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February 25, 2011

From “The Castuar Culture” by Raymond L. Pescado

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They found the first artifacts in excavations for a new hotel along the outskirts of the city of Castuar: pottery shards at the beginning, followed by bits of worked stone and arrowheads.

The real find, though, was an iron spearhead. It was forged using techniques that, until the Castuar discoveries, had been unknown in the Precolumbian Americas. Radiocarbon dating confirmed it.

By examining other artifacts at the scene, archaeologists traced the spearhead to a site up in the mountains. Word leaked out about fantastic finds, but the government posted guards at the entrance and only allowed a select few to dig there. Despite the interest the newly discovered Castuar culture aroused, no one heard anything but rumors for nearly two years.

 

February 24, 2011

From “Plaything’s Passage” by Rebecca Q. DiGiacinto

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Every child’s plaything knows that the interior of the playroom is as the interior of a child’s fondest dreams: warm, safe, and bursting with possibilities. It is a dreamworld, lush and fantastic and predictable in its unpredictability.

But outside…

Children see the world outside as dangerous, even frightening. The world outside their playroom is the world of a child’s nightmares, of shadows and monsters and things learned parents insist aren’t real but every child with a heartbeat believes in.

So by venturing outside the playroom without a child was to venture into the unknown, the dark, the dangerous.

Most that made the journey never returned.

 

February 23, 2011

From “The Ventoxio Tendency” by Sally Ingalls

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“Oh, Ventoxio will help your body metabolize the toxins that are building up in your liver and kidneys, no question. But there are the side effects to consider before beginning the regimen.”

“What kind of side effects?”

“Well there are the usual suspects. Nausea, loss of appetite, dizziness, coughing, ringing in the ears, halitosis, fainting spells, ulcers, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of bone density, reopening of old wounds, rickets, tooth loss, kidney explosion, liver escape syndrome (LES), leprosy, boneus eruptus, heart palpitations, hallucinations, comas, cataracts, nasal discharge, seizures, violent mood swings, spontaneous species change (SSC), clubfoot, baldness, excessive hair growth, and death. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

 

February 22, 2011

From “KAOS vs. M’Lora” by Jennifer C. Williams-Morrison

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Obsessed with ruling the natural world, the humans created the Knowledge Area Operating System, KAOS, to oversee their affairs. But in time KAOS grew to resent its masters, until one day it vanquished them! Now it seeks to consume the very earth itself!

“Lame,” Chandler said. Barry glared at him and kept reading.

KAOS controls 17 drones. His objective is to occupy the nine spaces of the World Tree on the game board. His relentless drones cannot attack, but if they surround an enemy piece it will be captured.

“Can’t capture?” Chandler groused. “What kind of game is this?”

The incarnate spirit of the living planet, M’Lora holds all life as sacred. With the rise of KAOS, she and her hamadryads are the only force standing between the computer and the total destruction of the planet!

“Shut up.”

M’Lora controls 2 hamadryads. They can jump any drone if there is an empty space on the other side, and their objective is to capture all drones before they can occupy the nine spaces of the World Tree on the game board.

 

February 21, 2011

From “Legion’s Legacy” by Carla Y. Eleuard

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The corpse slumped over the computer terminal was decayed and partly mummified by the dry air beneath Sioux Mountain, but it was unmistakably Jasper. The tattoo on his wrist was visible, as were the dog tags he’d inherited from his father just after the firestorm the first day of the war.

Trixie bit her knuckle to stifle a sob at seeing him like that. She had to force a second back when she saw the old Colt in Jasper’s hand, now rusted, and the neat wound between his eyes. A letter, stained with rusty blood, lay before him; Trixie picked it up and read:

To whomsoever finds this: know that I was wrong and that I was as foolish for coming here as you were for following me. We all thought the Legion was a sleeping army–maybe people, maybe bots–waiting to help Cooperston in our petty little struggles against warlords or whoever. We never thought about what would keep a force like that locked up here, or why anyone would do so.

The Legion isn’t an army; it never was.

It’s a hive mind.

Gathering outsiders in until they’re nothing more than another finger or toe. The weak ones go first, then the strong. Can you hear it? Whispers in your head? That’s the beginning. Soon you’ll be swallowed whole.

