Candy's small kitchen sits outside the CityDomes. Her rare chocolates conjure hidden queues of children every morning. They grin as she hands each their single piece then hurries them on. A commotion draws Candy's attention to the front. The kids quieten. She retreats. A man's tossing shelves in the dark. He looks weak, but her... Continue Reading →
New Questions
Mud coated my exosuit boots as I moved toward the day's co-ordinates. My breath replaced the once-rhythmic wash of waves. "Water levels still decreasing, decided when you're returning?" "Another season won't hurt," I glanced at the data, deep activity readings implied microscopic life, "hate to lose ground." The receding waters left behind new questions previous... Continue Reading →
Dreamware Beta
Sweat made my clothes stick. I finally found him in the greenhouse. "Need help?" he said... unsure. I slogged through muddy thoughts; bath, dinner- produce still low; new fertiliser, new supplier? He waited, annoyed. "I'm fine," I said, words too stuck. I left. That night I dreamed of tangible thoughts, tendrils reaching, seeking connection. He... Continue Reading →
New Worlds
Across the water, something glistened. Had he finally found it? Racing, stumbling through waves, he slipped. The water dragged him under. He kicked and thrashed for an age. Ever sinking, tired now. He'd searched for nothing. A voice, otherworldly and infinite, reached him beneath the river's roar, "fight, human." One final moment, through agony, he... Continue Reading →
Purpose Rewritten
The alien looked ugly, dying in the dirt, trying to remain human. It looked like her when she screamed about my room, again. Face twisting like I wasn't supposed to be there. I screamed back, she slapped me. I laughed. Actually, she looked like it when I left. Ugly and dying. I found the alien... Continue Reading →
Returning
She and her brothers spent many summers out by the rusted cattle shed, before the sunburns became too much. They thought it was haunted. "Pantry and freezer are stocked, should do you all till we get back," their parents would say. Then they wouldn't hear from them for weeks. At first it was exciting, then... Continue Reading →
Visitor
The grounds shuddered. The air hummed along with urgency. Something was happening. Its kin at rest, a lone creature emerged from its dwelling, peering out toward the meeting line of void and land. The hum grew violent as the void tore open with a flash. From the tear, a being of another kind tumbled into... Continue Reading →
Worth Waiting For
They chose Earth. Chose a human child. Though her mind began dark, she, my host, became my home. As she grew, I learned how her brain worked completely, every single firing synapse that surrounded me. I even stepped her back off a cliff once. That was a fight. She didn't want to stay. They wanted... Continue Reading →
Perfect Timing
The crew struggled, working endlessly to keep their great hulking mass of a ship sailing across the fabric of space without tearing apart. Their destination orbited a minuscule point of light. Almost too far now with damaged engines. Almost. Directly ahead hung a glittering planet of ice. They met it among the limits of its... Continue Reading →