“Out of time? Why not buy some?” The silky female voice wafted over the office speakers.
You're reading Science Fiction
Oblivion
The world is dying in slow motion.
The Blessing
The present is best for him. The present is the smallest sliver of time that he can deal with.
The Black Box
Log 1506 – 87%
The storm destroyed the windmill. I could no longer recharge, nor could we power basic necessities.
The Ace
Trace—or Ace, as he called himself, the first, the best—loomed over the printer.
Sacrifice
“Kosmoa will be pleased with your sacrifices,” Orlan, a priest of Kosmoa, announced as he strolled down the silver ramp. The ship stood like a sore thumb against the deep brown rock of the desert wastelands around them. Soft puffs of steam rolled from the ventilation systems along the side of the ship. The glass viewing ports along the top were tinted black.
The Warren
Never leave the greenhouse unattended, because the greenhouse bleeds when nobody’s looking. Water sprayed my eyes. I clamped my hand around a split in the pipe. “Ada!” I gurgled, the water smothering my shout. Where is that girl when I need her!
The Deliverer
In the first years after the Imperial war, Yasef’s father had given him to the magistrate—to Bryden the Great. The old man had said god told him to. But not before Yasef’s birthday, the one where they pronounced him a man. What was it that the prophet had spoken of him? “You will be the arm of Donumdonair…”
A Peculiar Invention
I squinted against the glare of the sun as I marked a dimension on my Diffractor sketch, calculating the height of the triangle with a few quick strokes. This was my third iteration; the second design had almost worked. I hoped my tweaks were good enough.