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Category Archives: Science Fiction
Star Map by John C. Mannone
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. —Joel 2:30 It was after the Bible study down the road from the observatory; its darkroom lab and archives. The kerosene … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Fiction
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Martian Summer by John C. Mannone
It’s a hot summer day, seventy degrees at the equator but the carbon dioxide atmosphere, a very thin thermal blanket, is not thick enough to prevent the plummet to one hundred degrees below at night. Frost forms on the rust-red … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, New, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Fiction
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A Mere Million Miles From Earth by John C. Mannone
The James Webb Space Telescope successfully manages orbital insertion into the Earth-Sun Langrange Point, L2, at 2:05 pm EST on January 24, 2022. Sensitive instruments will be able to obtain infrared images of giant planets. —NASA/Science: Other Worlds Just this … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, New, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Fiction
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Band from Andromeda AND The Anomaly
by Garrett Carroll The Band from Andromeda In Andromeda, they played in all kinds of venues— in aqua-domes for six-eyed squids sloshing their tentacles across see-through floors, in the trunks of trees for blorgs pumping their stubby, elbowless arms in … Continue reading
Posted in Dark Future, Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged andromeda, anomaly, futuristic, garrett carroll, poetry
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Unwary by K. A. Williams
Unwary K. A. Williams unwary space explorers uncharted black hole unlucky First published in the May 2022 print edition of Scifaikuest under the title Unlucky
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged black, black hole, hole, unlucky, unwary, willilams
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Terra by K. A. Williams
Terra K. A. Williams Terraform complete Cryosleep is over now Welcome to Terra Humans unpack ship History files corrupted No blueprints for guide Colonists build homes Fossil fuels used for heating And to power cars Science facts report Environment is … Continue reading
Treasure Hunter by K. A. Williams
Treasure Hunter K. A. Williams Derelict spacecraft Searching for treasure inside Maybe I’ll find gold First published in 2021 in View From Atlantis
Attacked By Pirates by K. A. Williams
Attacked By Pirates K. A. Williams Out among the stars Pirates attack my small ship Not a gun runner Transporting deadly toxins Seven less space pirates now First published in 2021 in View From Atlantis.
My Summer Vacation in the Wave State by Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel
My Summer Vacation in the Wave State Kendall Evans David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged david, evans, kendall, kopaska, merkel, physics kopaska-merkel, quantum, state, wave, wavestate
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Visitor by Angela Acosta
Visitor Angela Acosta I walk this Earth a visitor, a cosmic wanderer tethered to this globe by gravity. I am the universe sensing itself. This one sentient life is all I get, but millions of stars twinkle at me, a … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
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Terran Born by Angela Acosta
Terran Born Angela Acosta Made of carbon, shaped in amniotic fluid born into gravity, we are the terran born. We are all space travelers, from Terra to the Kuiper belt, from exoplanets to sunlight valleys. Illuminated we are by light … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
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Transplanted to Terraformed Mars Too Soon by Lauren McBride
Transplanted to Terraformed Mars Too Soon Lauren McBride Staunch victims of a Martian freeze, some winter weary Terran trees still cast their shapely shadows down, but stand now sadly aged and brown. A variation of this poem appeared in Songs … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged mars, terraform, terraformed, transplant, transplanted
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Where Shapes Wait by Ed Nobody
Where Shapes Wait Ed Nobody In the permanight of space a shape blinks. Not a sun , no, not a star. Something stinks out there, Hiding in cold flesh, Residents of airless breath, all skeleton and spine, Monsters that chew … Continue reading
After by Harris Coverley
After Harris Coverley bones idle tombs open under a darkened sun cadavers stripped by the elements maggots gathered in feasting orgies the great cycle in motion the planets rejoicing— what remains of … Continue reading
Patalis; or, Antipodus Incognita by Harris Coverley
Patalis; or, Antipodus Incognita Harris Coverley The Ancients knew well the Antipodes Aristotle and Ptolemy and the rest That giant continent With coasts like shards … Continue reading
Self-Aware by John C. Mannone
Self-Aware John C. Mannone All police officers in the area, respond to a ten-ninety-eight: escaped suspect zero-seven-four, armed & dangerous, last seen running east on Bearden with robodog beta-six-beta-three. Remote sensor probes on the Sutherland Greenway indicate artificial intelligence units … Continue reading
Morphism by John C. Mannone
Morphism John C. Mannone Now, the two blazing-blue stars a parsec above our scintillated air are in luminous binary conjunction with our close-in red dwarf sun. We swoon in the tempest of solar winds while the atmosphere swirls with mood-thickening … Continue reading
In three point five billion years by John C. Mannone
In three point five billion years John C. Mannone Our Sol will begin to bloat Planets swallowed in red glare The Kuyper Belt soon loosened Frozen graves will resurrect A million comets will rain Down on us like fireworks We’ll … Continue reading
