“What was it like in the twentieth century?” Robert groaned as he punched in his order for fried chicken and corn. Of course, it wasn’t real chicken or corn, but some biological fungus grown on the Venetian Culture farms. As the only living human who actually knew what fried chicken tasted like, Robert disliked it immensely. It tasted too flat. Sure, it tasted like chicken, but...
Benjamin walked down the narrow corridor to his private chambers, shaking slightly from the interview with the Senators. Senator Billings, for all his lack of manner or subtlety, had hit startling close to the mark. The only saving factor had been the restraining tactics of Senators Kiles and Senator Nyguen’s reluctance to side himself with Senator Billings. Nearly all Senators agreed...
Dr. Benjamin Motich folded his hands on the simwood table as he addressed the Senate Committee. The committee of three Senators had the task of investigating the claims of legal transgressions on the part of the Big Four; the four multi-corporations that effectively ruled the solar system. Only twice before in the history of EarthCo had a Senate Committee attempted to delve into the inner...
Robert chewed on the end of his cigar, staring absently at the auto-florescent ceiling above his chair. It wasn’t until the late twenty-first century that EarthCo had developed the auto-florescent ceiling tile. From there, it took almost a full twenty years before they became standard and all other forms of lighting were phased out. Robert glanced back down at his text; a historical...
Each second tormented me as I stared at the ceiling. The normally silent ticks of the clock crashed violently against my ears. The jack hammer of ticks contained angry peaks while the intolerable silence between housed my despair. I focused on the deafening sound of the clock as I tried desperately not to think about what had happened. It had seemed like such a good idea...
Jahan-Aara sat in the cargo hold of the Kehkashaan, hugging her knees and staring desperately through the ice-encrusted view port. A slow pressure leak near the view port was evident in the ice slowly growing across her field of view. She wondered how much longer she had left to live; this cargo hold was the only section of the vessel able to seal itself off when disaster had struck. Most of the...
“I found it, Martin” an urgent Alfonso whispered into the telephone handset. He ran a shaking hand through his wavy hair and repeated himself, “I found it, I tell you, but you won’t believe it. No one will.” Without waiting for the voicemail-received confirmation, he hung up the phone and turned back to his instruments. Alfonso reached up and switched his personal recorder back on. The small...
“Ahh, we really screwed the pooch this time, Xylee,” said Xestls from the living room, where it was staring at the television. Which was off at the moment. Xylee joined its companion in the living room. Rather, its host body did. Xylee and Xestls were both Xalian, a parasitic and symbiotic lifeform that couldn’t live long outside of a host body. Xlyee’s current host was a human female named...
I had a dog, a parakeet, and a cat. All of which I didn’t appreciate. My job was to walk the dog, feed the parakeet, and clean the cats’ litter box. Still, today was bring your pet to school day, and I’d opted to bring Sylvester, the parakeet. He was in his cage by the merry-go-round, ignored by all except Mark Wynn’s cat, who was suspiciously eyeing the bird. We were all waiting for the class...
“Don’t worry,” said George to Cleetus as he stepped onto the organic metal plank that had oozed from the spaceship. “I’ll be back by mornin’. I always am.” — Z’tX1 extended a visipod to examine the new specimen as it lumbered on two ungainly legs into the cargo bay. How it stayed upright was beyond the Klamarian, who considered four legs the bare minimum necessary for proper locomotion. Six...
Ron Sparks is a technology professional, science fiction and fantasy author and poet living in Zurich, Switzerland. His latest book "ONI: Satellite Earth Series Book 1" is available on Amazon.com.