Science Fiction

Assistant by Mari Ness (science fiction)
       Some people just want to help - and whether it be destroying worlds, altering timelines, or making the perfect cup of coffee, Sidney Smith wants to be there for it. A resumé of complications and assassinations.

Charlie is My Darling by William K. Carlson (fantasy/science fiction)
       It's not every day that a man declares himself Charles Dickens, especially in 21st century New York. Jan can't help herself - as an amateur Dickens scholar and a TV producer, she has to meet the man, whatever kind of crook (or mental case) he may be. But what she finds is something all together unexpected. The man she meets doesn't even remotely resemble Dickens, and his accent is pure midwestern America - yet his mind is witty and perfectly Victorian, and in all other respects as Dickensian as could be. Unable to believe him either an impersonator or a lunatic, Jan begins to prepare the world for something all-together impossible.

Congestive Heart Success! by S. Foster (science fiction)
       It's a tough gig being a motivational speaker, particularly when you're wired into a life-support machine for a slumbering alien strike force that's planning the downfall of the human race. But the leader of nJOiN is certainly not one to let himself wallow. He has a plan to escape - after all, there's no time like the present to show just what a success you, too, can be!

Above the Stars of El by Justin Stanchfield (fantasy/science fiction)
       Usher is born with a purpose - even if he's not entirely sure what that purpose is. Newly-made with almost infinite powers, he awaits the humans' arrival, dreading something he can't quite remember. As his memory clears (and lust intensifies), he struggles with the question he has faced so many times before: will the gifts he so desperately wishes to give them in fact destroy them?

Killing Beauty by Megan Kitching (science fiction)
       The flyans are beautiful things: each unique, brightly colored, deadly. The task is to be rid of them - preserve them, if possible, through genetic manipulation, taxidermy, or at the least, photography; but to be rid of them, somehow. Their numbers grow fewer, but they grow no less beautiful in this story of the end of a species.

Separated by Stephanie Denise Brown (science fiction)
       Conjoined twins are a difficult birth at best; these children, the result of an interspecies marriage, are much more so. Broken apart in more ways than just the physical, one twins attempts to reconnect to his distant sibling in a world that understands neither of them.

The Buck Swain Management Bible by Robert Leishman (science fiction)
       Got a problem? Just call Buck Swain - if you're desperate, and you don't mind the tab, that is. No problem is too large for this consultant...except, perhaps, an enormous 1960s computer that refuses to shut down, holds office records hostage, and never minds its manners.

Judy and Norman by Darby Harn (science fiction/horror)
       Judy knows there's something going wrong. While everyone else is hearing it on the news, she's out there seeing it in the forest - first the dead frogs and birds moving again, and then the dead men and women. In a world gone mad, Judy finds a strange haven with her new friend, the very dead, and very kind, Norman.

The Chocolate Lover by Susan A. O'Doherty (science fiction/fantasy)
       Carla didn't mean to end up a thief, a liar, and a runaway bride - but then, who would expect the world to freeze in place, leaving her stuck in time? As she tries to explain the situation to her fiancé, Carla begins to plan what she can do to take back her life.

Fadeout by Michael John Grist (science fiction)
       With fuel all but vanished and governments unstable or collapsed, life has become simple. Find a factory; earn a few precious kilowatt hours to keep society limping along; work hard; don't get noticed. But Dray is beginning to notice too many things - from his children's truancy and fear to his own shaking limbs. A society at the point of breakdown, and one man trying to hold it together.

How Deep the Cold, Red Sands by Justin Stanchfield (science fiction)
      Far from the civilized Martian town of Wells, John Palmero is searching for the origins of life. But the comfort of his small research facility grows thin when a handsome young assistant arrives - to the delight of John's girlfriend. No longer the only man around, John must deal with the demons of romantic jealousy as well as the danger of being overshadowed by a young and eager aid as they wait in cramped quarters for the storms of Mars to end.

Brain Trust by Marie Vibbert (science fiction)
       Mrs. Bang Hue Ngyuen doesn't really mind that her husband has left her; she doesn't even seem particularly upset that the interface in her brain may well be killing her. She does, however, wonder about the people using her mind to process their research, about the cancer they might be curing in the background of her brain, about the worlds they might be studying - and about how to find her place amongst it all.

