Category: scifi

Utility

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There’s a jostle as I go over a rough patch of the track. The magnetic grip of my boots keeps me locked in as I hurdle alone to the managerial living quarters. Visited once to have dinner with the boss. Brought my daughter Bebe too. Coop wasn’t old enough. Fingers crossed the boss isn’t home today.
I need to get Bebe and Coop out of this place. None of this was worth a single damn if I can’t get them on solid ground again. Bebe’s birth was the happiest day of my life. Coop’s birth was alright too. I chuckle lightly to myself.

Gregor came here from Earth, said that the place is fine for kids if they still have family, but being in the system, it’s just too dangerous. I have to go with them. Can’t trust anyone else on this rock to look after them, not after the things he mentioned.

A few weeks ago, maybe a little over a month, we got the news. Some have been working extra hard hoping it will buy them salvation, but almost everyone else gave up in their own ways. Maybe if photos of the number of self-airlocked bodies were released on Earth it could change something. Even a story about how it complicated the relocation of management could put a dent in public opinion. I hope. I don’t know anymore, to be honest. 

Ceres Mining went belly up. A blight ripped through the monocrop in the third greenhouse, and lax decontamination protocols took out the sixth and eighth ones too. The added cost of emergency rations and oxygen tanked the whole operation and the only way forward was to sell. We were told, and I have no way of confirming, that the higher-ups negotiated down the buyout if the buyers would help ferry out some of the crew.

Our boss brought us all into the warehouse, told us in person. He could have sent it through the messenger, let us read it ourselves. But he faced us.
He was one of the better bosses on the rock.

But he had a way out, and we didn’t.

His family or mine.

(more…)

Bricked

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From the window of the station Tony could just make out the outline of South America. With a nearby ding he remembered where he was standing, grabbed two coffees from the vending machine and turned around to see Lynn waving him over to talk with one of the doctors. He quickly crossed the waiting room toward his haggard wife and the well-kept Dr. Zionkowski.

As he bridged the distance, his wife motioned to the doctor. “She says she has news.”

Tony handed one of the coffees to Lynn, who just held the warm cup. He said, “How is she?”

Dr. Zionkowski lifted up the tablet to double-check her charts and then sighed deeply. “I wish I could give you better news, be more gentle. But it’s not looking good.”

Lynn mumbled, “Oh no.”

Dr. Zionkowski continued, “She…she isn’t responsive, not to sound, not to light or vibration. I fear you have only a few hours to make a decision.”

(more…)

A Better Life

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Jason took another plate and stacked it on the edge of the table before picking up the whole set and walking to the sink. As he began washing the dishes, his husband spoke up.

Adam said, “Before I head out, just letting you know, I heard some scratching in the wall I think.”

“Could you get some rat traps on the way home?”

Adam stood up from the table and walked up to Jason. He wrapped his arms around him. “Sure. I could get a few from the hardware store.”

“I’ll set them up. It only seems fair if you’re getting them.”

Adam leaned in and gave Jason a quick kiss. “You’re good for me.”

Adam disentangled from his smiling husband and picked up his suitcase. “Hate to kiss and run, but I have to get going.”

“Can you take Danny with you today?”

Adam looked into the living room and saw the little troublemaker watching cartoons. He looked at his watch and then said, “It’s the exact opposite direction.”

Jason turned away from the sink and looked his husband in the eye. He stared with wide pleading eyes.

Adam broke. “Alright.” He turned back towards the kid again and said, “Alright Danny-boy. Let’s get moving! Pop has a tight schedule and I need to get your butt to school.”

(more…)

Dragonfly: Foot of the Mountain

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Zoey took a second to breathe as she massaged her legs. She sat down on an oddly-shaped rock near the upward-sloping side of the path up Mt…she would have to double-check the name when she left. Her legs burnt with lactic acid, real lactic acid, and it made her smile, but then groan as they hurt to even massage.

“It’s good exercise, just take each step as it comes. Wes told you what was at the top. Just got to go up there and get it, right?”

Zoey looked forward, toward the other side of the path and past the railing. The slope cut down sharply, but past that ridge was a sea of trees blowing and shifting in the wind. Near the edge of the woods was a line of residential buildings, followed by medium-rises, and then skyscrapers barely bigger than the nail on her little finger. She checked.

Zoey searched through her backpack, pushing aside a first aid kit, a flare gun, and a copy of a book she didn’t remember bringing. At the bottom was a cell phone.

“There you are. Let me just…” She took a picture of the landscape that unfolded before her. Beneath the photo she captioned it, “Absolutely gorgeous landscape, can’t believe the work that goes into making this place beautiful. Already looking forward to coming here again and just staring at the forest. 5 stars!”

