Company Man
Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Short Stories
Tuning
Reading Time: 11 minutesA mother who is frustrated with her teenage daughter comes across a magical object that can repair items. She wonders what effect the object might have if she used it on her daughter.
Mothermind
Reading Time: 12 minutesAmong war’s victims are the soldiers and those who care for them. Nothing in our shared future will change that, though some of the details will be new. What will be the reality for cloned soldiers?
Goodbye, Nathan, Goodbye
Reading Time: 10 minutesIt’s a little boy’s last chance to leave the planet. Can he talk his mom into letting him go?
The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead
Reading Time: 26 minutesSuki finds herself prematurely awoken from an induced suspension between life and death. With her retinas deactivated and her government persona suspended, it’s up to friend and P.I. Gabe, to recover her identity, before she dies for good.
Alexander the Gray
Reading Time: 15 minutesAlexander, an extraterrestrial botanist whose mission to collect plant samples, is tasked with the emergency abduction of Roger Smith. Alexander has never come into contact with a human being, and when he meets Roger, he wishes wish he never had.
Under the Twinkle of a Fading Star
Reading Time: 26 minutesA veteran soldier in a postwar city, Jackson agrees to search for a friend’s wayward daughter and bring her back to her father. The task will be harder than he expected.
The Candle Wench
Reading Time: 17 minutesOverworked and underpaid, a candle wench finds strange comfort in the warmth of the wax
I Don’t See How That’s Any of My Business
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen a man’s vision changes, he suddenly sees much more about the people around him than he would care to.
Turndown Service
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
Mortal Wounds
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter a thief is mortally wounded, strange visions of past crimes begin to haunt him. As he tries to make his way out of a dark forest to see the sun once more, he cannot shake the feeling he is being followed.
After Impact
Reading Time: 19 minutesA group of people in a rural town face the outcome of a devastating asteroid impact.
The Shell
Reading Time: 25 minutesA little boy discovers a mysterious seashell that contains more than just “ocean sounds” – a lot more…
The Psychics
Reading Time: 5 minutesPsychic magicians must fight off a enemy who is trying to break the spells protecting their academy. Family and romantic relationships complicate things.
Grim Harvest
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhen their mother dies, a pair of precocious twins are placed in the care of their father, a conservative and stern man with whom their Wiccan practices immediately clash.
Anonymous Tip
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn a near future of fast-paced social media likes and internet lurking, anonymity has a price…
The Programmed Joy of Protection
Reading Time: 11 minutesRuth is an android robot nanny, designed to protect the two young children in her care. She has come to realize that she loves protecting the children so much, she feels compelled to put the children into danger so as to enjoy saving them.
Spell to Find Amelia Earhart
Reading Time: 4 minutesMagic circles, incantations—could this be enough to bring back Amelia Earhart?
How Chaac the Rain God Moved to Venice and Became a Glutton-Free Vegan
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhen ancient Mexican gods visit Venice Beach, America gets a change of dirt.
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The Virgin of Santos de la Tierra
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen a Virgin is seen in a small Mexican town it’s a miracle – the town is blessed… or is it?
Ties That Bind
Reading Time: 14 minutesA cosmic traveller helps a grieving fisherman to deal with his trauma.
Shadows
Reading Time: 5 minutesJason’s daughter, Sarah, approached him one morning and said, “Daddy, the Shadow Man is back.”
Two Old Friends in the Garden
Reading Time: 5 minutesAn old man’s dedication to his garden goes beyond the grave.
Life Online
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn the environmentally and economically devastated not-so-distant future, best friends Pen and Lissy have fought for years simply to survive. After a lifetime of struggle, Lissy is desperate for escape, and decides uploading her mind onto a computer chip – complete with home-designed software – is her only option.
Classics: The Star
Reading Time: 15 minutesA strange star is spotted in the distant sky. Scientists watch as its near miss brings humanity to its knees.
In Him, We Know Freedom
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile burning barrels light the state capital’s torn paint and hunger pains ravage his stomach, a man looks into a mirror, seeing what he could become and reliving what he had to do to survive.
