Our Weight on Other Worlds By Beth Goder The spaceship leaves in two hours. It’s not enough time for Clara to decide. When Doug walks in, he doesn’t notice the packed bag on the table, perhaps because it’s so small. Clara can’t take much—none of the colonists can. Launching a spaceship is expensive enough…
A Mind Of Its Own By Jeff Soesbe The knife wouldn’t take Gordon’s second dollop of cream cheese. No matter how many times he tried, the cheese flowed back into the container like water. His head still hurt from New Year’s Eve. He didn’t need this. What he needed was more cream cheese on…
A Right Angle to Here and Now By Floris M. Kleijne “What color are your M&Ms?” The woman’s arrival might have gone unnoticed, but I happened to be staring over the low wall bordering the oval meadow, gazing through the slow snow of pale pink petals drifting from the cherry trees. I stand stunned…
Just Another Night on Telegraph By Karl Dandenell She called him Harry. Actually, his name was Henry, but she was beautiful, and he was more than a little drunk, so he let her get away with it. “You are Harry. You know, hairy. All men are, but you….” She touched his bare chest, which…
Doorkeeper By Joanna Michal Hoyt Haavi stands empty-handed in front of the mirror-paneled door, waiting to turn them away. The waiting is long. Only a few dare to risk everything to find the Last Door and receive the power to right the wrongs at the foundation of this crooked world. Some of these die…
Phoenix, Fallen By Rebecca Birch The Phoenix Corporation complex perches atop a volcanic ridge overlooking the Pacific. Its vari-copper cladding catches the rising sun, turning the buildings to flame. I used to love to watch the building burn like its namesake, but today can think of nothing but Kokua, plummeting through the atmosphere, his…
From Now Until Infinity By Karen Bovenmyer Everything on this world reminded her of him, though they’d never been here together. The air tasted like overripe oranges. Purple boulders leaned into each other, tied together with silver webs, crouching in pairs across the horizon as though waiting for some hidden signal to jump. Fine…
Memoirs of a One-Time Dragon-Slayer’s Apprentice By George Nikolopoulos The dragon slayer who arrived at our village on that windy Wheelsday looked nothing like the one who had come after the death of my mother. He‘d been a burly guy with a long black beard; this one was slight and beardless, almost feminine-looking, and…
Moon Man 13 By Brenda Kalt In his thirty-ninth sleepless hour on the Moon, Carlo Bonifacio shoved the last collection bag into place in the lander and felt the headache behind his eyes sharpen. The European Space Agency, in its low-budget return to the Moon, had sent one astronaut armed with stimulants to keep…
Bystanding By Jonathan Laidlow Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he collects and occasionally repairs….
