"The Smuggler" • by Eric Fomley

Cooper lifts the sandwich from the kitchen counter. His first attempt at making one is a far cry from mom’s, but it’ll have to do. “What are you doing Coop?” Cooper spins and hides the sandwich behind his back. Mom is in the doorway, arms crossed. “What do you have?” Cooper frowns, lowers his head, and reveals the sandwich in his hands. “I’m hungry. Can I have it?” “We’re...

Read More

"Working His Way Back to Her" • by Matt Krizan

V’ngln’shu frowned in confusion at the bearded, middle-aged man who answered the farmhouse’s front door. Had he entered the wrong coordinates in the ship’s matter transference array? But no, that familiar porch swing creaked on its chains, reminding him of quiet nights spent with Melissa, listening to the cicadas. “Can I help you?” The man eyed V’ngln’shu’s jumpsuit, his...

Read More

“Terms of Agreement” • by Bob McHugh

 Captain Olivia warped back into her mangled ship, flashing thumbs up to her crew of five.“They’ll take us aboard. The captain, Gremulon, is a straight shooter. They’re low on rations, but one large meal should last us the two-day trek to the closest rest stop. For their troubles, I agreed to foot the bill for their re-inventory.”“Amazing.” Rhonda’s shoulders slackened...

Read More

“To Boldly Go” • by Carol Scheina

 Destructi-droids were activated when first contact didn’t go well, yet Destroyer-1 still waited, dust forming webbed patterns over its dull black exterior.How it wanted to slip across galaxies like the investi-droids. The Builders dispersed hundreds of them to meet and study new life while Destroyer-1 counted dust specks.Destroyer-1 had waited its whole life to get out...

Read More

SHOWCASE • “Memory Makes Liars of Us All,” by Eric Dontigney

 I didn’t meet Jesse until two years into my first tour. He was transferred into our unit following an incident that left him the sole survivor of his unit. He never spoke about it, but word gets around. The way we heard it, some idiot from intelligence ordered them into a box canyon on a recon mission. In the unit had gone and the Cricks were waiting on the...

Read More

Dawn of Time • Episode 10: “Meanwhile, in Act III”

  Written by Roxana AramaContinued from Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9The story thus far: 32nd Century high school student Dawn Anderson has just had the worst day ever. Needing a better grade in History, she “borrowed” her father’s TimePak to take a short jaunt back to the 20th Century,...

Read More

WANTED: Your trunk story stories

 ATTENTION WRITERS: this is an open call for trunk story stories. If you have an interesting story about how you turned a story you thought you’d never be able to sell into one that was published, we’re interested. Note that this is not a call for trunk stories, per se. Whenever we have an open reading period we see those by the hundreds, and in most cases it’s obvious...

Read More

SHOWCASE • “Interior Monologue,” by Bruce Bethke

With all my available time this week being consumed by last-minute and post last-minute work on Stupefying Stories #24, I decided to pull one more old story out of the archives and publish it here as a Saturday SHOWCASE story, along with commentary on what it took to turn this one into a professional publication.Enjoy!~brb  Interior Monologueby Bruce BethkeFirst publication:...

Read More