#science fiction stories

[oakendesk]

Science Fiction Stories Nov 1956

Edmund Emshwiller

[stone-cold-groove]

Meanwhile, back at the 1939 New York World’s Fair...

[t-lane-writes]

WIP: Black Wings, Chapter Five (snippet)

WIP: Black Wings  Genre: science-fiction  Tag line: Humans’ efforts to terraform a planet are thwarted when some decide to save intelligent indigenous life.   POV characters: Kenaed, Zoe Irene, Mattan Nuada, Siesell Keeva  Snippet from: Chapter Five, Mattan Nuada’s PoV 

First Chapter 

#.

The return of the rangers could be felt throughout the vehicle when they docked their cruiser. A deep vibration shook the Wagon, equipment rattled. Eka Isa didn’t even blink, but Mattan stood up in anticipation. It still took several more minutes, while Angeline and Kenaed locked the soil samples in the carrier and doffed their EV suits in the airlock. When hermetic door finally hissed and opened, Mattan asked without preamble, 

“How many spots have you marked?--” but Kenaed was louder and more urgent. 

“We saw something out there!” He almost knocked Mattan over, aiming straight for the monitor with his recorder in hand. 

Mattan froze for a second. Getting in the way of agitated Kenaed could end badly. It was best to give him space. 

He looked for guidance in Angeline, ‘what happened?’ was his silent question. She shrugged, ‘leave it to me,’ before moving closer to Kenaed with a wary expression. 

“We don’t really know what it was,” she said in an even, quiet voice, hoping to maybe slow him down. To no avail. 

“I know what I saw!” He bared his teeth at her.  

It looked scary. A man his size could easily become dangerous. He didn’t intend to, of course, and he worked hard to keep his anger in check. At the moment, though, whatever happened, clearly threw him off more than usual. When he seethed, “It was a person!” Mattan understood how that could be disturbing. There were no people out here other than the five of them, and they were all gathered in the small workspace of the Wagon now. Ch’Ari, drawn by the commotion, emerged from the back compartment, spatula dripping with tomato sauce in hand. He took a step back to put it away and licked the sauce off his fingers. 

Mattan again exchanged glances with Angeline, as Kenaed finished attaching the recorder to the monitor. Usually so patient and calm, she looked quite exasperated now. 

“We can’t assume--” 

“Don’t tell me I’m--” 

“Whoa, whoa!” Mattan finally raised his hands and stepped between them. [...] “Why don’t you two take a breath!” he screamed over the both of them. Angeline took a step back, but Kenaed looked like he was about to hit Mattan. He restrained himself, but his fists were curled. Mattan stood his ground and glared at him. “How about we take a look at what’s on that recorder?” he spat into Kenaed’s face. 

“That’s just what I’m trying to do!” Kenaed responded, mouth tight, his whole body vibrating. 

“Good. Keep at it!” 

Kenaed turned back to the console. He was hitting the keyboard with much greater force than it deserved. Eka Isa stood up in the meantime, and now waited, frozen, plastered into the corner of the room. Unable to pass by the agitated Kenaed with enough distance for her comfort. Mattan nodded at her, giving her the acknowledgement of her precarious position. She had no intention of changing it, though, as long as Kenaed was upset. 

[...] 

Finally, Kenaed finished setting up the feed. 

“See?” he pointed at the screen. “The last one, it moves differently.” 

The view was distorted by the heat emanating from the ground and the figure Kenaed was pointing at, was partially obscured by other shirukens. 

“They all move weird,” Ch’Ari noted. “Kind of like Eka Isa on the dancefloor.” 

Eka Isa snorted. 

“That’s something to analyze,” Angeline said. 

“It’s like they are herded.” Kenaed run his hand through his hair. “Maybe we should add the view from your recorder and from the cruiser, to get a 3D of the situation.” 

“I didn’t see much. Was behind that fixture. The cruiser, maybe?” 

They imported the data from two other recorders, but 3D view didn’t clarify the image – made it more incomprehensible, rather. Kenaed finally noticed Eka Isa standing in the corner, and he moved out of her way, showing her with a gesture to pass. He seemed to have lost some of the rage that powered him and just looked annoyed. Mattan thought it might be a good moment to try and reason with him. 

“It’s natural,” he said, “that when you see something weird, your mind interprets it as something else, more familiar.” 

“Are you saying I’m seeing things?”  

“No. I’m saying that those shirukens were acting odd, possibly because of the changes in the atmosphere. Perhaps they were hurt. Damaged. You saw one with only four appendices and your mind provided a familiar interpretation—a humanoid.” 

“He stopped, half-turned and looked at me.” 

“Found you interesting?” Ch’Ari asked. “Must have been desperate.” He tried to diffuse the situation in his own way, using depreciating humor. Usually, the three younger members of the team would mock each other relentlessly, but this time Kenaed only gave Ch’Ari a glare. Ch’Ari shrugged his one good arm. “Can’t see that on the film.” He gestured with his right hand 

“Because I wasn’t moving!” Kenaed exploded again. “So they wouldn’t attack, right? I was standing still, and they walked beyond the range of the lens!” 

“And only then that mysterious shepherd gave you a wink?” 

