The view of Earth was breathtaking from the small window port. Brown, blue, green, and white, all swirling together in silent slow motion — the colors standing in lush contrast to the empty black of surrounding space. Thom took a… Continue Reading
Zio and Will were shipmates aboard the Venture Maru, a space freighter which sailed not only through our familiar Milky Way galaxy, delivering everything from canned peaches to ping-pong tables to radiation shields, but occasionally venturing all the way out… Continue Reading
Not everyone was cut out for Sweeping. It was spacer talk for the method used to collect gases and trace mineral elements found within nebulae so that they could be processed into usable compounds and fuel. It was dangerous work,… Continue Reading
Early Christmas morning aboard the Masters’ starship, and once again there was no Santa Claus. I stared at the stars streaming past on the display window. There was a quiet knock on our apartment’s door, a little rap-a-tap-tap given with… Continue Reading
Antideuterium tablets flashed as they tumbled from Yuri’s shovel into the Theresa’s furnace. Exhausted, he staggered to the water bucket. Water poured down his chest and splashed to the floor, curling into steam around his boots. On a viewscreen he… Continue Reading
The void of space. Dark. Empty. Lit only by the pinpricks of starlight as I floated in the vast emptiness. Alone. Oxygen running out, blaring blood-red on my heads-up display. Time to die… The animal in us can’t conceive of… Continue Reading
I wake in darkness, adrift in space. Circuits fire with animal instinct. I reach for the others, but where a vast Consciousness once clamored I find only an echoing void. I am the last, alone. My only memories are those… Continue Reading
Retrieval: Time = 00.00 Just checked out a doozer of an AI unit the Scavenger crew brought in. Yeah? Specs? Carbon-based so obviously non-sentient, high-end multi-receptor architecture, a CPU that monitors damage and — interesting — limited self-repair capacity. Candidate… Continue Reading
Kapteyn is dead. No, that’s not right. He’s thinking, therefore not dead. His body is lost. He floats, smaller than an atom. No. That’s not right either. He’s confused. The sensation isn’t entirely unpleasant. He processes. His thoughts are slow.… Continue Reading
Docking at the space station, Dex Branson momentarily forgot about the two-ton shark in the science bay. He was dreaming about cosmonaut Martina Voluskova, “with whom I shall soon rendezvous,” he chortled, eyeing his case of smuggled vodka. Later, with… Continue Reading