The Love Song of Oliver Toddle

Roaming

From the category archives:

Sci-Fi

by Kate Kelly
Martin charged up the stairs two at a time, his jaw tensed, teeth gritted together and hands clenched into fists by his side. His anger surged like a tide in full flood and his trainers thumped on the marble steps, and repeated as dull echoes beneath the high ceiling of the faculty building. [...]

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Whisper

February 15, 2010

by Ilan Lerman
I’ve got something to tell you, friend.
Come closer. I have to whisper it in your ear.
It’s a secret.
* * *
Jordan snapped the red flag down and started the meter. The fare pulled the taxi door shut, rocking the whole cab as he sat down. The meter chattered and whirred like a clockwork insect.
It [...]

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The Light That Leads to Darkness

February 15, 2010

by Donald Lunsford
The sickness woke him. Silver sharp bells rang in his ears. Pain rolled over his skin like heated burlap scraping and plucking as it went. His nurse, Huko, ran in plunging his hypo-syringe into the spider web of IV bags hanging beside the bed. He pressed a button on one of the [...]

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And Would Suffice

January 15, 2010

by Sunny Moraine
The problem wasn’t the air.
They had expected it to be the air, until the first atmospheric analysis had revealed a breathable atmosphere, much to everyone’s surprise and eventual delight. No, the air wasn’t a problem. The cold wasn’t the problem; they expected it and came well-equipped for it, with thermal suits, and each [...]

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Martian Dawn

January 15, 2010

by Pamela J. Jessen
Our ship will touch down at Martian dawn,
exhaust throwing gales of organ sand
into the thin atmosphere. We’ll cheer
once, briefly, then bend to our tasks
of securing the craft, transmitting data and images
twenty light minutes to an Earth hungry for Mars.
-
Month after boring month we’ve watched as Mars
grows closer, more substantial and realization [...]

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Trip Of A Lifetime

December 15, 2009

by Jannette Johnson
The last time Don went on a vacation, he’d met his beautiful wife. Right from the first moment he laid eyes on her, he knew she was the only woman for him. When their precious daughter Lizzy was born, he felt life couldn’t get any better. Then Lizzy got sick. Very sick. And [...]

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Space Vampire!

December 15, 2009

by Richard Marsden
The bay door of the ship opened and the first thing that struck Ernst Model was the scent of decay and stagnant water. Humid wind whipped across his face as he trudged down the landing steps and gazed at the pitiful landing pad and ‘civilization’ beyond which consisted of a few pre-fab structures [...]

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Sound Effects

December 15, 2009

by Margaret Karmazin
When it first happened, it was so quick we almost missed it. Tony had just made this really weird noise with his mini-synth while Jesse was blowing on a didgeridoo; Marcelle was thumping on a djembe drum, wagging her head in a trance doing her idea of an Arabic chant and I was [...]

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Sand Painter

December 15, 2009

by Robert E. Keller
The Wasting Disease rotted our metals into the sand. Only the thickest structures remained, shingled with rust, eaten through in many places. The sandstorms took away our will to expand and drove us into tight little communities.
Many of the old pumps still functioned beneath the ground where the metal-eating bacteria couldn’t reach, [...]

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The Clockworker

November 15, 2009

by Dariel Suarez
I’m a traveler, and the universe is my road. To some this might sound improbable; to others it will seem absolutely ridiculous. Nonetheless, the truth remains: I’m a universal traveler—it’s my work, it’s my life.
It is not my intent to convince anyone, or to show proof for what I am about to relate. [...]

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Greener Grasses

November 15, 2009

by Christopher Mari
“Excuse me? This is roughly the first decade of the 21st century, isn’t it?”
Now I’ve heard a great many strange things since moving to New York from a very large and very ordinary suburb where few people know their neighbors well enough to say anything more than hello to them, but this—well, this [...]

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The Bridge

November 15, 2009

by Miguel Lopez de Leon
Lights illuminate
My sparsely organized unit
Automatic voice
Greets a familiar ‘Good Waking’
Before reiterating my daily schedule
Steaming black coffee, with cream, is waiting for me
As crispy bacon and sunny side-up eggs
Materialize on the silent replicator
Surviving on two hours of sleep
Before another grueling twenty hour shift
Stiff uniform perfectly pressed, hair smoothed, complete confidence
As the lift [...]

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Break

November 15, 2009

by Miguel Lopez de Leon
Only a few minutes more
Nineteen hours, fifty-six minutes completed
Initiate closing sequences, start system lock down
Lieutenant Williams has already arrived
To relieve me of my post
System closed
“Leaving bridge, Captain.” I announce, saluting.
“Proceed, Lieutenant.” she answers back at me.
I can see she’s exhausted too
Back aching horribly, don’t want to think
“Level 3, section G.” I [...]

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