Weary-eyed soldiers drag the bodies from their wagons and pile them on the wharf beside my boat. They’ve traveled far from the frontlines, and though they’re too exhausted to speak, they’re careful not to let a lifeless arm or foot touch the sea’s foamy surface. “Careful, men!” the colonel calls needlessly. “Or your labor will…
For my first four years, I never heard a lie. From the day I was born, Mom and Grams swaddled me in a fuzzy blanket, then wrapped my life in cold, hard truth. “Lies can be warm,” Grams said, deep in her corduroy rocking chair. “You’ll want to nestle into them. Some lies are meant…
Rezia has said the words “I love you” to me 1,334 times. Fractional differences in decibels, frequency, and articulation shift her emotions: shy, sweet, bold trusting. I’ve discovered a trend in the last 109. My processors can diagnose her emotion easily: sad. What my processors are still analyzing is the more important factor: why. I…
To be a priest in a traveling troupe was to wear a thousand masks, Diones knew. His cradle had been a costume trunk. He’d worn his first mask before an audience as one of the Young Lovers at the age of sixteen. Now past thirty, Diones was at the height of his powers, with a…
The first time I watched a man die, I was sitting on my mother’s lap, eating the last of the season’s figs. “Swallow.” Even when condemning a man to death, Mother’s voice was like a lyre’s song, so that you considered yourself honored to be addressed, regardless of her demand. At the time, I did…
Detective Renaud burst onto the metaphysical plane at the entrance to the Night Market. He absently patted himself down, an idiosyncrasy to realign his consciousness with his dream-self and away from his physical body, asleep somewhere in the Dream Enforcement offices of the material plane. Striding quickly to the Night Market gate, Renaud flashed his…
Its olfactory system comes online. Gideon initiates trial 152 for the integration of a human mind with a manufactured body system. Scientists peer down at Gideon in the center of the surgical suite. “Stimulus one,” he says to the crowded room. The initial compound the synthetic being detects when stimulus one activates is Mentha x…
“We’ve really solved our two-body problem,” Robin said. She started to laugh but she hated how it scratched, amplified on the suit radio. “Sh,” Aaron said. “Don’t.” Through the thick gloves she couldn’t feel the pressure of his grip, but something about his voice made it clear he was squeezing. She squeezed back, her forearms…
Lily glances down at the handwritten letter. Her hand trembles as she sips lychee wine. The drink cools her throat, tingling her wrinkled skin. She recalls the day her granddaughter was born. A cherubic baby, Mei weighed ten pounds and three ounces. Lily believes Mei’s size brought good luck and prosperity upon the family. Even…
I was having the worst kind of day you could have on a long-haul transport—the kind where your fusion reactor is making funny noises. Not ha-ha funny. Threatening to explode funny. Which was kind of ha-ha funny, because once you’ve been alone on a long-haul transport for 473 days with no human contact, everything is…
