Story : Detection

Collage: scientists briefed by a radar dome, a soldier in a trench, white pods, a cube splashing into sea near warships

By Romeo Esparrago. The Soviet Union detonates their first atomic test on August 29, 1949. Radioactive particles collected over the skies of Alaska confirm this. President Truman announces this to the world on September 23, 1949. Massachusetts, 1953. John V. “Jack” Herrentown had drawn an aircraft on the blackboard. Beneath it he had drawn a … Continue reading Story : Detection →

Story : The Clays of Proteus

A probe beams into a huge crater with banded walls on an asteroid ringed by orbits, between a blue planet and a pink moon

from Romeo Esparrago I. Residuals Mara Castellanos found the problem the way most problems are found: by refusing to accept a number that was merely good enough. It was 2031, five years afer the James Webb Space Telescope paper, and the paper was still the most-cited thing ever written about Neptune's inner moons. Everyone knew … Continue reading Story : The Clays of Proteus →

Blister Mister

Silver aliens with huge bare feet walk from a landed flying saucer along a moonlit shore, leaving human shoes behind

Blister Mister By Ornay Mahornayorn.  From Planet Mister’s silver stream, Where moonlight flows in chrome-like gleam,   Came river-aliens, sleek and bright,   To conquer Earth one starless night.    Their skin was silver, smooth and grand,   Their saucer hummed above the land;   Their leader cried, “Prepare the way!   Earth shall be ours before first day!”    But there … Continue reading Blister Mister →