My code name is Iron Feather, and I am writing this to honor an old request from my father, the former Earth Ambassador to the Confederation, the recently departed and much-admired Langford Joh. I refer to a conversation we had once in which he chided me on my poor ability to select a proper … Continue reading “Malorchia (part of The Langford Joh Saga)” by William Alan Rieser
“And that’s when Asyan understood that he not only lost his wealth. He lost his family, his reputation, and his dignity. Left with nothing, he spent the rest of his years seeking, obsessed with the treasure he had lost, and died a lonely man.” The two-dozen people who had gathered around Thomas Grayweed at the … Continue reading “A Threadbare Tailor” by Sean Hower
JOURNAL ENTRY #3138 Date: 11/04/2199 Time: 1046 This is Cory Dealth, captain and pilot of the cargo freighter, Alexa. I’ve just chartered the final leg of our course for Delta Centauri, but I’m certain that I won’t reach journey’s end alive. I am in the grip of “the Sorrow”, “the Loneliness”, “the Pilot’s Despair”; … Continue reading “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Star Pilot” by Lee Moan
"No longer are laser guns the stuff of Hollywood and Strategic Defense Initiative fantasy. The Pentagon inside of a decade could be armed with such a beam weapon...." -- Oakland Tribune, October 19, 2003 "You are the one, Neo." -- The Matrix 1. Professor Paula J. Lynch plopped her duffel bag on the steel … Continue reading “Light Source” (a Prof. Paula J. Lynch story) by E.S. Strout
I sensed no movement in the air and heard no sounds except my bare feet slowly padding along. I felt exposed walking down the deserted long hallway, so I kept as much to the side of the corridor as I could, though diffuse white light from the ceiling lit the ash-white walls and made … Continue reading “Expetais” by Jeff Hemsley
“What is it?” Over-General Ulat demanded, in tones of nitrogen with an overlay of imperious oxygen. “You’re ruining my contemplation of our glorious victory. ” He angled a stalked eye at the glowing remains of the humans’ small advance base on the horizon. The strange creatures with their superior technology had fallen to a … Continue reading “Failure to Communicate” by Ed McKeown
under three moons a rush of nanofireflies -- October wind leafless trees -- in the rocket’s wake a swirl of blue banana-persimmons Veterans’ cemetery -- at the markers of the space buoy nanites planting memories Autumn afternoon all around the playground tiny droids in line Halloween at the gate of the starship virtual children * … Continue reading “Autumn Haiku in the Year 2278” by Anjali Chandi
I am a bounty hunter. I had never been and never wanted to be anything different, until now. I have chased Sally "Twinkle Toes" Barnett for over six months. She took me to Ganymede, Titan, and finally Moon Shadow, where I caught up with and arrested her. Sally got her nickname when she a … Continue reading “Memoirs of a Bounty Hunter” by Frederick G. Soper
If she’d sprouted a third head at that moment it would have been less of a shock. The two sets of yellow eyes were staring into mine. "I’m having a baby," her voices said in unison. I remember a shiver running through me and wondering what I’d got myself into. We were extremely fond … Continue reading “Heads” by Brian Wright
The plump, balding psychoanalyst shifted in his chocolate-brown Naugahyde Execu-Chair. He looked down briefly, then up, his expression a mask. The air-conditioner hummed softly as he spoke to the large, battle-scarred warrior sitting on the client side of the white Formica desk. "Konen, I'm not, uhhh, that is, it might be perhaps more efficacious … Continue reading 10 Years Ago in Planet… “Konen in Recovery” by Andrew G. McCann
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