Memo: An Incident is Occuring
John frowned at the Colleague as it conveyed its displeasure. He tried to speak civilly to it, as taught, while being direct and efficient. “The incident was…
contemplation.
What a strange planet this is. Billions of creatures after millions of years of growth. Is this what we could have been? I try to think back to my creation; to…
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…
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…
Best-Friends
“Hey, Sampson, I need your help over here.” Greg yelled over his shoulder. Sampson was his best friend, an alien. Greg was from earth. They had met in an…
Sandra, Bob, and the Melons (June 1)
The two were just about done harvesting the striped rocks when they heard a terrifying screeching noise. Sandra looked up to see three melon-looking things…
Into the Darkness
I couldn’t tell for sure, we were separated. We were always separated. Them and us. That’s how they learned to control us. Us and the aliens. It sounds dumb to…
Offworlders
I was biting the last chip of pink nail polish off my right thumbnail when the bell above the door tinkled and in walked a man who must’ve been seven foot tall…
(Day 62) While You Were Out
The cycle of life is thus: you live, you die. Sure, a plenthera of things take up the spaces between these two stages, but ultimately - for such a small race…
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…
Sudden Waking
The blast knocked him from the tree, white pulse blinding my night-adjusted eyes and a shower of vaporised bark and organic matter filling the air as the…
Sorry, We Didn't Mean To Drop That Onto Your Planet
The impact flattened a thousand acres of Northern Ontario forest and was heard 200 km away. But the cause of the event was no meteorite. It was a cylinder…
I'm Determined to Solve the Fermi Paradox
You might call us energy-based life forms — at least, if you’ve seen too much sci-fi. More accurately, you could say that we are complex interference patterns…
Reunions are always Bittersweet
The first time I saw him, I was but a child. So scared, I had been, as his green disk-shaped ship crashed in the forest. I was scared about investigating, but…
Who Said You Could Start Terraforming?
You can imagine the excitement over the discovery: Microorganisms found in the soil near Columbia Base, Gusev crater, Mars. They sat just below the surface…
The XCOM Diaries: The Ambush Part One
Major Perret ran out of the rear hatch of the Skyranger as it set down, his squad on his heels. They fanned out into cover as their transport rocketed back…
Growing Up In The Universe
A man sat in a small, dimly-lit office, surrounded by computer screens, server racks, and empty pizza boxes. He hadn’t shaved in three days. The design on his…
Biospheric Xenophobia
“Have you ever seen one of them?” “No, I haven’t. You had training on this, right?” “Yeah, I did. I passed and everything, but I still don’t get it.” “What’s…
One Last Thing
Who are you? ....We are the guardians of the Earth.... What are you? ....We are humans... Special humans? ...no...We are the correct humans.... But I am human…
'Splosion Valley
The planet, Încântare, was beyond enchanting. It captured your heart and stole rational thought as you could do nothing but stare. The anxious scientists were…