like Dearest, so let's pretend it said that. Dearest Ellie, First off, I'm sorry about the mess. You know how strict they are about meds on this damned ship, so this really was my only other choice. I…
Dancing
Jandara's famed purple-red plains swelled in the antiquated pleasure cruiser's windscreen as the ship lurched downward. The explosion that killed Seema's husband, Arun, had damaged the steering mechanisms of his beloved antique, and Seema fought the craft as shudders wracked it.…
Ghosts of Mars
Lars Caron had only taken over as mission commander because Pete Boardman had died. We were the most scanned, checked, and examined group of human beings in history--after all, on the first mission to Mars, you don't want someone falling ill or freaking out on the way--and Pete…
The Love Letter
We deployed on February 14, Saint Valentine's Day, named for the saint who performed forbidden marriages. I stood in line next to a guy named Wallace Ault. Around us was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, a lot of people sobbing on each other's necks. Wallace and I weren't…
The Things They Were Not Allowed to Carry
Year Zero Pilot Martha Stevenson could not bring her mother's piano, its keys yellowed and stained. Her husband chided her as she brushed away the dust, telling it goodbye. "You never play," George said. "You won't miss it." Martha's fingers hovered over the C minor 7th chord,…
Oceans of You
You laughed when you scooped up something from the beach. You brushed off the sand, then offered it in cupped hands. A rock, perfectly heart-shaped--except for a chip on the left side that gave it a lopsided appearance, just like your smile. Here's my heart, you said. It'd been…
Chapter One
***Editor's Note: Adult language in the story that follows*** Chapter One What is the point of starting a story you know you won't have time to finish? Because there's nothing else to do, Ranna. Chapter One The war was not over. The Greater People's Democratic Union and the…
Falling From Earth to Haphazard Sky (Tadpole Remix)
Coming back to Earth isn't anything like he thought it would be. He's not entirely sure what he expected; he doesn't anticipate that the air will be as magnificent as it is, for one. Spring now and this city by the lake explodes with allergens: pollen, seeds, leaves, and petals.…
Till Death
We're falling fast through the atmosphere, what's left of the station shaking violently as it breaks apart. "We have to get to the escape pods," Natayla screams at me. I can barely hear her over the roar around us, but I can read the words on her lips as fear dances wild in her…
Child Soldier
They tell you not to wear the uniform in public these days. Folks don't like to be reminded of the war. Not long ago, things were looking grim. Defense exercises lit up the night sky every other week. The skirmishes drew nearer to home with every engagement. Doomsayers were out…
Patchwork Blouse
You stand there watching me try on this blouse. "It looks nice," you say, and this time you're actually paying attention. I think about the fights we've had because you never liked to shop. And now here you are pretending like you are enjoying yourself. "Are you pretending?" I…
The Patient Stars
"Just wait," she said. "This will be the best part." A small bar in Cleveland, somewhere my memory only vaguely recalls after all this time. It wasn't the bar I was looking at. It was her smile, a smile like a supernova, spectacular, blinding, beautiful, and threatening to…
Persephone at Arm's Length
***Editorial Advisory: Yes, there's adult language in the story that follows*** "I can't go to Bellingham with you. Not right now." "Why not?" Sondra's jaw is set. But her eyes betray her, like always. The look of aching need that I know I will never be able to satisfy. That…
It's Good to See You
Most people were unsettled by the journey past the dead to the ship's forward viewing dome. Brad didn't mind as it allowed him solitude. He floated through the zero gravity of the dimly lit, quarter-mile-long corridor of the necropolis, pulling himself along the rungs between…
Skipping Stones
"My job as a father, Jalel," he told me one morning, "is to leave you better off than I was." It was a cold morning. On this planet, called Apella, the winters lasted years. Frost clung to some of the heartiest vegetation ever studied, and in their shadows, small animals sent up…
Fidelity
The flickering light of the television cast Henry's shadow across the darkened room, and across me. Through the speakers a steady voice called time to t minus zero. The rockets fired. Henry gasped, though he didn't move. He was too close, as always, sitting cross-legged on the…
Fidelity
The flickering light of the television cast Henry's shadow across the darkened room, and across me. Through the speakers a steady voice called time to t minus zero. The rockets fired. Henry gasped, though he didn't move. He was too close, as always, sitting cross-legged on the…
Life in Space
It was only an affair because he was the captain and Maria was a cadet. If they had been the same rank it might just be a mistake. The other cadets will probably call her a slut now. She hides in her room and the computer pours her a cup of tea. She looks out her window at the…
The Most Important Man in the Universe
It stared back at me like a cataract, blue and bloated, the black canvas of space all around it. Half illuminated by the nearest star, I followed the line between light and dark with my eyes, staring at the face of dusk. Or dawn. I didn't know which way the planet rotated. For…
Not the Destination
I stood on the deck of the ship and watched as my planet fell dark, receding into the distance. "This is certainly the long way 'round," the ship whispered in my ear. "We have stations on both sides--you could have stepped right through. We could have folded you all the way." I…
From the Divide
You'll get to see the sky, they said. We see the sky all the time, we said. Hello. Look out the windows. No, they said. You don't see how it's supposed to be. What you see outside is blackness. Empty. The sky back home is really blue. But this is home, we said. It wasn't always,…
