Paul Simms We are on our way to your planet. We will be there shortly. But in this, our first contact with you, our “headline” is: We do not want your gravel. We are coming to Earth, first of all, just to see if we can actually do it. Second, we hope to learn about [...][...]
Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
June 6th, 2011 - 11:00 pm § in Science Fiction
Arms Race
Steve Hall The spectators watched raptly as the assault team crept through the artificial cityscape. Their experience was obvious – steady, even steps, eyes and weapons constantly scanning a full hemisphere of potential threats.[...]
April 1st, 2011 - 12:00 am § in Science Fiction
The Robot Whisperer
Brian C. Baer Robots love me. As much as robots can love. And in a plutonic sense, of course. Something about my chubby little baby face sets off their simulated paternal instincts and they all bend over backwards to answer my questions. That sort of thing comes in handy with my job.[...]
March 1st, 2011 - 12:01 am § in Science Fiction
August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains
Ray Bradbury In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, brea[...]
February 1st, 2011 - 12:01 am § in Science Fiction
The Rude Awakening
Francis Conaty He would do it! It would be crazy not to. Why die of a mysterious disease in six months when he could hibernate for thirty years and be treated by doctors with the required knowledge? And the system of cryogenic vitrification was totally safe. Computer controlled with an ingenious sol[...]
January 3rd, 2011 - 8:49 pm § in Science Fiction
The Rude Awakening
Francis Conaty He would do it! It would be crazy not to. Why die of a mysterious disease in six months when he could hibernate for thirty years and be treated by doctors with the required knowledge? And the system of cryogenic vitrification was totally safe. Computer controlled with an ingenious sol[...]
December 1st, 2010 - 12:01 am § in Science Fiction
Paper Cradle
Stephen Gaskell Even though you would’ve despised the weapon, Papa, you would’ve appreciated the beauty of its creation. First, beyond Mercury, a mote of starlight is ensnared. An archipelago of steel-blue optical cavities, strung out like a chain of sapphires around the wildfire neck of[...]
November 1st, 2010 - 12:01 am § in Science Fiction
Fingers, Itchy and Green
Ken McGrath I should have left it alone. But you know what it’s like you just can’t help picking at these things. Remember when you were a kid and your mum’d tell you not to pick at a scab or stop scratching your chicken pox or whatever, well that’s exactly what it was like, but [...][...]
September 1st, 2010 - 12:01 am § in Science Fiction
Hunting Problem
Robert Sheckley It was the last troop meeting before the big Scouter Jamboree, and all the patrols had turned out. Patrol 22the Soaring Falcon Patrolwas camped in a shady hollow, holding a tentacle pull. The Brave Bison Patrol, number 31, was moving around a little stream. The Bisons were practi[...]
April 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Science Fiction
Not With A Bang
John Walker The ravine baked in the sun of a cloudless June afternoon. The pickup and the three people it had brought provided the only evidence this was a world dominated by humans and not less dangerous creatures such as the rattlesnakes and scorpions that so outnumbered them in these parts.[...]