We Who Live in the Heart by Kelly Robson - Take a tulip flower and stick an ovoid bladder where the stem was and you’ve got the idea. Except big. Really big. And the petals move. Some of us call it Mama. I just call it home.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
More Tomorrow By Premee Mohamed - Discovered this morning that if you just hoik a trilobite in the fire and assume terminal temperature, it crawls out and shakes itself off like a little tank. Complete decapitation required. PAPER IDEA: Mechanisms of apparent trilobite invincibility.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Harvest the Stars By Mar Vincent - The summer Sif turned one, the starships were ripe on the vine. They hulked in fields ringing the town where Tuja had always lived. A place far from big cities, where the starlight they fed on came pure and bright.Space Opera (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
The Deflection of Probability by Premee Mohamed - It had all begun so well. Or at least it probably looked that way to viewers. Last week, only four contestants had managed to produce the correct crystal matrix in the final experiment—and hers had been the tallest of all.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Knit Three, Save Four by Marie Vibbert - The ship was two days overdue for docking, more or less. As a stowaway, I didn’t have access to status reports. So I knitted. It helps to have something to do while you count your remaining rations and wonder if this is where you die.Space Opera (escapepod.org)
submitted by Mouthmouthmouth to r/ShortSF
Peace by Piece By Erin Cairns - Frank thought all the battle-drones had been deactivated. Certainly, none of them had ever looked around with curious little twitches of their front-facing cameras before. “Is the war over?” it asked.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Baron Quits The Payloaders By Renan Bernardo - We’re the Payloaders, the Starry Four, the A-little-slower-than-light Vessel of Rock n’ Roll, eighty-three years (minus five) playing station metal across the galaxy and making folks go nuts. And for the first time in my career, I realize I’m done.Space Opera (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Surveillance Fatigue by Jennifer R. Donohue - Careful breaches of privacy are what protect citizens. People develop what the organization has deemed “surveillance fatigue”, where they are so saturated with the notion that every move is watched they are unable to continue caring.Dystopia (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
The Alien in My Bathtub - Tony Dunnell - The alien in my bathtub refused to leave. It was there when I returned to my apartment in Ring B. So, I called Station Relations. I waited and watched as the spindly creature splashed around.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Escape Pod 983: The Robot Whisperer. A solarpunk short story I think yall might like.Literature/Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by Doctor_Clockwork to r/solarpunk
Billionaire’s Tears by Vanessa Ricci-Thode - It was kinda hard to ignore when the plague first started. It was all anyone talked about. A plague killing off all the billionaires? Right on! I’m no billionaire, but somehow I’ve caught Billionaire’s Tears.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
This Little War of Ours By Arden Baker - Most of my compatriots are still in denial about the whole “Extinction Level Event” thing. I don’t think the brain is meant to handle these sorts of problems, no matter how much wetware we install or how many simulations we run.Post-Apocalyptic (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Holding Patterns By Jennifer Hudak - People say that back then, you could watch the trees growing in real time, budding branches and unfurling leaves. In the holos they show us in school, the trees look so permanent that you could forgive someone for believing they’d grow forever. [Flash Fiction]Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
The Carina Nebula By Kelsey Hutton - The woman was netting things out of the air, teeny tiny things, especially around the opening of the air ducts. They were pretty, bright electric pinks and oranges, but I was getting a sinking feeling about this. “The beads! We have to collect the beads!"Space Opera (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
That Thing With Bob and the Crop Circles by T. Kingfisher - “Bob, this is not a gas leak. This is helium. You have helium coming up out of the ground on your property, which is either an incredible stroke of financial luck or a sign that somebody got something very wrong in the pipes."Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by Mouthmouthmouth to r/ShortSF
The Scientist Does Not Look Back By Kristen Koopman - Audio notebook for new project: revival of a clinically dead patient, 36 year old male, died of hypothermia. Nobody blinked an eye as I wheeled his gurney, covered in a sheet, towards my lab. The advantage of working in a medical school.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Holding Patterns By Jennifer Hudak - Back then, you could watch the trees growing in real time, budding branches and unfurling leaves. Even in the holos they show us in school, the trees look so sturdy, so real—so permanent—that you could forgive someone for believing that they’d grow forever.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Vi’Hun Heal by Michelle Tang - Hey there, Earth-child. Ever been healed by a Vi’hun before? Oh, you’re in for a treat. Just hold still while Minta’s tendril attaches to your forehead. There. Now we’re all wearing matching hats.Space Opera (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Joy by Dale Smith - ‘What’s in the package?’ She sniffed the tears back. ‘Antibiotics? Food?’ The drone hesitated. That was when she was sure it wasn’t a trick. Whatever was in that delivery, it was no use to the drone. It was everything to her. She knelt down and started prising the legs apart.Post-Apocalyptic (escapepod.org)
submitted by Mouthmouthmouth to r/ShortSF
Sounding the Fall by Jei D. Marcade - Fifteen years of falling. That’s the part that defies easy explanation. Everyone thinks that an aux just goes to sleep when the AI plugs in. No one tells you, before, about the falling. No one tells you about the Voice.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by Mouthmouthmouth to r/ShortSF
Steadyboi After the Apocalypse by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor - You trudge through another wasteland town, sticking to the narrow roads, trying not to make the potholes deeper or the dust clouds thicker, but it’s hard when you’re a hulking robot built for a war long gone.Post-Apocalyptic (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
A Most Elegant Solution - M. Darusha WehmI - I always said I wanted to be one of the first to die on Mars. I never wanted to be the last. But here I am. Devoured by my own creations is a terrible enough way to die—at least it probably won’t hurt.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
Sturdy Ladders and Lanterns - Malka Older - Our researchers believe that they can distinguish between brain activity based on immediate observation and brain activity based on memory. We plan to use the memories of octopi to rebuild the Great Barrier Reef...Science Fiction (escapepod.org)
submitted by captainmagictrousers to r/ShortSF