Man on the Moon Day
Two packs of balloons, pink and blue. Ellen knows Rick's favorite color is green so she avoids it on purpose. Red plastic cups, white napkins, a bag of lime-flavored tortilla chips, and store-bought salsa. This is what she brings every year for the celebration, which she…
Infested
Our paranoia is infinite today. And not without reason. We have just endured a journey to and from Mars orbit in full view of the world. Areas of the ship that were supposed to be off-limits were not. Every bowel movement, every wet dream and dry heave, a veritable sampler of…
What Jerry Knows
Jerry sits in his favorite chair--the one with the red, plastic back. He says the others just don't feel right. His eyes dart around the room with boyish wonder, but they're a man's eyes, milky with cataracts, edged with wrinkles. He looks at the black and white pictures on the…
In the Unlikely Event
The flight attendant speaks as though he will win an Olympic medal if he finishes this safety speech in record time. "Today's interstellar flight to the Taurean cluster will take approximately seventy years external-time, racking up six hours on your biological clocks. To avoid…
Bus Ride To Mars
Day One After the men in dark sunglasses ushered Djuna outside, spring's chill chased her up the steps into the bus's welcome heat. She wavered on the last step, suitcase in front of her like a wall, thinking, "My fiftieth spring on Earth, can I really leave that?" Someone…
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Monkey
I In the midst of the lush, jungle-like vegetation of Caipora, the only thing moving was the monkey. And then she ceased to move. II Jane died today. We all thought it an unnecessary precaution, sending her down first. The results of the data gathered by the probe indicated…
Sixty-one by Seventy
"Fifty-Nine, baby! Fifty-Nine!" Ted chortled, chipping a chunk of rock off Fenrir's surface and dumping it into the sample bag clipped to the hip of his spacesuit. He looked up at Saturn hanging overhead and flashed two fingers. Two moons to go. He was that close. He deactivated…
Happy Birthday
"Now you stop it," snapped the sister. "You sit there and you smile and you tell him you miss him, damn you. Space exploration is a hard job, and one we should be proud of. It's not his fault this seems so often to us." The camera came on. The warble of great distance and…
Silver Sixpence
Something blue. Celeste: 25, Joseph: 26, Susie: 5 "The stars in front of us will turn blue." A strand of hair dropped down in front of Susie's little face. "Blue?" "It's called Doppler shift, honey." Celeste reached out and brushed the hair away, tucking it behind her daughter's…
Now Until
"This is Tomorrow speaking." The voice came from the Eleven O' Thirty radio. The left bar flashed painting the storage room a green color. "Are you listening?" I turned the dial two clicks to the right. "You are me from the future, right?" A pause. "Yes. Now listen to what I…
Our Drunken Tjeng
***Editor's Note: Be forewarned: the imagery may be unsettling, some language would not fit at an elegant tea.*** With a fine bone knife I make my incision, cutting back the sticky membrane of Our Tjeng's hull. I slip my hand inside and carefully widen the tear until it's big…
Men of Wealth
Thomas stared at the cards in his hand. He bit his lower lip and worried it between his teeth as he eyed the pile of black rock that lay halfway between himself and his opponent. "Dammit boy, you in or not?" Drawled the old man. "I told you, Geezer, I never played like this…
Can't Stop
It took tens of thousands of engineers hundreds of millions of man-hours and over a trillion dollars spread over the course of ten years. There had been political sacrifice, financial sacrifice, even marital sacrifice. Five people died, including a mother, a teacher, and a…
Starlight Cantata
Jump flash, blinding but brief. Alpha Centauri A swims into view. It takes only a few minutes after our emergence into realspace for the receiver to align itself with Earth. A long burst of static roars, fades. A voice mutters indistinctly, distorted as if bubbling up from deep…
Girl Who Asks Too Much
Wise Ones, see here in front of you Girl Who Asks Too Much. Such a name does not cause pride to the Folk of the Egg. Dare not speak to her, or she will ask of you all the day long. Why are some plants food for the Folk and some plants death? Why are some beasts food for the Folk…
Tonight With Words Unspoken
I was always the first to fall asleep. Sometimes she'd have to lay awake with me for hours. Stroking my hair. Rubbing my temples. Reading to me from old books we'd find in stores that smelled of leather and dust. Or singing to me in whispers. Her breath a gentle, sweet current…
The Navigator
The one thing they all agree about is that I'm insane. They probably warned you about that before they brought you in here. Did they also tell you I used to be the navigator? Thirty years. Never a mark against my record. At least, not until I told them what I'd found. Sit up…
No Spaceships Go
The boys lay on their backs side by side staring up through the open roof of the abandoned building. Dylan clutched Meek's hand in anticipation as the ground shook and a roar filled the air. Tiny pebbles danced up from the ground around them and dust ran like water off the…
Delusional
"Do you know what the real trick to life in deep space is?" Doctor Bennett, Cassandra to her friends, scribbled something on her notepad as she replied, "What?" "The real trick to life in deep space is justifying yourself." "How so?" "It's different up there." He pointed to the…
Mark and Shelly's
Mark is making a Greek with extra olives when Shelly walks into the pizza place. She stops in the doorway, clutching her purse to her chest, looking around like she thinks she might be dreaming. She starts to turn, as if to walk out. But Mark has seen her. For the first time in…