Declan hit the water without so much as a splash. The radiation increased the viscosity and surface tension. He waited for his heavy armor to pull him downward, holding still to avoid creating bubbles. He soon reached the metallic floor, below the reach of the spotlights high above, and he army crawled his way to… Continue reading Without Warning
Tag: Writing Prompt
Too Little Willpower
I stood gawking like a tourist at the inverted skyscrapers that hung down from the sky of stone and ice and iron. But I wasn't a tourist. This was my home now. The hollowed out asteroid was thick with the stench of people who all showered in the same few gallons of precious recycled water.… Continue reading Too Little Willpower
Allegiance to the Bedlam
Baroness Vilaya emerged from the night like a horrible memory, her cape rising like the cursed wings of a moth in the electric rain. A butterfly mad with bloodlust. Front lit by the Fire Moon as she was, she looked aflame, as if she'd wrapped herself in a cloak of embers. I was drawn to… Continue reading Allegiance to the Bedlam
Under Red Sand
For a while, all they could do was stare at it from the crest of the dune. Jutting up from the rust-colored sand was a fully jointed hand—like a human's—made of metallic plating and electrical cables. It was the size of a three-story house. It was Elliot who finally broke the silence with a long… Continue reading Under Red Sand
Moon Trucker
Halter Sprock had no sense of adventure. It had been ground down to a fine powder, just like everything else around here. He made up country western lyrics and sang away the hours as he drove the trawler, a Sanya series, model P2. He was leaving Listening Outpost Chiral. He would have known it even… Continue reading Moon Trucker
Amethyst
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
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
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
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