April 2, 2010

From “Across Worlds Book IV: Sands of Taas” by Altos Wexan

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The crowd below began to cheer loudly even before Steyr stepped onto the podium; cries of joy and praise filtered up from below, bringing a smile to the young Prime Minister’s face.

“Citizens!” she cried, her voice echoing from speakers up and down the plaza. Steyr had to wait a moment as the cheers died down before she spoke again. “We stand at the threshold of the greatest event in the history of our fair nation! The dream of my mother, her mother, and all the Prime Ministers back to the foundation will now at last come to fruition! We have fought, we have suffered, and we have triumphed over all who would oppose us!”

“Victory!” came the cry from below.

“All resistance has been crushed. All are now included in our glorious vision. Only the final step remains: we shall once again go forth, and attain what eluded even the Founding Ministers themselves: a victory so absolute that a thousand years will not dull its memory!”

 

March 24, 2010

From “Andromeda Dawn” by Zachary Taylor Kimball

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Zero gravity does funny things to your mind. One minute you’re clinging to the floor, then it becomes a wall, then a ceiling. Tim had a little zero-g training, but nothing had ever been this bad. His one ride on the Vomit Comet paled in comparison to the real thing, and even that had filled two puke bags. Tim was on a nonstop roller coaster with shifting directions, and it was making him sick.

Angrily, he thought of what he’d been told before signing up for the trip—that the artificial gravity was foolproof, that there was no need for any specialized training, that no commercial craft’s gravity had failed in over ten years.

Then again, the men in those fancy suits were safely on terra firma, and who could have predicted such a catastrophe?

 

March 14, 2010

From “Across Worlds Book V: Xencobourg’s Fury” by Altos Wexan

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“We have been content to watch from afar, to feed. Still, we always expected that someone would arrive,” said one of the Children.

“Just as the ruins of the old world gave birth to us, so too did we beget suffering and chaos unprecedented even in the time of its destruction,” said another, who might once have been a woman. “That was our ultimate revenge.”

“But we knew it could not last, just as the strife that burned for generations before our coming. Now that the wall has been breached, the time has come for the children of the old world to begin the next phase.”

“We have seen the suffering we have wrought echo across a hundred generations, but no more. As in all matters of revenge, we must now move on to death.” The Child who had spoken smiled, the eerie green light of the glass reflected in its eyes. “The Children of Xencobourg will sear our enemies to dust.”

 

March 13, 2010

From “Brokedown” by Benjamin Johnson

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Harry gnawed meditatively on the end of a pencil, leaving deep tooth marks.

“That’s a bad habit,” I reminded him, as I always did.

“And you have a bad habit of reminding me that it’s a bad habit,” came the standard reply.

Everyone has a nervous habit, and Harry simply preferred pencil-chewing. He claimed it was cheaper than smoking, and better for the environment to boot. In front of the bank of computer monitors in his apartment, there was always a fresh batch of pencils in a little jar. I once got a good laugh by replacing one with a yellow pen, which burst and gave Harry a blue mouth for a week.

Don’t get me wrong–I want to be sad about what happened. But how can I be, when every memory I have of Harry is so much fun?

 

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