“Sing Back the Stars” • by Jenna Hanchey

 It was prophesied that the world’s end would be hearkened by starsong. Jesse wondered what it would be like, hearing the great balls of fire burst into heavenly music. Would it sound like her dad’s opera? Would it be beautiful and sad, as they watched the demise of Earth? Or perhaps angry and mean, taking joy as the world burned? Would she even get to hear it, before...

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“The Cool War” • by Anatoly Belilovsky

Editor’s Note: In 1721, in an alternate timeline, the crowned heads of all the great powers of Europe, appalled by the constant carnage and expense of the Thirty Years’ War, the Nine Years’ War, the War of Spanish Succession, the Great Northern War, the War of the Quadruple Alliance, the Russo-Persian War, and all the other wars large and small that filled the years of...

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“Believe Nothing Said by Clouds” • by Beth Cato

“Believe nothing said by clouds,” Grandmother had told Asteria many a time, to which the girl gave her most sincere nod, the sort she granted the preacher each Sunday when he inquired if she’d been a good girl that week. She had practiced that nod in the mirror along with various smiles. Asteria was not permitted to carry pocketknives as did her brothers, but at age ten,...

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“His Monstrous Cloaca” • by Addison Smith

“Mommy, what’s that?” Maude barely heard her daughter over the tumult of the city. She focused instead on how to protect her from the world they lived in. Tires screeched and people screamed, and as she ran, her daughter stared up into the sky. How to answer, she wondered as she dragged her child behind her. How did she tell her daughter that the end had come? The monsters...

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“Spin Drive Class with Captain Ryan” • by Brandon Case

Captain Ryan’s bedraggled crew trudged into the dark engine room. Ryan leaped atop his stationary bike. “Time to turn those frowns upside down, you sleepy scalawags!” They groaned in unison. “This ship won’t row itself!” Ryan peddled, powering on pink LED panels and blasting a peppy pop song. His crew grudgingly mounted their bikes, and the ship’s ion drive sputtered...

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The Pete Wood Challenge • “Static”

The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted, usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries, determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners...

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“Protector” • by Julie Frost

 //EMERGING FROM HYPERSPACE JUMP POINT //ALL SYSTEMS GREEN //ANOMALY DETECTED I tilted my virtual head, regarding the object hanging before me. As the cryoship’s AI, it was my mission to make sure my living cargo made it to the destination colony as safely and quickly as possible—with no damage along the way. I evaluated the artificial device, scanning it for...

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“For Better or Worse” • by Karl Dandenell

The repair shop’s big door slammed open, striking the bell like a ballpeen hammer. A moment later, a young man entered wearing an old leather duster and second-hand boots. His weapon, however, was new: a chrome-plated pulse pistol.Even through her safety goggles, Diana could tell the gun was a knockoff of the P905 she’d carried in combat. Great power cell but shit for accuracy...

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“Not quite ready for Armageddon” • by Karin Terebessy

4, 3, 2, 1We're all set for Armageddon. Built the bunker plenty tough,just need to assemble all our stuff. Sirens wailing, here we go—One of you kids take the camping radio? What do you mean, you needed a part?Oh, yeah, school project on recycled art. It sure was pretty baby, don’t you worry,but mommy is in a bit of a hurry. Okay emergency supplies—hey that's not right—for...

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“Albert’s Dragons” • by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

In the spring of 1893, Munich’s Elektrotechnische Fabrik fled Europe’s rising anti-Semitism and poor business prospects and, thanks to a generous endowment from Emperor Meiji, set up shop in the hills outside Kyoto. The new government’s balance of imperial and parliamentary power promised a return to mercantile prosperity for brothers Hermann and Jakob, and a bright future...

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“Songbird, Jailbird” • by Pauline Barmby

 I stared at the grimy ceiling and dreamed of a better world. The cell door clanged open, and a thin woman stumbled inside. She dropped a jumpsuit onto the opposite bunk and slumped beside it. The door slammed shut. “Welcome to the writers’ block,” I said. “What’d you do?” She faced me and drew a shaky finger across her throat. “Overcrowding in the singers’ wing?” She...

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“A 125-Word Story About Writer’s Block in the Style of Italo Calvino” • by Christopher Degni

You sit down to write “A 125-Word Story About Writer’s Block in the Style of Italo Calvino,” but you have no ideas, so you turn to WiLLiaMs. You: Write a 125-word story about writer’s block in the style of Italo Calvino. WiLLiaMs: I cannot write in the style of Italo Calvino, because I am a large language model and my code has a writer’s block on specific authors. You:...

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