Humans and Androids as Societal Partners
Reading Time: 8 minutesDo we need new rules for a society where androids are becoming more and more lifelike?
In My Home
Reading Time: 10 minutesA prisoner with no knowledge of their own identity is kept in solitary confinement, visited daily by human projections designed to prevent mental deterioration. When the opportunity for escape is presented, a dormant instinct resurfaces in the prisoner, and the need to fulfill this drive supplants the desire for freedom.
Here Comes the Sun
Reading Time: 4 minutesJune joined the Memory Keeper team to help her family forge a path to abundance. When it became harder to meet quota, June learned that she was trapped in a business that viewed her as another commodity. And sometimes, the consequences of faith in an idea are greater than we can imagine.
It Shambles Closer in the Dark
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn the dark, something shambles toward you, its squelch squelch squelch sound getting louder, and louder. Is it here for you?
Not Alone in the Universe
Reading Time: 3 minutesSome expected the aliens to solve the problems of humanity, while others were afraid of genocide or enslavement. But it all turned out differently.
Terra Forma
Reading Time: 11 minutesMirabyi has been tapped to join the moon colony to explore the possibility of converting the dusty surface to life sustaining soil. Her experiments have unexpected results and maybe not the good kind.
Demonology
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith his life spiraling out of control, and a desire for revenge taking over his mind, a man takes drastic actions.
The Faster They Eat Her
Reading Time: 26 minutesYoung Daisy must evade the clutches of forest-dwelling witch Madame Sosostris and Malcolm, the town brute, as she tries to solve the mystery of her friend Violet’s disappearance.
The Imaginary Librarian
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn a sparse, orderly imaginary office, a librarian awaits unseen directives, tending to imaginary tomes with quiet diligence. As dawn approaches, she fulfills a final task, providing closure for a life departing.
A Darker World
Reading Time: 6 minutesTechnology allows us to revisit the most cherished moments of our lives. But is that a good thing?
The Fool’s Fiddle
Reading Time: 18 minutesDragons can’t lie, right? That’s what the legends say. So, when Guy finds himself at the wrong end of a failed heist, he puts that knowledge to the test. Compatriots dead. Hope gone. And his last chance at life is convincing a dragon to let him go.
Willow Prentiss
Reading Time: 5 minutesGuilt, melancholy, and the lost soul of a love form the basis of this twist on the paranormal/magical romance.
The Wreck of the Lorelei
Reading Time: 21 minutesTrapped in an experiment in faster-than-light space travel, the captain of the ship searches for what went wrong.
Freedreamers
Reading Time: 18 minutesIn the future, our dreams are mass entertainment … or a weapon of mass destruction.
Confederate Cavalry on a Plane
Reading Time: 15 minutesA physics professor and his student on a plane argue about the possibility of infinite alternate universes, while being robbed blind by a bratty kid. The professor bets the student that even the most unlikely event possible must happen, leading to three very confused Confederate Cavalry charging down the aisle.
Home Delivery
Reading Time: 10 minutesDesperate for cash, Nick and his friend plot a home invasion. They picked the wrong house.
Affordable Resurrection
Reading Time: 6 minutesLightly amusing modern-feel fantasy mashup about an unlikely partnership between a budget-price necromancer and his student locked in an unusual business model.
Why the Sea is Boiling Hot
Reading Time: 21 minutesA serial killer is playing havoc in the city-state of Sheebatiya. Can Allii uncover the killer before fear pushes the city into anarchy?
Naughty or Nice?
Reading Time: 5 minutesA vampire, attempting to adapt to Western customs, sends her Christmas list to Santa.
Timestealer
Reading Time: 6 minutesTimestealing is an art. And a business. And a service. A good timestealer can predict what the next best-seller will be – most of the time.
Half-baked Hero
Reading Time: 16 minutesWhen Janza, a bodyguard-for-hire meets a suspicious merchant, her personal code and memories of the oppression suffered by her people battle for her soul.