Story Excerpts

Murder on the Eris Express
by Beth Goder

On the morning of June 3rd, 2307, Galactic Standard, Mo cycled through her hundreds of sensors, checking that everything on the Eris Express was well. Her processors whirred as she calculated trajectories for the ship, which she always found calming. She loved the soft sound of space, and the way that stars looked from her sensors, like bright jellyfish immersed in an infinite ocean. She loved how the AI Core always smelled like metal and old books. (Her systems had been upgraded with sensory capabilities, so she could smell everything on the ship, like the blueberry muffins baking in the kitchenette.) Life was much better with the smell of blueberry muffins in it. READ MORE

The Return of Tom Dillion
by Harry Lang

Characters from this story previously appeared in “Hothouse Orchids” (January/February 2023).
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Police detective Hector Kovack couldn’t take the bullet back.

He lay in the gray, predawn ooze of a hungover Martian Tuesday morning, twisting the thought with all his might. Or trying. Drunk, hungover or sober, the truth wouldn’t twist. No matter how many questions he answered for Internal Affairs or how long they kept him chained to a desk or how much bootleg gin he drank, Hector Kovack would always be the cop that blew his brother’s face to smithereens with a .45. Big gun, especially for a scrawny native Martian trained solely in the use of nonlethal shock weapons. READ MORE