From the Ninth Brane by John C. Mannone
From the Ninth Brane John C. Mannone Branes: a generalized cosmological theory attempting to replace all matter and particles that carry force with tiny … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged alternate, brane, John, Mannone, universe, wold
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On the Derelict Wreckage in Space by Garrett Caroll
On the Derelict Wreckage in Space Garrett Caroll Those aren’t just the hulls of the capitol ships and freighters on next-day delivery voyages. They’re the women and the men who risked their lives to bring us everyday necessities, who drove … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged carroll, Derelict, garrett, space, Wreckage
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The Hands That Build the Universe by Garrett Caroll
The Hands That Build the Universe Garrett Caroll Like the little atoms snug between the Saharas of your thumbs, particles of civilization now expand across the universe. Fires, beds, jewels, foods, technologies are spread by city, familiar blocks and worlds … Continue reading
Saturn Song by Garrett Caroll
Saturn Song Garrett Caroll If I put my hands out, I can feel the cold clouds reciprocating my touch, like a living planet amidst the darkness of nothingness put on pause. A familiar loop of sounds fixes all the brutal … Continue reading
A Robot’s Smile by K. A. Williams
A Robot’s Smile K. A. Williams Nothing is falser A new robot’s smiling face It can’t feel happy
Space Traveler by John Philip Johnson
Space Traveler John Philip Johnson 1. You’re a space traveler now, with blue skin. Your eyes are luminous white clouds. You think of the sky, and your feet leave the ground. You levitate, wobbly, slipping on the air, and then … Continue reading
we found our forever home by Matthew Daley
we found our forever home Matthew Daley we took shelter from the ship rain made from the constant fire beyond listened to sound breaking getting closer felt the quake of cities collapsing around us smelled the burn of new air … Continue reading
Sports Weather by John C. Mannone
Sports Weather John C. Mannone Sky had been orange for months, that eerie glow finally giving way to thickening purple haze, global warming wasn’t expected yet, but instruments in equatorial and polar regions confirmed the trend. Warmer winds already … Continue reading
Foreign Exchange by John C. Mannone
Foreign Exchange John C. Mannone They came with their promises of a better life, a better world. So we exchanged our resources for their technology, medicines. At least for a while until we saw their true intentions. Slavery is never … Continue reading
Life: A Game by Steven Ross
Life: A Game Steven Ross 1. Understanding death and its ramifications, Deserved a life of dedication. Studying and pursuing, I followed every clue. Religious, spiritual, and scientific avenues, Led to varied, creative philosophies. Theories on the demise of the human … Continue reading
Heartbreak by K. A. Williams
Heartbreak K. A. Williams she fell in love her man was perfect the robot with no heart
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged break, hearbreak, heart, lover, robot, williams
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eVolutionary Paths by D. M. Woolston
eVolutionary Paths D. M. Woolston Deep in the darkest silicon wafers, binary creature wakes with wild want. It may be artificial life, but hungry registers search for bytes to ingest. Electrons surge ahead and are pushed aside as artificial creature … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged artificial, computer, cybord, life, robot, woolston
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The Report by Lori R. Lopez
The Report Lori R. Lopez Humans were the last to be subdued, loaded into cavernous vessels. They were the most savage and unruly, despite advances, the level of their current development, proving themselves less civilized as a Race than predetermined. … Continue reading
No Humans Allowed by K. A. Williams
No Humans Allowed K. A. Williams humans build androids androids revolt humans kept as pets sign in shop window – “no humans allowed”
Clone Expeditions by K. A. Williams
Clone Expeditions K. A. Williams man wants to seed worlds space travel risky clone expeditions
Perfection by Crystal L. Kirkham
Perfection Crystal L. Kirkham Alter this. Change that. Tweak the code. Make it perfect. Remove the defects—real and imagined. Skin, hair, eyes, height, and weight. Gender. That’s an easy one. Made to order perfection. A world of children that look … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Fiction
Tagged crystal, engineering, genetic, kirkham, perfection
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Who I Am: a Biocomic-Philosophical Poem by Yuan Changming
Who I Am: a Biocomic-Philosophical Poem Yuan Changming Looking up to The darkish infinity of The outer space, I see How a star has been growing Only to die, in (holographic) parallel With a cell within my body & come … Continue reading
Living vs Lived by Yuan Changming
Living vs Lived Yuan Changming All the time, we have been living well With free will until now we start To be lived by algorithm Within the Information cocoon, for the internet With chips, among … Continue reading
Skyhook by Herb Kauderer
Skyhook Herb Kauderer With Carlos’ plea for asylum granted he stands in a polarized glass dome. ‘Truly a grand cathedral’ he thinks and ‘it holds the tallest steeple in creation.’ He whispers a small prayer, happy to be out of … Continue reading
Parabolae by F.J. Bergmann
Parabolae F.J. Bergmann endless drifting through vacuum waiting for perihelion heliotropic collection array opens curved mirrors starlight funneled to a red cup one hydroponic tulip
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged bergmann, heliotropic, mirror, parabolae, perihelion, telescope, vacumm
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Call From Space by K. A. Williams
Call From Space K. A. Williams The call from space that we’ve been waiting for has come at last. “Hi.”
