...Researchers in Boston today announced they've completed genetic mapping of Argiope bruennichi, commonly known as the wasp spider, indicating that they've isolated the genes responsible for manufacturing dragline silk. Known for its toughness, ductility, and strength-to-weight ratio, there are numerous applications for... ...but while they appear unremarkable, these dairy cattle are part of a long-running… Continue reading What Could Go Wrong?
Category: Creative Writing
Portraits of the Patriarchy
Hayden Alico stood in the grand foyer of Alico Station's spinning torus. The grand foyer was next to the docking berths—it was meant to impress. But it had never impressed her. She climbed the imposing regal staircase, with its hand carved banisters and silver inlays emphasizing the theme of dynastic power, until she reached the… Continue reading Portraits of the Patriarchy
Weak Stomach
Before today, the only time Specialist Gordon saw live fire was on the range, and he'd anticipated it staying that way. The Tarnhelm was a patrol frigate that stuck to the mercantile routes, mostly performing random inspections and enforcing trade permits. He never imagined he'd get into a firefight on a pirate vessel, and now that… Continue reading Weak Stomach
Seven Summers From the Forge
Child sat on a low sandstone wall outside the city gates with Rewel—of his many, many mothers, she was his favorite because of her loud and frequent laughter full of snorts and screeches. But she had no laughter now. Together they waved as the caravan rolled past, and they watched it disappear over the hills… Continue reading Seven Summers From the Forge
Easy Targets
The missionaries crossed the dull gray landscape slowly, their buggy straining with the weight of their supplies, even at this low gravity. Easy targets. Eunomia was well past its boomtown days. The ringwoodite deposits, rich in hydrates, had all been depleted and shipped across the Belt. It was a cruel irony, then, that generations later… Continue reading Easy Targets
Playing the Odds
Officials said that while the long period comet would pass within the moon's orbit, the chances of it striking the Earth were only 1 in 3,000,000. They'd been saying it all summer. When the news was first announced it went through the usual media blitz, cycling down after a few weeks and then reemerging at… Continue reading Playing the Odds
The Reckoning
She had a black hole for a heart, or at least that was the rumor. When you go around calling yourself The Reckoning, rumors like that are bound to follow like famine follows a locus swarm. In truth, she had no heart at all, just a pump. And a backup. There was no black hole,… Continue reading The Reckoning
Scavengers
Deadeye saw it first, no surprise. We rode toward the smoke. Loud Mouth couldn't stop giggling, interrupted every so often by that disgusting clicking noise the stump of his tongue made against his uvula. I ran my palm over the smooth end of my left arm, which terminated at the mid-forearm. It was an interstellar… Continue reading Scavengers
My Summer Vacation
"Next up is Leighton Decker." Leighton walked to the front of the class, dragging her feet as she walked so that her polka-dotted boots—her favorites, though entirely out of season—scraped loudly against the coarse carpeting. Twenty-three blank faces stared at her in wait. By the end of the year she'd be able to perform the… Continue reading My Summer Vacation
Star Child
Yensuensu'suneasun—Yensu, for simplicity—awoke in a bath of bright silver light. The long night was not over; it was too early to wake. He stretched his proto-limbs against the strong thin filaments of webbing and the syrupy fluid within the interior of the pod. He did not know the word mother, but that was what his spindly… Continue reading Star Child
Warmup Pages 