In the Event of a Famine
“Everything in this house is edible,” the real estate agent said. “I mean everything, the foundation, the brickwork, the plaster, the windows. That is to say, in the event of a famine, a family of three would be able to survive for approximately ten years eating the house.” I studied the dark-hued foyer. A minimalist […]
Regenesis
Beyond a small dark door, in the magical-genomic laboratory of Irindeh University of Subtle Mechanics, Nenadi’s mistake waited. Nenadi guided Anahah, her partner-in-all-things, past the scarred worktops and equipment cabinets, all dyed crimson by the light that filtered through an afternoon dust blizzard. Golden sensory circuits glinted in Anahah’s terracotta skin. “And you want to […]
Chaser
Cara thumbed off the launcher’s safety, wishing she could as easily shut down the monster-sized butterflies bouncing around in her belly. Though not her first time in the field, it was her first time leading a team she’d built herself. It was also her first time firing live chill-mines in the field. She’d done it […]
The Barber of Manaus
Felipe Santos da Silva swallowed. His palms were slick with sweat—whether due to the tropical heat or his nerves, he couldn’t tell. He looked at the city that, twenty years earlier, had been a boomtown, the jewel of the Amazon rain forest. Before the population decline that started in the early 2020s began to take […]
This is an Optimistic Science Fiction Story About the Future
We all have jetpacks. I’m an old, overweight man with hairy legs, and I have a jetpack. No one judges and the jetpacks don’t care. They run on clean energy and smell like sesame seeds. The right-of-way laws are complicated. The danger of jetpack injuries results in a new type of “helicopter parent,” though some […]
False Alarm
The bickering voices behind him, Mayor Edmund Parker stood at his study’s west window. He looked down Belmont Hill, out over the rest of his city, Boston, and to the pepper fields beyond. Tall, lean, famously blue-eyed and grey-haired, he allowed himself a scowl. He was a politician, yes, but a businessman first. He didn’t […]
The Evac
The landing craft shook like an ancient washing machine as it broke the planet’s atmosphere. Staff Sergeant Jacqueline “Jax” Caruthers, 5th Planetary Beachhead Division, 3rd Space Wing, United Nations Marine Corps, sat cool as a cucumber, gnawing her bubblegum. The dropship, unwilling to land without a fight, gave one final lurch before touching down. Jax […]
Home Sick
I was encoding a batch of classic ebooks when the ulu-aliki walked in to the library, the outdoors scent of gardenias and overripe mangoes following him. “Afternoon, chief,” I said, pushing my chair back a bit. Joseph Seru spoke Tuvaluan with his family and the other council members, but his English was so much better […]
Free The Sky
It shouldn’t feel like the end of the world. Drew paid for his morning coffee and paper mechanically; held them numbly. He did not count his change. He slogged down the stairs of the Metro, forcing himself to go to work. Work? That elicited a bitter laugh. His occupation was already obsolete. Physicists and rocket […]
A Verdant Heart
Father’s leaves are wilting again. The bright green sprouting from his temples is tipped with crusty brown along the margins. He runs a finger across his scalp, parting the foliage on one side, treating it with as much respect as a comb-over. “Father, you need to get outside,” I say, although I may as well […]
