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[365tomorrows]

The Microwave

Author: Aubrey Williams “Look, we understand that this is a strange request, Mr. Human… but we repeat again: our planet’s security… even galactic security, may depend on us acquiring one of these devices. Please, we implore you— surrender your microwave to us!” So spoke the little alien being, its four hands wrung in pleading, its various eyes gazing up at me from within its dime-like helmet.…

[365tomorrows]

Nice Guys

Author: Majoki Francis was helping the elderly lady cross a busy street when the call came. He waited until she’d thanked him with a little pat on the arm and entered the drugstore even though the shelves were almost bare. His phone was still buzzing. Oscar. He hesitated, but knew that was impolite and so answered. “Hey. Is it on?” “Good morning, Francis. Kindness always starts with a heartfelt…

[365tomorrows]

Still There

Author: Aubrey Williams I’ve been trying to figure things out. For no reason, I found myself on the side of a lonely road somewhere. I felt like I’d been asleep for too long on a hot day, and couldn’t quite remember what I was doing. It was quiet, with only the sound of distant sky traffic and grasshoppers, the buckled aluminium of the old crash barrier swaying on its unsteady mounting. I was…

[365tomorrows]

Small Things

Author: Majoki Thor got thunder. Prometheus got fire. Shiva got a laser eye. Me? I got a measly quark. Smallest thing in the universe. Two and a half trillion times smaller than a grain of sand. What’s a god supposed to do with that? Make the masses tremble and beg mercy, pledge obedience and fealty–to what? A quark, a subatomic particle that can’t even be directly observed. That only…

[365tomorrows]

Nowhere Planet

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Nineteen hundred tomorrows, and of them, only I got to see a dawn. The world below is still burning in places: unfortunate for the natives that their home arrived at the same strategically important position as the main battle fleets of two conflicting interstellar empires. I’ve tuned into their broadcasts. While I can only grasp the meaning of a word here and…

[365tomorrows]

Bitter Dreams

Author: Frances Koziar I had only paid for an hour of the tech, and when the end came, I wasn’t ready for it. I had a visor over my eyes, muffs on my ears, finger-control gloves on my hands, and a sensory top suit, but I didn’t feel any of it. I had gone off the beaten path of the game, away from the quests and into the common room of an inn. I wasn’t there to say or do anything so much as to…

[365tomorrows]

The World Within

Author: Maudie Bryant Cool water wraps around me, my skin dappled by the summer sun through the rippling surface. Laughter echoes down the shore where friends splash without care. I push back a loose strand of hair, and catch a flash of what looks like glitter clinging to my thigh. I brush at the spot, expecting the sparkly fleck to disappear, but it remains stubbornly in place. Strange. I pick…

[365tomorrows]

Go Fish

Author: C.R. Kiegle My memories go back only three months, but I know I am older than that. Much older. I can feel it in the grit and the grinding sounds as I move, gears gone years without servicing. There’s not much time to think about how old my bones may be, however. Barbara keeps me busy. In my three months I have existed only in this hospice room and only with Barbara. I exist to serve her,…

[365tomorrows]

The Last Thoughts of a Sentinel

Author: B.M. Gilb I have never rested because I am not built for sleep. I never tire, and I never power down. I am programmed to fight until the sky darkens, and the three suns of our planet cease to shine their endless light. Our human enemies have sleep built into them by design—a perfect organic evolution. No matter how long they try to stay awake, slumber takes them. The peace of stillness…

[365tomorrows]

On Bonding and Unbinding

Author: Don Nigroni I’m using pen and paper to write this for a reason. Please excuse my poor penmanship. My brother, James, was quite the success. I wasn’t jealous, just proud. Of course, it wasn’t easy being second best out of two, namely, in last place. James was a respected neuroscientist, while I’m just a history professor at a community college. Nonetheless, he was eight years older and I…

[365tomorrows]

Winding Down

Author: Majoki Snug in my craft, taking each spacetime curve to a smooth jazz arrangement of “Just My Imagination,” it became clear. Things were slowing. We were winding down. It’d been a good ride. Not in every age and not for everybody, but for enough of humanity, we’d experienced amazing things. In the process we’d blindly terraformed our planet into something more suited to tubeworms and…

[365tomorrows]

Trinkets of The Lost

Author: Dan Leicht Jade slumped into the Captain’s chair as she watched her crew on the navigation hub. Their route beeped on the screen in front of her. The four-person crew were relying on her to swoop in for a rescue if needed. Jade crunched down on a kale chip as she tried her best not to drift to sleep while watching the monotonous screen. ***** Jade woke to an alert from the captain. A…

[365tomorrows]

Already Forgotten

Author: Majoki Of course I lured you in. Tempted you with Pleasure, dazzled you with Beauty, disarmed you with Peace. It’s Nature’s way. At least on my planet. Don’t fight it. Don’t struggle against it. You’ve lost. Accept it. Lean into it. Melt into me. I’m already in your head. You must realize that. How else could I be talking to you, hijacking your consciousness, harvesting your willpower,…

[365tomorrows]

The FIZZ

Author: Jeff Kennedy Things had changed since the last zombie apocalypse. New classes of drugs made zombies less dead, returning them to self-awareness, allowing them to operate as more or less functioning members of society. Silent, staring, and smelling delicately of rotting flesh, but functioning. George Romero established the Free International Zombie Zen as a way of “atoning for stereotypes…

[365tomorrows]

Twenty-Five Years

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The nightlight downgrades again, becoming a dim glow. Frankie squints at it, then turns his attention back to me, pupils wide above the patched duvet cover that contains more shredded dry rubbish than actual duvet. “Tell me about the Call to Arms.” I shake my head. Every week his school feed has some programme or other that favourably portrays the event that…

[365tomorrows]

Failure's Price

Author: Alastair Millar The planet was a blue dewdrop, shining defiantly against the blackness of the Void. It was hard to think of it as home, after twenty years struggling to make Sicyon viable; but all their efforts had been wasted, and they’d had no choice but to return. Ironically, the colony had suffered the same tectonic troubles as its ancient Greek namesake, and its society had similarly…

[365tomorrows]

Aura Scanner 3000

Author: Hillary Lyon The coronal mass eruption went unnoticed by a good many sentient creatures on the fourth planet from the sun. Engineers, though, noted communications equipment and most industrial machines continued to run without benefit of terrestrial power sources. Moreover, they witnessed those same devices spark—with some even catching fire. The engineers suspected the sun. The clergy…