Baleful red light crackled across the sky, outlining a mushroom cap atop tentacles, stretching down into the clouds. Conditions were perfect for the abominably misnamed “sprite” to discharge the shards that powered the airship Jubilee on long-range journeys. “You saw where it struck?” Tali asked. Her pilot, Rowan, rolled their eyes. “Yes, Captain.” Tali nodded….
Secretary of State Juan Quarez knew the only thing worse than a visit from the Voltaran Ambassador was a visit to the Voltaran Embassy. That made preparations like opening every window and amping up the State Department’s air handling system an easy decision. The ambassador arrived promptly at 9 AM. Juan drew a last breath…
“Sex is overrated. Like pumpkin-spice latte.” Gala sipped her espresso. Her date’s foam mustache flinched. “Really? Then why are you here?” “I like the playlist.” She smiled, listening to an old jazz song. Most patrons had left the coffee shop when the dusk turned windows into mirrors so the murmur of voices couldn’t spoil Gala’s…
“One of these days, you’re going to kill me.” “I know,” she murmured, breath brined with salt and green weed. Her eyes held mine, inhuman and unfeeling, slitted and narrow, yet they drew me in. I never welcomed the chill of midnight on the water until I met her. She froze my bones with her…
I first learned about my father when I dyed my hair blonde and it came out fluorescent. And not fluorescent as in the brightest of blondes, lemme tell you that, but fluorescent as in a xylaphor blast all the way to our neighboring galaxy. Which was, incidentally, where my father lived. “You have to understand,”…
Day twenty-seven. Minah wakes to a tepid dawn. Amay Patel’s skies are the colour of weak tea, the air pregnant with humidity. As sleep falls away, her heartbeat rises. She switches on her tablet and checks the news. Nothing. Her breath leaves in a knife-cut rush. Then, as usual, she opens the hologram. Jade’s pixelated…
When Talisa plays her keyboard, a space opens up between the treble and bass clef. The lines of the staff part to reveal something in between. A portal. A doorway. The world on the other side is dark and cold, the kind of dark that reveals constellations you’ll never reach in a million years. The…
I meet you in the rain, the fat drops slicking our cheeks. We splash in puddles like children. You kiss like thunder: deep enough to shake the earth, even if only a little. The sun reemerges and sparkles on the wet tar. I turn to see your face sparkle, too, but you’re gone. I look…
The doll doesn’t make it to my front door. I find her limp against my woodpile out back a few days after the first cold snap. She’s been rained on, her cloth skin a sodden gray, button eyes damp. “Oh, hello,” she says, with trained brightness. “I do beg your pardon. I seem to be…
The steady ticking of the carved wall-clock had always been a part of Mellyn’s world–enough that she hardly noticed it–but now, with the fire’s last light fading toward the long-winter, the implacable rhythm made her heart race. Mellyn glanced its way. Just one last look. In the moment of distraction, her embroidery needle bit into…
