A Crime in 3d
In 1884 a school master named Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote the novella “Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions.” The book explored what it would be like to live in a …
Ghost in the Machine
History is littered with discarded technologies and obsolete skills. In the last few decades whole industries have been swept away by ever moving waves of change, and it seems unavoidable …
The Citizen’s New Town
This month’s story is very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen short tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. Amber is working as a stage director for the opening celebration of …
The Last Astronomer
This month’s story is based on a comment Steven Hawkins once made: We should probably not try to contact extraterrestrial civilizations. According to Hawkins, our own history has shown that …
Skin Deep
After narrowly evading capture, Maya and Tim arrive in New Hudson and run into the man who had been following them in Waystation. The man claims he works with …
All Inclusive
Alonzo is forced to take his ailing, wealthy mother and her robotic wheel chair to an ultra expensive all inclusive health spa. The doctors and specialists told him that the …
Dreams of a Life
Aura lives with her mother and brothers, making a modest living from a concession stand. Her life in the themed dome park Timber World is thrown into chaos when an …
Caught!
After discovering more incriminating evidence against them planted on the café’s computer, Maya and Tim decide to flee when net regulatory agents appear. In an attempt to find Maya’s …
Lifeboat
With the first Moon landings in the late 1960s, many may have felt that a Mars mission was not too far off, but since then, no human has left near …
The Shadows
Maya and Tim live in a future powered by coal, kids over eight must work for a living, and reality is not what it seems. Tim’s parents died after …
Return to Start
An astronomer watching for near-earth objects makes a shocking discovery that forces Adrian out of hiding. Adrian realizes that events in the past have led to a disaster in …
C-11’s Quest
An automated planetary mission goes awry when it is hit by solar flares. Unit C-11, one of the landing group’s communication nodes, attempts to repair its damaged memory with information …
Universe 8.1
Lambent Nape Nor works at the Infinite Macro Cosmic Reality Corporation as the assistant head of product design and customer services for Universe 8. Despite Lambent’s concerns, management insists …
The Archives
Maya and Tim live in a future powered by coal, and kids over eight must work for a living, but reality is not what it seems. Tim’s parents died …
Invasion
An imminent invasion derails a 500-year-old terraforming project. No one, except a small group of scientists, understands the threat’s true nature and its implications for the future of their …
Hole in Space – Part 2
After being sucked into a wormhole, created when Luki used Len’s unfinished hyper dry modification to the ship’s clothes dryer, the crew of the Hyper Nova are stranded on a strange planet called Atma, which is being smothered in lost laundry.
Perspectives & the Mission
This month, we present two short stories. In the first one, Perspectives, a routine mission is suddenly changed by a chance encounter in deep space. This story evolved out …
Surveillance
A heavy rain storm breaks Way Station’s heat wave, but along with the storm, two strange customers appear at the Europa Café. They appear to know more than they …
Laika – Dog From Space
A passing celestial being is trapped by Earth’s gravity and reluctantly dragged to its surface in the middle of a Moscow winter. Stranded in the body of a dog, …
Hole in Space
Life on board the Hyper Nova begins to settle down into a routine until a number of random events collide with one of Len’s pet projects causing the ship and its crew to get sucked into a hole in space.