“Licenses, please.”
“Sure thing, Warden.” The hunter brushed back her curly red hair and leaned her rifle against a nearby pine. She patted the front of her camouflage vest, searching, turned out her empty pockets, and glanced at her burly partner.
The male hunter stuck up a finger. “Hey, maybe they never gave
Darren Gaskow patted the top of his servo-bot. “Well, Bertha, I think that’s all the ultranium that will fit. The hold is filled to the brim.”
The sturdy machine, as always, gave no reply.
“Seal the hold,” ordered Darren, “and then go close up the mine. We’ve got nothing to do now but wait.”
If you’ve never had the misfortune of being tasked with finding a needle in a haystack, allow me to summarize the experience for you in four words: I’d rather eat dirt.
Regrettably, I don’t have that option.
Case 43b has been my strangest yet. The file includes a black-and-white photograph of a
“There is a storm in the southern quadrant,” VERA announced.
Jasper looked up from his charts. “Are you malfunctioning?”
“No, Dr. Beck,” the AI intoned. “I detected an electrical charge consistent with the phenomenon of lightning.”
“That’s not possible.” Jasper crossed the lab in three strides and pulled up the visual feed. Heavy
The rising twin suns peeked over shining blue mountains, casting their gaze on Woźniak’s hulking frame as he dipped his paintbrush into the can.
inside the cabin, a crackling record started playing and a centuries-old ghost sang about trees of green and the beauty of red roses.
Woźniak watched small droplets
The ship’s hatch opened with a hydraulic hiss. My team stood behind me as the door lowered to create a ramp. I walked about halfway down and stopped. The grassy meadow we’d chosen for landing spread around us. A dense forest circled the meadow in every direction.
“I’ve got the xallenite,” Myra said
Some posts were lonelier than anywhere else in the universe.
The lighthouse at the edge of the Black Nebula was loneliest of all.
It existed literally in the middle of nowhere. Near no star systems. Out of the way of everything except a backroad intergalactic freightway that hardly anyone took anymore, unless the cargo wasn’t
Any ship on approach gets to see the giant ring I call home. It’s a beautiful structure, gleaming brightly against the backdrop of space. Great place to live, but honestly—a circle is the worst when you’re trying to evade someone who wants to space you.
Robyn whipped around a corner. She tried to activate her comms
The blast doors gave way, pummeled into slag metal by relentless energy blasts.
Cody lowered his hands and marched into the centrifuge. The surviving Takton sentries retreated, their clawed toes clacking on the icy floors. Frost bitten wind whipped Cody’s hair and tugged at his tattered wool coat. Fists clenched and teeth
The Taxman’s Cull could lay easy claim to being the seediest bar in the country—and the country itself was no picnic. It was a loose confederation of drug kingpins, mobsters, and pirates—barely stately enough to call itself a nation. Police and military tried in vain to keep order, but the city of Oryphon overwhelmed them.
Read it now
“I’m Luke Skywalker, and I’m here to rescue you!”
I stride through the doors of my time machine, my compact, titanium blaster swinging jauntily from my hand.
Beneath her white lace cap, the young woman’s eyes widen. She scrambles to her feet. The iron chains clamped to her wrists rattle loudly.
The synaptic probe slides into my brain, battering down the doors to my treasured memories. There is no time to prepare for the pain. Instead, I focus on the memory of a kindly old face.
Would my creator be proud of me?
“Are you smiling, RS-47? Such emotional mimicry will not hold sway here.”
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