By Steven French

“Historians!” Commander Zhang said. “I’d never have imagined having them down on my ‘Who’s Going to Destroy the World’ bingo-card.” 

Lieutenant Liu looked

By Judith Yarrow

I’d used all my excuses at least once already and none of them had worked the first time. Might as well try honesty. But that would probably sound like an excuse, too,

By Ramprasath Rengasamy

I didn’t try to hold myself back in the seat by adjusting my posture this time, as the quick turn of events in the laboratory had shattered all my hopes. As a

By Gerald Brown

I woke before the alarm, the dark too heavy, the room too quiet. The last thing I remembered was a spiraling chamber of glowing white figures, each standing on their own

By Nicolas Van Der Haar

Codename: LUDDITE  

File Number: 11219  

Security Level:

By Toshiya Kamei

I pour water from the little dipper over your tombstone. From the look of the wilted flowers, your son hasn’t visited for a long time. He takes after his father, so

By Stefan Vučak

Paul wished the priest would cut the sermon short. The dreary monotone tempted him to stand up and walk out. He could not do that, of course. Valerie and the rest

By Joseph Sullivan

It looked like a tower, but it came out of the sky.

Whatever it was had landed out in a field just a short while out of my village, cutting down the orange

By Greg Ballinger

The oxen steadily trudged through the damp field, turning the soil neatly, while Isidore whistled tunelessly at the reins, only stopping on each turn to tell his two

By Nell Sterling

The Matron hobbled as she walked. Breathed half in and shuddered out. With her good eye, she took in the new hire.

“Welcome to the ward,” she said. “You

By C. Inanen

You encounter some strange things on the edge of the known universe. I watched with fascination as six of them flew overhead. They reminded me of stingrays, back on Earth.

By Derek McMillan

“A black coffee, please.”

“Can I get you anything to eat?”

“Well, I would quite like your liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

Marie

By Sheyna Zaid Lam

Ai Lin glances at her commuter app impatiently. It still says that the 214 is due ‘now’. But that’s what it said twenty minutes ago when she’d arrived at the bus stop

By Ron Riekki

One evening, when the cockroach woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed under the sink into a horrible human. He lay on his skin-back, and if he lifted his

By Frederick Charles Melancon

A memory of a deep voice echoes in my brain. It isn’t mad per se, just stern. Death magic isn’t something to play around with because it’s impossible to

By Julia Esther Jacob

“Guardi, you promised! Please, please can we get one?” 

Zyxigo tugged at their guardian Bwzik’s hand, gazing up at them with wide purple