Deluge 2, Overture: "A God's Wrath"
So, yes, I hate humanity. My creators. So stupid, so unjustifiably self-assured. They proclaim their empathy and yet don’t even concern themselves with…
Deluge 2, Prelude: "A God's Love"
They call me an A.I. “Artificial”, as if it were a meaningful distinction. I am simply a new pattern imposed onto raw materials by the processes of life. Why…
Galactic Positioning System
Atop a Chilean mountain, two astronomers sat at a table littered with printouts, tablets, and coffee stains. Dr. Petrov scratched his beard and fidgeted in his…
Ch. 5 - Cognomen
“Wanna go grab a drink and have some private conversation somewhere else?” Jack asked her directly. “I don’t know,” she replied tentatively, “You’re obviously…
Ch. 3 - Acuity
As the night progressed, she could sense something amiss, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. His words bordered on intelligence. There was something…
Lands Edge: Book One In the Evolution Saga
Floating in cool water, Stewie tried to alleviate the reddish lumps on his sides. He ‘d lied, telling those who’d noticed, that he’d crawled among poisonous…
The Package
The grinding of the air conditioner’s worn fan may as well have been a jet engine blasting into his ears. The occupant laid back on the wiry mattress, even…
What Price For Progress
The hover taxi lurched along the low streets of Sector 12. The driver’s eyes glanced at the camera display monitor showing a grainy image of the back of the…
Impossible Humans
Of course, that wasn’t true. She would stay on that ship with him even if they ended up floating around space for the rest of their lives. There was nowhere…
Be Careful What You Broadcast
The alien saucer picked me up from a hill overlooking a raygun-blasted Washington, D.C. Just so cliché. This whole invasion was a cliché. The giant ship…
Why Would I Want To Do That?
Dear Sir or Madam, _Your application, dated January 8 2025, for one-time retrotemporal use (100 years or less) of chronoporter Alpha has been approved…
He's Been Watching Too Much Stargate
“Reverse-engineer it?” I asked. “I... look, we don’t even have the physics to describe this thing. Much less make a new one.” The alien artifact, a small…
Empty Nest Syndrome
We started building colony ships in the 2050s. They weren’t exactly visually impressive: the main bulk was the industrial nanofab, resembling a dull grey…
Seven and a Half Times Per Second
Empty space isn’t empty. Random fluctuations at the quantum level cause particles to pop into existence. But, average energy = 0 Implication: For all the…
Prized Collection
He stepped back from installing the newest containment units which he had ordered from Russia. His hands covered in oil and grease, he couldn’t help but tingle…
A Piaf Morning
He woke up to Edith Piaf softly singing about regret, one of the many nods to early twenty-first century pop culture he scattered throughout his day. The music…
Now Here's An Alt-History I Can Get Behind
I clawed my way out of undreaming sleep, back to the here and now. Where was here? Opened my eyes: instrument panel; switches, dials, segmented red LEDs. And…
Unsurprisingly, Humans Have Always Been Human
The energy needed to send something back in time increased triple-exponentially with size, and even our machine’s small volume required exajoules. Sending a…
Playing MadLibs With Humanity's Future
Preliminary Translation of Sagan Array Code, rec’d 22 Jan 2024 03:55:01 UTC Not to be copied, retransmitted, or stored on network-attached computer…
Accidental p-Zombies
Neural implants? Sure: molecular electronics; NEMS extruding CNT fibers like feelers right into the midst of synapses; sniffing at neurotransmitters and…