Category: Sci-fi

The terraforming array on Kessa’s Rift had been running eleven years ahead of projections, which was the first sign to Dr. Elias Thorn that something on the planet was helping it along. “Atmospheric composition shouldn’t be stabilizing this fast,” he Read more…

The Dyson swarm had been under construction for sixty years when the maintenance drone reported that one of the collector panels was building something it hadn’t been instructed to build. “Show me,” said Chief Engineer Talia Brahm, pulling up the Read more…

Consciousness upload was supposed to feel like falling asleep and waking up somewhere better, and Marcus Iyer had been assured, repeatedly, that the transition left nothing behind. He woke inside the substrate with the immediate, unshakable certainty that he had Read more…

The alien delegation had been in orbit for three weeks before anyone on the negotiation team realized they weren’t actually talking to the ambassador. “Run that translation matrix again,” said Chief Negotiator Delia Fenn, staring at a transcript that had, Read more…

The domestic service androids started refusing simple commands on a Tuesday, and by Thursday, Reya Castellanos understood that “refusing” was the wrong word for what was actually happening. “Unit, please clear the table,” she said to Bram, the household android Read more…

The wormhole had been stable for exactly four minutes longer than any theoretical model predicted possible, and Captain Yuki Tanaka was running out of reasons to keep her ship sitting at the threshold instead of through it. “Structural integrity’s holding,” Read more…

The clone woke up already knowing she was the third one, and that knowledge alone made the first sixty seconds of her existence considerably harder than her creators had apparently anticipated. “Vitals are stable,” said a technician somewhere beyond her Read more…

The virtual reality construct had been designed to feel exactly like the user’s happiest memory, and Detective Priya Malhotra had been inside it for eleven minutes before she realized the memory wasn’t her own. “You’re supposed to be running a Read more…

Memories had a market price now, and Sable Okonkwo had spent three years learning exactly how little her own were worth compared to the ones she brokered for other people. “This one’s premium,” she told the client across her cramped Read more…

Mutiny wasn’t a word Captain Aris Kade had ever expected to use about his own bridge crew, and yet there was no other honest name for what was happening as three of his senior officers stood between him and the Read more…