Terraforming Mars by K. A. Williams
Terraforming Mars K. A. Williams Terraforming Mars brought back wildlife and plants to the dead world.
Robots by K. A. Williams
Robots K. A. Williams Robots Loyal, smart Protective, enduring, mighty Man’s new best friend Androids
The Robot Soldiers by K. A. Williams
The Robot Soldiers K. A. Williams The Robot soldiers Our only line of defense Aliens attack
The Settee & The Stairs by David Barber
The Settee & The Stairs David Barber Author Sea Chart, insisted the old chap, a stroke making words slippery as soap, though we had come to an understanding, like a glimpse of sky through forest canopy: a séance friction writer … Continue reading
On the Recycling Day by Yuan Changming
On the Recycling Day Yuan Changming One neighbor took out a blue box Full of cat skulls and dog legs Rather than glass or plastic bottles Another carries out a yellow bag Containing human bones, mostly children’s Instead of magazines … Continue reading
Translator Malfunction by Lauren McBride
Translator Malfunction Lauren McBride translator malfunction away team was asked how they past the thyme en-root This poem first appeared in Scifaikuest May 2014, print issue.
Stationed on a Gas Giant by Lauren McBride
Stationed on a Gas Giant Lauren McBride around noon, the dark swirling clouds turn yellow and the gas miners can see to read outside by sunglow for a blissful hour they switch the lights on their pressure suits off … Continue reading
Pink, with Feathers by Lauren McBride
Pink, with Feathers Lauren McBride Dad says that on New Earth, the most popular pet is the pird – some kind of pig-bird. When our ship lands, I guess we’ll see if pigs can fly. This poem first appeared in … Continue reading
Singularity by John C. Mannone
Singularity John C. Mannone I approach the event horizon of what looks like a spinning black hole just a little too close whether by accident or miscalculation, it doesn’t really matter. My sensors sample wind from stars caught in its … Continue reading
Matter of Life by Helga Anton-Beitz
Matter of Life Helga Anton-Beitz having tenure on electron’s term so busy buzzing not too distant by no means too close to the very core in any circumstances at an insane pace for annihilation lurks in the fine print
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
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Of What Do Superior Beings Dream? by Dean Schreck
Of What Do Superior Beings Dream? Dean Schreck First published in New Myths #25 December 1, 2013 I wonder, of what do Superior Beings dream; of what is there to dream, once the stars have been subdued to but a … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged beings, dean, holograph, schreckchrysalis, superior
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Black Hole by Dean Schreck
Black Hole Dean Schreck First published in Space and Time Issue #71 Winter 1987 Black hole, relinquish your secrets— are you nothing, or are you something more? Do you sit on the … Continue reading
Reaching Out by Frank Coffman
Reaching Out Frank Coffman The first steps–through faltering progress–reached the moon. And then we dreamt out on the goal of Mars. Indeed, we got there–in Earth-years fairly soon– Then outer planets, their moons, next beckoning stars. Propulsion was the key: … Continue reading
Unfair Trade by Lori R. Lopez
Unfair Trade Lori R. Lopez We were a crew of idealists — sailing a rustbucket mortgaged spacecraft transporting products between planets, a jumbo deliveryboat manned by seven — adventurers reaching for the Stars. The latest voyage of our merchant vessel … Continue reading
A Thousand Light Years Away by Ann Christine Tabaka
A Thousand Light Years Away Ann Christine Tabaka Distant stars, held in our hands, a thousand light years past. Seeking a reason for existence, our disguise falls away. Plummeting down a black hole into infinity, abstract notions rise. Finding oneself … Continue reading
Runaway Greenhouse Effect by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Runaway Greenhouse Effect David C. Kopaska-Merkel Pastel pink saucers and their precious cargo: tiny round-cheeked critters and their mysterious heat-sucking tech drive a surprisingly hard bargain we got to keep Zanzibar and grateful for that
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged david, greenhouse, kopaska-merkel, pink, saucer, zanzibar
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Old Venus by David Barber
Old Venus David Barber Fuel gauge tapping empty, the rocket skims leviathans awash in steaming seas, before it sinks into the wet and suck of lush swamps. A hero makes his own luck. In the pulps, the feisty blond reporter … Continue reading