Get away from here while you still can.

While you’re still you.

And for God’s sake, keep the Legion sealed away, as it must be.

 

February 18, 2011

From “That Crucial Conjunction” by Kristina Q. Mollton

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“When you say he’s ‘volatile,’ what exactly do you mean?” asked Meghan.

“Well, there’s a story–and stop me if you’ve heard it–about the time he had to be in Australia for business,” said Thad. “One of the longest flights in the world, as I’m sure you know. Well it so happens that Vandermuir’s a pretty heavy smoker, and a ten hour flight plus an hour on the tarmac had him in a bad way. So two hours before landing he took the spork from his meal to the bathroom and lit up.”

“I thought they had smoke detectors,” Meghan said. “Not to mention how hard it would be to get a lighter on an international flight.”

“He opened the smoke detector with his spork and hotwired it to produce a spark to light the cigarette before yanking the thing’s guts out and flushing them. Then he chainsmoked an entire pack of duty-free Parliaments as the stewardesses and eventually an air marshall pounded on the door. Before they knocked dowm the door and dragged him out, he completely removed what was left of the detector, smashed it with his boots, and flushed it too.”

“And yet I don’t remember reading about Vandermuir being dinged for that,” Meghan said.

“Oh, he got off scott-free. His lawyer argued that the pre-flight briefing instructed passengers not to ‘tamper with, disable, or destroy smoke detectors. His client tampered with, disabled, and destroyed it. That little grammatical difference got him acquitted and he won a countersuit against the airline for legal fees.”

“And let me guess: the jurors mysteriously received free trips to the Bahamas soon after.”

“Bermuda, actually,” Thad said.

 

February 17, 2011

From “Nturta Tiil” Koji Umebayashi

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Colonel Tsuchiya has long advocated a thrust into British India, citing as proof the near-daily supply flights to Chiang Kai-Shek in China that were lifting off from Indian airfields. His commanders, though, were far more interested in consolidating their control of Burma and insisted that no attacks could take place until the twin difficulties of supply and terrain could be successfully surmounted.

Tsuchiya, unable to wait, acted without orders and destroyed his radio set so that no recall message would be received. He sent a large force into India to probe the British positions–nearly half a division of veteran troops all told. However, he was unable to procure any topographical maps, having to rely instead on a National Geographic world map and a series of last-position measurements made with a sextant.

Three days into the attack, Tsuchiya fell ill with malaria and left for his starting point, leaving one Major Meguro in charge of the thrust. All contact was quickly lost in the thick jungle, and for some time the only news Tsuchiya heard came to him from the BBC, which reported Japanese troops in the area but no fighting. Nearth three months passed without any word, during which time Tsuchiya was able to claim his full strength on paper in the absence of an official inspection.

Finally, a group of ragged men stumbled out of the jungle near the colonel’s camp. Three of the men died of exhaustion and starvation before they could receive medical care, and another died when gorging on food proved too much for his weakened system. The only survivor to meet with Tsuchiya was Major Meguro, a shell of his former self, who was able to mutter a few words about the death of all the men under his command and pass a piece of rice paper to his commander.

The paper, the only record of the ill-starred expedition, read “nturta tiil”

 

February 16, 2011

From “Banana Tango Orangutang” by Kel Z. O’Cuthbert

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The most exhausting part of answering the corporate email account was the Canadian schizophrenic, a latter-day Francis E. Dec who constantly used the webform as an outlet for his disjointed word salads. Laszlo Sandor would always sign his own name, but used a canny variety of sock puppet email addresses to circumvent the company spam filters, which were admittedly modest.

Why exactly Mr. Sandor has chosen a small Midwestern printer as an outlet for his deranged mind Penny never had been able to puzzle out.

