Short stories: Science fiction 283 Articles

by James Sarti

Pass or Fail She awoke stiff as a board, dry-mouthed and the skin on her hands so dry it pained her to slightly bend even a single chubby digit. But she had to get up; she had no choice in the matter...read more

by Scott Stadt

The Well The cold white walls made some form of work more antiseptic at times. Not that there was any reason to worry about catching a cold in the well. In the bottom of a round, white room barely ten feet across and s...read more

by Ifeoma Maduka

AD 2700 The rest of the City beyond my apartment is a rising stack of glass helixes and pregnant ellipsoids, twisting up to the crimson filament above. It has grown, this City, in just that way, slowly developing layers...read more

by Augusto Na

Portrait of a Life Unraveling Marcus blinked rapidly several times. The rain was falling steadily, beads of water running down his forehead and into his eyes. The flashing lights blinded him, making concentrating diffi...read more

by Lee Stephens

The Game of Life James was 79 years old. He lived his life like most people. Ate the wrong foods, smoked, drank alcohol. He was surprised he lived this long. He was sure his end was coming soon. He could somehow fe...read more

by Zachory Brockman

Science Fiction : Combat His name was Jared "The Ghost" Dawson. He was a twenty-three year old mech jockey from the planet Falkirk. He wasn't very tall in stature or build but he made up for it by sheer determination. H...read more

by Anna Green

Technical Difficulties You think that you are alone. You are not talking. Your brain is processing in milliseconds. You may be working. You may be playing. You may be learning. Thoughts ...read more

by Caylin Joski-Jethi

I stand here before you an old man. A weak man, bent double stooped over nothing more that the last gnarled twig on the ground. Through my voice you may detect remnants of speech not heard for years; power, pride and majes...read more

by Trey Russell

"The Orb" Jason carefully appraised the object. To his left stood Gerald, dressed in suit and tie. All in grey, black dress shoes completed Gerald's spotless outfit. Jason took a long draw of the dry, sterile air. ...read more

by Gary Murphy

The Cleansing Waters For Ravi Parthasarathy, the interstellar void had once offered hope for a new life. Now, like a wire stretched long by the light-years back to Earth, the ether sang with the low n...read more

by Tsing Tao

Incident on North Stone Road Chapter I I've got some time to kill while I'm waiting here for Lilly to decide whether she's going to help me get back home or not, so I thought I'd try to put this whole strange episod...read more

by Randy Godwin

Domar was tired. He didn't want to move at all. He started to press the sleep button one more time, but knew that he might not wake again. He suspected that the others had succumbed to the same urge. They were all dead now...read more

by Kay Arnold

People Aren't Built for These Lonely Times "You are NOT. Building. Another. Robot. " Hiro kept his mouth tight shut. "Damn, Hiro, can't you just pick one at the e-market like normal people do? This space-van is sm...read more

by Chris Kling

Another Day at the Lab It was getting late, and Jenny really should have been doing her homework. "Run along", her mother said, "and we can finish the game when you're done with your homework." Jenny jumped up from ...read more

by Scipio's Remark

THE STAR SNUFFER "Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick" The old grandfather clock whispered faintly at the ancient house on number six, Old Mill Drive. Only one man lived in this barren hut, a frail old man named with the kindest bl...read more

by Cliff Ball

The Day the Lights Went Out I woke up. I realized that my digital clock-radio hadn't gone off, and it must be around 9 or 10 in the morning. I glanced over at the clock, but it seemed to be dead, so I tried the radio,...read more

by Anthony Gainey

Trendsetter Drake was whistling by the time he got to the crime scene. Why not? Mornings were a lot easier now that he'd been off the juice close to six months. He'd come through a...read more

by Alan Fowler

THE GREAT TABOO I know I was late but at least I got to the departure platform before the ship had finished preparing for ultra-morph to the Draconian system. My underlings, already aboard, had been kept waiting a...read more

by Dave Simmons

Just my Luck (Originally a runner up in SFX magazine's Pulp Idol competition) Norman Wakefield was not having a good day. But then, as far as Norman was concerned, very few days were good days. The world was rare...read more

by Anthony Campbell

The Shadow A car cruising along a country Road in northern England, it was the peak district area, nothing for miles. It was a sunny morning, long shadows draped across the roadway from the bushes and the odd tree that...read more