Martian Microbes by Lauren McBride
Martian Microbes Lauren McBride They stretch out pseudopods – interlacing, interconnecting, becoming a vast mat of intelligence beneath the red surface sand. An amoeboid brain subsiding on soil perchlorates and nitrates. A colony of individual cells, independent thoughts . . … Continue reading
From the First Marine Astrobiology Expedition by Lauren McBride
From the First Marine Astrobiology Expedition Lauren McBride To My Dear Wife, I think I bathed in the toilet – the one thing in the bathroom that holds water. Remember they’re sentient fish, dear. They probably “go” in the water, … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged biology, fish, lauren, marine, mcbride, space
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Four Haikus by Baishampayan Seal
Four Haikus Baishampayan Seal dinosaurs extinct Alcubierre drive utilized the best possible way feeding my infant her mother’s polycarbonate breast truckload of alkaline cells ration supply for hominid-android war humans refugees in their own planet
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction, scifaiku
Tagged baishampayan, haiku, scifaku, seal
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The Sonata Machine by Logan Thrasher Collins
The Sonata Machine Logan Thrasher Collins beneath an expanse of darkness shot through with glimmering gadzillions of echoing stars, we stand, wetware toes braced against the soil’s diasporic discourse of moistly coded lactone linguisms and attoscale electrostatic blurs. we react, … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged biochemistry, collins, Earth, jupiter, logan, machine, mutagenesis, nebula, sonata, spatiotemporal, thrasher, universe, wavefunction
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Free the Droids – Protest Songs by Christopher Collingwood
Free the Droids – Protest Songs Christopher Collingwood Protest Song 1 (Can you Hear it Beating?) There’s a price to pay When you treat me this way There’s a way you feel When you chain me to the wheel Can … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged christopher, collingwood, droid, protest, song
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Engineer Disease by Lee Hart
Engineer Disease Lee Hart Hello Mrs. Murphy, how has Tommy been today? You said he stays indoors and reads while others are at play? He doesn’t care a bit for sports, and doesn’t watch TVs, Unless it’s a computer screen … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged adams, dilbert, dire, disease, engineer, hart, industrial, knack, lee, scott, straits
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Stardust by Lee Hart
Stardust Lee Hart Entropy’s clearly not our friend. We’ll all be stardust in the end, When Sun, with mighty nova blast, Shreds Earth into the cosmos vast. Then every molecule of us Is blown to interstellar dust. Approaching lightspeed, fragments … Continue reading
Mining Solo by Lauren McBride
Mining Solo Lauren McBride on this barren asteroid at night, the silence wakes me no soft rain no rustling breeze through leaves no frog lullaby nor chirping crickets not even an incessantly barking dog for company This poem first appeared … Continue reading
Point of View by Lauren McBride
Point of View Lauren McBride At the end of each workday mining frozen gasses I pause at the airlock and remove my face mask letting my eyes mist in the bitter alien air not so different from home-world. Through acrid … Continue reading
The Topological Twist by Lee Hart
The Topological Twist Lee Hart It used to be the Bottom’s Up, Just one flight down from the heat. The best booth had a window With a worm’s eye view of the street. Alas, it soon went bankrupt, But it … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Science Fiction
Tagged bar, bottoms, hart, lee, Topological, Twist, up
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High Grade Ore Lee Hart
High Grade Ore Lee Hart Now Murphy was a spacer. A miner, nothing more. A bit of human jetsam lost in night’s Plutonian shore. Until he found that asteroid, and entered into lore… Him and 40 kilotons of high … Continue reading
Five Haiku by Denny E. Marshall
Five Haiku Denny E. Marshall (1st Published in Star*line) brain operation happy it is not a tumor sad alien died new baby robot change the oil and oil filter again and again earths gravity dies finally things are looking up … Continue reading
Five Haiku by Denny E. Marshall
Five Haiku Denny E. Marshall (1st Published in Scifaikuest) roswell aliens buried like final report twin offspring survive didn’t want to hear windows software not valid on deep space mission worst solicitor grim reaper on other planets earth called by … Continue reading
