A temporal switch-box is a complicated device, to put it mildly. It made an 18th century Swiss timepiece look like a mud pie by comparison. So Will was understandably upset when Kai blew theirs to smithereens with a shift grenade. It was Thursday, October 10th, 2307—78 years in the past, to them, and three days… Continue reading Can’t Change the Past
Author: D. Roe Shocky
I’m an author of short stories and novels. I primarily write science fiction, though I occasionally visit other corners of the speculative fiction map.
Church of the Falling Sky
The shuttle had no windows, but the sudden lurch told Lady Verity they'd uncoupled from Saint Donovan's Interment. The temperature in the shuttle quickly rose like it was a tin can in the summer sun, heated by the tremendous friction of the descent through Lachesis' thick sulfurous atmosphere. Four centuries of landings like this had pulverized… Continue reading Church of the Falling Sky
How to Sleep for 1,000 Years
As part of his education, Praveen had to read the autobiography of Dr. Maaz Ghazali, one of the pioneers of cryonic interstellar travel. It was called How to Sleep for 1,000 Years. Interesting book, if a little dated. It didn't really cover Praveen's current dilemma, but even so, the parallels were enough to chill him to… Continue reading How to Sleep for 1,000 Years
Let’s Get Cruisin’
When Siegena was close enough to see, Amber unexpectedly found herself impressed. She'd been shuttling folks around the belt with her pops for as long as she'd been able to float, so she considered herself worldly; she thought she'd been just about everywhere, and one place mostly looked like any other. But Siegena was different.… Continue reading Let’s Get Cruisin’
The Day Without a Yesterday
It had been happening for a while. Well, technically it had been happening since the dawn of time—it was the Big Bang that got it started. It was nice that they figured out how it started. Would have been better if they'd figured out how to stop it. Way too late for that now. All… Continue reading The Day Without a Yesterday
Throw Away Your Body Parts
The fires that night were so bright that I got out of bed thinking it was sunrise. I pulled up the time out of habit, and when I saw the hour I leapt from the fold-out to the balcony door and slid it open in one explosive movement. My conapt was on the 177th floor.… Continue reading Throw Away Your Body Parts
The Loop
Maria found herself in a white void. It was overly bright. The complete lack of detail was oppressive. Though, there seemed to be a floor, and she was standing. She spun around slowly and white objects materialized as if a fog was lifting. Simple solids, mostly. Pyramids and buckyballs. It was hard to get a… Continue reading The Loop
The Last Wonder
Above, thick bundles of diamond nanotubes cut thousands of parallel vertical lines in the air, disappearing in low cloud cover. Below, the ruins. The buildings that were still standing were either skeletons or bloating, sagging corpses. Shipping containers were strewn about among the hulls of gondolas like a knocked-over bucket of Legos. Capsized ships and… Continue reading The Last Wonder
Learning to Run
Humanity was born on Earth, and the Sol system was where they learned to crawl. And crawl they did, to Mars, and to Mercury, and to Titan. They got so comfortable with crawling that they eventually crawled all the way to the Centauri Coast—Alpha Two, orbiting Rigel Kentaurus—on a three-kilometer generation ship that somehow managed… Continue reading Learning to Run
Cosmic Evolution
Imre stood in the trampled, muddy snow waiting for the commotion to pass. His tidy black dreadlocks hung down over his shoulders and swayed in the frigid wind gusts. The officers were doing their best to secure Javier Lacoste in the drone ship, but he was putting up a hell of a fight. Wouldn't help… Continue reading Cosmic Evolution
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