The air was stale, but the fact that there was air at all was something of a miracle. Demetri was the first person to walk the halls of Elatus in a thousand years. He shut his visor. Breathable as the air might be, it was damp and there were thick carpets of mold overhead, as… Continue reading The Heart of Elatus
Category: Creative Writing
Major
Gio must have fallen asleep, because when he looked up there was someone sitting in the crash couch across from him in the otherwise empty shuttle. She wasn't quite staring at him, but looking through him. Lightyears away. Chewing gum. She seemed totally at home, but her outfit was out of place on a military… Continue reading Major
Void Phantasma
I'm not like all those crazy people. This is different. It's real. Imagine flying a starship. Most people can only imagine, because most people never leave the planet they're born on. Still, even if only a small percent of people ever take a starflight, a small percent of an enormous number leaves you with a… Continue reading Void Phantasma
Morals of a Gun for Hire
"This isn't right." "Not this shit again," growled Kendall, "not now. We've been over this: they're not people." Zaine and Seren kept working. They'd heard it before and didn't want to hear it again, though Leon suspected they agreed with him on some level. He was all about pinching mint from the Fedcorp, but murder… Continue reading Morals of a Gun for Hire
Arrival of the Pangea
Varun waited for Lan in the corridor beside the airlock. He watched pale teal shadows shift across the cloud tops of the planet's atmosphere. The view would be better once they were outside, unconstricted by the frame of the window. But there was still work to do, and he wanted to get his gawking out… Continue reading Arrival of the Pangea
Transcending Asija
It was chaos. Asija-36 knew that, but knowing a thing provided little comfort when you were between its jaws. The deviations were becoming increasingly difficult to mask. The human mind is not a closed system, but turn the clock back far enough and you reach a single cell. Limited components: organelles and proteins, themselves made… Continue reading Transcending Asija
Return of the Centauri Man
It had been a long time by any measure. But of course, the measure was the whole point. Max was awake and returning to Earth. He'd spent the bulk of the journey in a state of minmet. Even so, his stretches of wakefulness totaled more than four years subjective. Four years, five weeks, two days,… Continue reading Return of the Centauri Man
Canaries
Trent never committed a crime, but he found himself a convict anyway. Wasn't uncommon. He'd heard one in five citizens across the empire was a convict now—more than starvation, or even Phlox Syndrome. It was probably all exaggerated, but for every grain of salt there was a grain of truth to go with it. The… Continue reading Canaries
Painting by Numbers
"First are the golds." Jaylah squeezed paint from the tube. She mixed her colors with meditative patience and focus. She'd spent the week working ahead at a feverish pace. Traffic was cleared; packets were outbound; scrubbers and filters and purifiers were fresh. Islet N114S7-12 was unburdened for the day. So there was no need to… Continue reading Painting by Numbers
Charlie’s Anchor
The sky was clear and the suns were up. Light rays bounced off the dust particles in the atmosphere, making the daytime sky seem full of stars. Charlie tried to enjoy it. She liked being outside the settlement, even with the bulky envirosuit. She tried to marvel at the bioelectric technology that surrounded her as… Continue reading Charlie’s Anchor