Amethyst, like most planets discovered in the 23rd century, had a name as one-dimensional as it was misleading. There's no quartz here. The first ship to attempt a landing nearly combusted when its hull started oxidizing from the iodine in the atmosphere. That's what gives it its rich violet palette: the iodine vents. Its scorching… Continue reading Amethyst
Category: Creative Writing
The Crimson Man
The Crimson Man lives in a cave in the birchwood grove where the sun is always setting and the season is always autumn. He has crimson eyes that can see for miles and a crimson cloak that warms him as well as any fire. When hunger pulls at his stomach with its long-boned fingers he… Continue reading The Crimson Man
The Advocate
"I'm Harley. I'll be your advocate." She waited while the creature on the other side of the translucent partition interpreted her message and responded. Integrated translators turned its color-shifting into text that scrolled across the partition. Many of the pixels were dead, especially for such a short response. "My what?" She sighed and crossed one… Continue reading The Advocate
Before the Storm
Lamb calmly crossed the long entryway of the lobby, the wooden heels of his thousand-dollar authentic leather oxfords—from genetically unique cattle, not those clone farm abominations—clicked with each step upon the quartz floor like a metronome, a prelude to the requiem. Though, the impressive space was designed such that the sounds of the lobby lived… Continue reading Before the Storm
In Sight of the Spirits
Mukaru reached Spirit Palace late, just as the sky went golden at the hour of sundown. He hopped silently from his uleox—one of the few animals native to this planet, something akin to a camel-elephant hybrid—and let it wander down to a nearby spring to rehydrate while he got his bearings. The spirits would soon… Continue reading In Sight of the Spirits
Linear Function
"Yes. It's true. It was me." "I don't believe you." Clint reached into his pack. "Then how do you explain this?" He pulled out a small silver cube. It distorted his reflection like a funhouse mirror. "Tell me that's not what I think it is." Clint didn't respond, turning the object over in his hands.… Continue reading Linear Function
Some Deal
Brin Dimanche was not the type of person you wanted to make angry. In fact, you were better off if she didn’t know you at all. Any orbit around her was a decaying one. You could tell just by looking at her senior advisors; none of them were seniors. Minutes with Brin could take decades… Continue reading Some Deal
Somewhere Over Georgia
Fluffy clouds passed underneath like kernels of popcorn. Irregular shadows that looked like the Mandelbrot set dotted the featureless patchwork of green and brown parcels of land, interrupted by the perfect circles drawn by irrigation equipment. Highways connected distant cities like arteries, with capillaries and veins and valves all interlinked. At nighttime, the tail lights… Continue reading Somewhere Over Georgia
It Was the Solstice
One of the neighbor kids found him on the way home from school, laying awkwardly on the deck with his face in the water. The coroner said he'd only been out there like that for a day. That would have made it a Sunday. It was the solstice; I don't know why I remember that.… Continue reading It Was the Solstice
Sunrise at the Precinct
Kyler waited in the hangar absently holding his pistol at his side. The gash above his eye had stopped bleeding, but the half-dried splatter pulled at the scruff on his cheek as he clenched and unclenched his jaw out of habit. He needed another hit an hour ago, and he could feel it in the… Continue reading Sunrise at the Precinct
Warmup Pages 