Homesteader by Deborah Sacks (science fiction)
      In a world where only a handful of survivors ek out a cramped existence after life on Earth's surface is destroyed, this man doesn't expect much: he certainly doesn't expect to see his children, his wife, or any others of his family alive again. He doesn't even expect to keep all his limbs as the Toxin slowly eats away at him. But he does have one last hope: to create a sanctuary on the surface before his time runs out...

The Aliens are Coming by David Orlowski (science fiction)
      The aliens don't seem so very threatening after all; their message across space, certainly, was extremely polite (although in Albanian). But what about humanity's response? One young man watches a world in the last panicked moments before the aliens land.

Weight Control in a Future Age by Michael Hulme (science fiction)
      Humanity has come so far with relentless curiousity and self-improvement: rocket ships, microwaves, the deft manipulations of DNA. In Lisa's world, they are ready to improve so much more - notably, the health of everyday citizens. Lisa has lost her son because of her failure to conform to government health standards; how much more will she lose as her willpower begins to weaken in face of extraordinary pressures?

Sea of Ash and Sorrow by Michael Kelly (science fiction/horror)
      In the face of unimaginable tragedy and despair, one man goes searching for a childhood memory by the sea. A quest to win back lost opportunities results in a poignant tale of loss, regret, and redemption.

The God of the Gaps by Adrian Firth (science fiction/fantasy)
      With a lifetime that dwarfs a star's, Cyrix's race is fast approaching its extinction, as well as the end of their reality. As he creates and destroys worlds time after time in an attempt to learn to save his people, others find the price of their salvation to high, and instead attempt only to stop him.

Letter to an Overly Ambitious Alien Chef of the Future by Mari Ness (science fiction)
      Joe would go to the ends of the universe for a nice meal, especially to try out his good friend's cuisine. After a visit to Leon's restaurant, Joe attempts to impart a little cautious praise and advice on the use of mushrooms, blood, and accidental dismemberment in the X'Rstys Restaurant of the Caltog Quadrant.

Override by Meredith Schwartz (science fiction)
      Every man deserves a girl - and with the Apple Tree, every man can have one. With the simple application of a chip, one girl can take on the appearance of any past wife or lover, a different character for every man in town. In this dark and lonely world, one man tries to find the girl behind the mask in this sharply written piece.

Duster by Sean Sakamoto (science fiction)
      Farmgirl Cindy, a "duster," certainly didn't go to a 'phalt university on an urban planet to get trashed and drop wobbly - but that's exactly what Taro, a new friend, is offering. Cindy reluctantly accepts the chance to see the wilder side of college life on the red side of town with unexpected results.

In the Time of Apple Maggots by Maxim T. Loskutoff (science fiction)
      In a time when people hide in sterile, frightened cities and survive on doses of government-delivered tranquilizers, Kenny Coozamano and Deacon Blue are the heroes of the realm. They are exterminators - but exterminators of vast swarms of mutated insectoid monsters at the expense of many human ives, and as lost themselves as the rest of the world. As Kenny begins to question the horrible logic of it all, things begin to grow grim in a restless September.

Double Time by Meredith Schwartz (science fiction)
      Guilt is a tricky thing: it can pull you backward, even while it pushes you forward. Jack Jensen feels guilty about the weather, playing solitaire - even getting dumped. Caught in a world of indecision, he begins to pull a group of time-traveling scientists with him as they study his special sense of the world.

Generic Disenchantment by Samuel H. Kenyon (science fiction)
      Reg lives in a future world of ambiguous ethics, clones, robot slaves, and ubiquitous television screens. With all the information available to him, he still can't understand his relationship with Nara, just as she can't understand his obsession with work.

Cold Blooded by Robin Mayhall (science fiction)
       Life under the conquering humans grows more painful every day; the reptilian Olla struggles to escape not only from the conquerors but from her own human husband.

The Subconcious by Zdravka Evtimova (science fiction/fantasy)
      Everyone needs a hobby - though not everyone rents out her mind. Jane, in a fit of boredom or in an attempt to rebel, puts out her subconscious for rent with complicated results.

Magnetic Sheep by James Lyn (science fiction)
      Perspective is key to this small but intriguing encounter between a computer and engineer's assistant.

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