“How long to detonation?”
“Can’t the AI stop the self-destruct countdown for our outpost? He started it.”
“I explained the situation to Ed; he began restructuring his memories looking for errors. Meanwhile, he accepts no input. Ed is computer catatonic.”
“Turn him off.”
“That won’t stop the countdown.”
“How did this happen?”
“Someone asked Ed a question about Shakespeare while he was learning anagrams.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Out damned spot” became “Ed, damn outpost.”
__________________________
After years of teaching college mathematics, Ronald D. Ferguson decided that writing science fiction and fantasy full-time would be more fun. He lives with his wife and a rescue dog near the shadow of the Alamo. His last known appearance in our pages was “The Old Man and the C,” in the now out-of-print Stupefying Stories 19.
► “Ivy’s Tower” • by Gretchen Tessmer
► “Sending Love” • by Kimberly Ann Smiley
► “Lunar Ghosts” • by Sylvia Heike
► “Anagram Ed” • by Ron Ferguson
► “Trash-Talking Space Honky Trips Over the Finish Line” • by Brandon Case
► “Roadside Stand” • by Pete Wood
If you like the stories we’re publishing, donate today. We do Stupefying Stories out of pure love for genre fiction, but in publishing as in tennis, love means nothing. To keep Stupefying Stories going at this level we need to raise at least $500 USD monthly, and rather than doing so with pledge breaks or foundation grants, we’d rather have a broad base of ongoing support. If just 100 people commit to just $5 monthly, we can keep going at this level indefinitely. If we raise more, we will pay our authors more.
Please don’t make me escalate to posting pictures of sad kittens and puppies…
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