(more…)

Remember, Me and You

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Bea woke up and blinked. She took a look around her room: cold and sterile, fake wood panels and linoleum floors. She blinked again, rubbed her eyes, and tried to orient herself. The bed was…comfortable, but not her own, or probably not her own. She sat up and felt a tug on her chest.

A cord ran from her thin, white and blue dress to a screen of some sort propped up on a metal stand. The idea, the words, the thoughts, the meaning of the screen, it tickled her brain, begging her to think just a little harder, a little longer, but the purpose, the meaning, it slipped past her. 

Next to the stand was an end table, sparse and utilitarian, matching the fake wood panels that ran along the wall. Sitting on it was a picture frame. In the picture were two figures, laughing. The one on the left she knew, or was fairly certain she knew. It was a woman with short cut hair and prominent laugh lines around her round dark eyes. But thinking about it for too long upset her, caused the tickle to grow.

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Tomorrow, Cowgirl

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Kaori focused hard on her hand. Sweat beading down her face, she put every ounce of effort into moving her little finger. The other fingers were a little easier, but moving her pinky took considerable energy. 

And then it twitched.

She exhaled.

Dr. Aman wrote something down on her clipboard and then looked up at Kaori. “That’s a good sign. You’re progressing quickly.” She moved over to the IVs and checked their levels before continuing. “It usually takes a bit longer for patients waking from cold sleep to get, well, any motor control back.”

Kaori continued focusing on her fingers, trying to move her hands into different shapes but instead only twitching the tips.

Dr. Aman continued, “If you keep progressing this quickly we should be able to start working on moving your arms by the end of the day.”

“When do you think I can leave?” Kaori asked.

“You’ve still got a few days here, maybe more.” Dr. Aman turned her hand palm up so she could look at her watch. “But, good news, you have a guest on the way.”

(more…)

Shining Chariot

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“Ugh, I brought the wrong shade, can I borrow yours?” Selene was applying her eyeliner, holding herself to the wall with her feet wedged under the stabilizing bar. Cynth angled toward her and held out their hand.

“Here babe!” Selene underhand tossed the tube of lipstick to Cynth, who had wedged themself to the opposite wall of the pod.

Cynth grabbed the stick out of the air, as it slowly glided towards them. They slowly applied the lipstick, savoring the moment and feel of the pigment brushing up against their lips. “I’m really glad you have the right shade. It’s just too far to turn back towards the ship, you know.”

Selene finished prepping and released herself from the bar and pushed herself towards Cynth, holding them tight as she got closer. “It’s okay babe! Just be more mindful in the future. I swear, you’d forget your phone if you didn’t have to swipe into the pod.” Selene looked at the console. “Oh shit! Hurry up. We’ve almost connected.”

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Oscillate

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Sonia starts to collect her tools and put them back into her toolbox, a small green box with a cord attached to her belt. She leans back on the cushion that she brought down into the machine’s guts a couple months ago, giving her just the barest comforts. She tightens one more valve before putting away one of her smaller wrenches. The glowing light of the screen in the crevice of the machine asks if she wants to “Oscillate.” She nods.

The display turns a bright red and shows the words “DO NOT MOVE, OSCILLATION IN PROCESS.” Sonia closes her eyes and holds her breath as the machine starts to whirl alive. She listens to every hiss and scream of the device as it awakens, mentally marking if any need to be corrected. 

A large pendulum comes swinging down towards the crevice that Sonia is hiding in, just inches to her left. It swings right above the chalk mark that she made on the ground when she first became this ship’s mechanic. The job position opened in the first place because of a botched oscillation. She was incredibly grateful that they cleaned the place up before she joined.

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The Tree That Wasn’t

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“Mom! Eemah! Where’s the tree out back?” Elijah was calling from the back door of the thin two story row house. “I wanted to show Carol.”

Mom, Lexi, called back to Elijah from her study on the second floor, “Oh, uh, we cut it down a few years back. Sorry love.”

“Why’d you go and do that? I loved that tree” Elijah took a step into the house and towards the bottom of the stairs.

Lexi exited her study and walked to the top of the stairs so she didn’t have to yell anymore, “It just needed to come down honey. You know how these things are. Now, no making a fuss. You can still show Carol the neighborhood.” Lexi looked around, “Where is she?”

“Oh, I’m just in the kitchen! Don’t mind me. Grabbing a juice from the fridge.”

“Don’t let her eat any of the hamantashen, Eemah made them earlier today.”

“They for tomorrow?”

“Yeah, guests are coming over.”

Carol walked into view, holding a half eaten triangular shaped cookie. “Hi Mrs. Breitman!” She took another bite while Lexi motioned to Elijah incredulously and Elijah shrugged.

“Well, I wish you would have told me, mom. I would have liked to have said goodbye.” Elijah looked down, turned around, and walked with his fiancée to the back door.

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