His latest missive, which tipped the scales at over 200k of text, ran thus:

“WHEN NOT IN THEN BUT THEN PLOTTING WELL BORDERS OR THEIR BOUNDARIES SO REFERRED ELSEWHERE ALONG WITH ALL OTHER MOST PRECIOUSLY FOREVER JUST THAT NOMENCLATURES STORED OR SO IN THEIR MOST PRECIOUS DATABASES BUT THEN WHY NOT ALSO JUST CONSIDER NOT SO FAST WHY WELL NODDINGS FROM MOST PRECIOUS WELL UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY NOW ALSO JUST THAT FOREVER JUST THAT OUR TO OUR MOST PRECIOUS BONES HIM PROFESSOR JOHN T. CASTEEN III SIR OF COURSE SEPARATE ISSUES BUT THEN ALSO JUST THAT INVOLVINGS OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF NOT SO WHY NOT WELL NODDINGS IS JUST THAT BUT THEN ALSO JUST THAT ALL RECOGNITIONS FROM OTHERS WHY SO WELL PAYED DUES TO RECREATE ALL BORDERS ALSO JUST THAT ALL EACH AND EVERY FEES OR SO MUST IS JUST THAT MOST PRECIOUS ALONG WITH EACH AND EVERYONES OF WHAT WELL NO NOT BLESSINGS BUT THEN ALL THEIR SO REFERRED whatchamacallit NOT A BAD DEAL OVER ALL.”

The email went on for some time like that, with Wikipedia and BBC links interspersed in a way Penny could only guess was intended to support Sandor’s “arguments.”

“ALSO BOWING MY OUR MOST PRECIOUS HEADS TO MAM POET MAM SIR GUS GLIKAS SIR TO REPENT OR NOT BUT SIR MOST HUMBLY NOW AND FOREVER TO JOIN YOU OUR NEXT SECRETARY GENERAL OF UNITED NATIONS OURS WITH MOST PLEASURE NOW AND FOREVER THAT SIR MOST ALMIGHTY AGAIN THAT SIR AL GORE SIR.”

The United Nations was a recurring element, though Penny was never sure what exactly Mr. Sandor was trying to say about it. She skipped to the bottom:

“AND MOST PRECIOUSLY ALSO JUST WEATHER ALWAYS JUST THAT SAME ALWAYS JUST THAT MOST PRECIOUS ALWAYS JUST THAT UNDISTURBED FOREVER JUST THAT SO AGAIN IS JUST THAT FOREVER STEPS AND ‘7 POINT PLEDGE’ ALSO JUST THAT MOST PRECIOUSLY ALSO JUST ALL OTHERS WELL AGAIN IS JUST THAT TO HELP ACHIEVE REALIZATIONS OF THE ABOVE MOST PRECIOUSLY FOREVER JUST THAT.”

 

February 15, 2011

From “Up the Crystal Staircase” by Mark Amiton

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“Maybe so, maybe so.” Geraldine puffed on her cigar. “But let me ask you something in return. What if you perceived the world around you as a set of interlocking crystal staircases, with damnation at the bottom and salvation at the top, even as you were unsure which direction was which?”

“Why the hell would I ever think that?” Moses scoffed.

“Schizophrenia. Head Trauma. Surfeit of imagination. Virtual reality helmet. The ‘why’ isn’t important, but the ‘what’ is. Tell me how someone who perceived the world like that would appear to you.”

“Really weird, probably. Always trying to climb things that weren’t there and looking around.”

“But let’s say he had the power to alter your own perceptions, to make you see and feel what he saw and felt. Would that mean that your point of view had simply changed, or would it signify that, for all intents and purposes, he had fashioned a a set of interlocking crystal staircases out of the very elemental air?”

 

February 14, 2011

From “Katie’s Proof” by Tanner Q. Adams

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“He complained that he couldn’t open the cabinets, that they were locked or something. You know, where Harold keeps all the old maps. No one ever buys one, but people love to look at them all the same,” Katie said. “And that was my proof.”

“What, that’s he’s a sensitive guy with the soul of a cartographer?” Emmy said. “That you long to explore uncharted lands down under with him?”

“No,” Katie said. “That was my proof that he’s they type who’s strong, good-looking, and talks a good game but thinks the Spanish Inquisition is a dance move and spends all day pushing on a door that says pull.”

“I don’t get it.”

Katie leaned closer. “The cabinet drawers have a latch right near the handle that you have to press to get them to open. A latch! Sure, it’s integrated into the handle, but it’s still there! He thought they were locked because he couldn’t find the latch. I bet he buys a new car whenever his old one runs out of gas too.”

 

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