Category: Science Fiction

All Stories, Science Fiction

For the Good of the Company by Chaz Osburn

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When news broke this morning that the Chloe Dunham, the largest and most powerful freighter in our company’s fleet of intergalactic transporters, had disappeared following an intense storm in the Outer Belt, I did what any good chief executive officer would do. I called a press conference.

You don’t get to be a president of one of the largest mining and exploration businesses in the sector without being pro-active. I was thinking of my company’s reputation. Over the years I had attended countless media training sessions—this is a dangerous business—and I knew it was my job to get out in front of the story and do everything in my power to control the narrative. That’s the only way to negate bad publicity.

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Science Fiction, Short Fiction

Nickel by Steve Eckroad

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“I’ll flip with you for who gets to do the spacewalk.” Jonar affected nonchalance as he and Mirth entered the lift labeled South Maintenance Bay #14. Mirth was planet-born. She didn’t even notice the oddity of such terrestrial words as ‘South’ stenciled on the passageways and lifts of a rotating space station. Jonar wondered if she had somehow converted her picture of the complex decks, lifts, and corridors of the giant, wheel-shaped stargate into Cartesian coordinates in her mind. To the station-born, like himself, such terms were complete nonsense. The designers of the Pleiades SuperTelpher should have used terms like out/in and spinward/anti-spinward. So obvious for something spinning in space.

“Huh?” Mirth looked up from her tablet where she was furiously directing her Avatar to beat Solo to the Emerald Cave where the spice minerals were found. She mentally gestured ‘Pause’ to the VR and asked, “What do you mean, flip with me? If you think that’s a new way to get what you want I’m not going for it. You might as well give up, Jonar.” She turned back to her tablet, wishing she had the implant version of the game so she wouldn’t have to hold something. But it was expensive, and she was still paying off her school loan.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

The Orb by Aishwarya Srivastava

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They called it The Orb because “What the actual….!!!!!” did not sound proper in physics journals.

It appeared on a random Tuesday, a bright, globe-like structure hanging next to the Moon. Telescopes were pulled out (a great tussle ensued to display who has the biggest one), and astrophysicists learned it’s a small burning body, moon-sized, a few million miles from the moon.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Mind Sweep by JJ de Melo

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Dad’s house reeks. Of bad coffee and cheap wine. My uncle talks at me through the odor. I barely hear him over the other mourners, rambling about how I look just like dad did at this age.

“If only you hadn’t got all these tattoos,” he says. He points at one in particular—a barcode from my favorite cereal brand over the left eyebrow.

I shrug at the comment. Stare at my wine glass. If I focus my consciousness on the swirling merlot, I’ll keep this bullshit conversation from recording onto my slate. That’s the trick these days—If you don’t want something damned into a forever memory, look away.

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All Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Working Lunch with the Space Vultures by Joel Bryant

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The décor of the Hollywood Space Diner was a neon and chrome nightmare. Adding to the charmless ambience was an unavoidable aroma of hot garbage. It would not have been Dave’s choice of eating place, that was for sure. He could just about stomach the interior design; it was the vile food that was the real concern. He found himself battling the urge to run screaming from the establishment, clutching a super-sized sick bag.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

CF58 by Héctor Hernández

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She was beautiful. Shoulder-length, auburn hair. Almond-shaped, hazel eyes. Full, sensual mouth. And I imagined her skin was a warm, walnut-shell tan underneath that chic, skin-tight, iridescent, body suit—the latest haute couture fashion, designed to dazzle with a spectrum of metallic hues and shades that shimmered like the shell of a scarab beetle. She looked directly into my eyes with such confidence I felt I knew her. There was something familiar about that beautiful, captivating face.

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Lost In Thought by Dan Bell

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An urgent knock on the apartment door woke him.  He lay there, waiting for his mind to coalesce around a coherent thought. The knock turned into a thump, which soon became a rapid hammering, accompanied by yelling. Gustald recognized the voice. It was Gerti, a work colleague from Concept Compliance. He only vaguely knew her. Enough to give a polite greeting as they passed each other in the corridor, but certainly not sufficiently well to expect her to be banging on his door in the middle of the night. Why is she hitting the door with her fists at all? he wondered. Is the access sentry inoperative?

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All Stories, Science Fiction

Putting the Galaxies in Their Place by James Hanna

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Phineas Ford was an astronomer of remarkable skill and vision. He was also a bachelor with meticulous habits from which he never wavered. For breakfast, he always ate a soft-boiled egg and two pieces of lightly-buttered toast. For lunch, he routinely devoured a cucumber sandwich and six potato chips. At precisely three p.m. each afternoon, he took his exercise, which consisted of a three-lap stroll around a local park—never more nor less. His dinner always consisted of corned beef and cabbage with bread pudding for dessert, and on Sunday he permitted himself a single glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. At precisely six p.m. each evening, he watched two episodes of Downton Abbey, and when he had finished the series, he watched it over again. At exactly ten p.m., Phineas retired to his bed, but not before reading a chapter of Anna Karenina while puffing on his pipe. He had read Anna Karenina fifty times because he never read anything else, and the book was so worn from handling that the pages were falling out. When his housekeeper one day asked him why he never changed his routine, he said, “You can’t improve on perfection, kiddo, so why would I bother to try?”

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All Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Time Machine That Was and Wasn’t at the Same Time by Jonah Jones.

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Several years ago or yet to be, Frank Fullie had written on a whiteboard in his garage:

“You can jump forward in time by falling asleep.”

“You can jump backward in time by looking at old photographs.”

“Sideways in time by having empathy with another.”

“Outside time by dying.”

As an afterthought he’d written “Does the Higgs field come into it?”

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