Kenaed’s fists clenched again, and his eyes narrowed. He struggled to focus on taking deeper inhales and longer exhales. 

“Ch’Ari cut it out.” Mattan took Kenaed’s side. Ch’Ari’s attempts at humor fell flat this time. At least he knew when to stop. 

“Sorry.” He nodded and raised his right palm up in apology. “I shouldn’t have said that, Keen.” 

Kenaed nodded, but his fists remained clenched. 

Eka Isa, now safely posed half a step behind Ch’Ari spoke suddenly, in an ominous voice, “There are tales, you know--” 

Everyone stared at her for a few heartbeats. 

“What tales?” Angeline asked first. 

#.

Thank you for reading. :) Tagging @hithelleth, @echo-bleu, @drippingmoon, @did-i-do-this-write, @jacqueswriteblrlibrary

If you want to be added to the list, let me know.

[dnschmidt]

Character Select

Greg and Erin were sitting on a hill, looking down at the park. "Ever wonder if this is a simulation?" he asked.

She laughed. "I love you, but you need to stop listening to silly podcasts."

"I'm serious. What if there's a better world out there - genuine, high resolution reality? Or it could be worse. We could be in a VR prison, or part of some science experiment."

[mollyanncarruth-blog]

Coming in January... "Looking Over The Cliff" Issue Two: Dark Fantasy. Get Issue One before Issue Two comes out, you can find it at

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/looking-over-the-cliff-william-levert/1146283478;jsessionid=C6F7D59C17E335866D5EC775C0AD3278.prodny_store02-atgap07?ean=9798331474386

[gameraboy2]

Science Fiction Stories, July 1943 Cover by Milton Luros

[pulpsandcomics2]

Thrilling Wonder Stories August 1939

[evydraws]

An illustration I just finished for Fusion Fragment

Painted in acrylics on gesso panel.

[constructbreakdown]

Childhood 2269

Short video story I made for my new channel, Construct Breakdown.

Apologies for the bad aspect ratio. It's a skill issue.

[adastra-sf]

far-future person: Oh geez, why would an AI core be lying loose on the ground? Might it be from before or after the Machine Wars? Did a battle destroy the rest of its spaceship body in orbit and this is all that remains of a vast planet-killer or our ancient planetary defense? Was it a monster punished for a great crime, left to rot in the dirt? Or perhaps a simple household assistant, abused to the point of destruction? If I place this into my old spare bot chassis, will it become grateful friend that helps rebuild our frontier planet or vengeful spirit that resumes its destructive mission?

Copper–Agate

[oakendesk]

Science Fiction Stories Nov 1958

Frank Kelly Freas

[stone-cold-groove]

I am Mechanus, the giant sorcerer.

[t-lane-writes]

WIP: Black Wings, Chapter Three (snippet)

WIP: Black Wings Genre: science-fiction Tag line: Humans’ efforts to terraform a planet are thwarted when some decide to save intelligent indigenous life.  POV characters: Kenaed, Zoe Irene, Mattan Nuada, Siesell Keeva Snippet from: Chapter Three, Kenaed’s PoV

First Chapter

#.

“I know.” He cut her off. Then, “Sorry,” he muttered. 

“What’s going on with you?” 

“Nothing.” 

Angeline knew him best. They had worked together for six-and-a-half years now. Patrolled the hostile terrain outside the first terraformed zone, at first as part of the Explorer mission. Then Mattan Nuada, Angeline’s partner, organized this thing. 

The planet – they called it Angerona, same as the spaceship that had brought their ancestors here, seventy years ago – the planet was fixed for terraforming by Heritage. A powerful interstellar organization which was searching for new systems and planets suitable for human kind to settle. They prepared those planets, changed their soil, water, and air, made the environments survivable for humans. Then, they took people who wanted to leave the planet they had lived on – usually because the planet was slowly losing its human-life-supporting characteristics – and transported them, in stasis, to their new home. 

The cost of such operation was huge. Enormous. Kenaed didn’t even fully understand what it would take to be allowed to re-settle and he doubted anyone in Angerona could comprehend it. Only the richest, the best-connected citizens of dying planets could afford it. The rest was doomed to eventually die along with their worlds. 

Angerona ancestors refused to agree to that fate. They had learned about this world, packed their belongings onto the spaceship and took up a grueling journey through the vast expanses of space. Five hundred years later the children of the children of those who had started it, had landed on the surface. Their ancestors were heroes and the people here had a home now, thanks to them. 

According to the interplanetary laws, though, they were trespassers. 

That was a disturbing thought. One that might send Kenaed into a spiral of fear and anger and memories he couldn’t handle. 

He had to find a distraction. 

“Are we there yet?” he breathed out. 

Angeline turned to look at him through the visor of her helmet, troubled by the tension in his voice. 

“The next spot is just over that ridge.” 

[...] 

“Here we are,” Angeline announced. “Are you going out, or should I?” 

Kenaed was ready to go, but he hesitated with his palm on the handle. Outside, the heat would be even more unbearable. 

“Is it because of that girl of yours?” Angeline asked.  

“What? Who?” He turned back to her. “Zoe?” 

“Weren’t you supposed to meet her kid last sundown? Did you? That why you’re upset?” 

He and Zoe had been seeing each other for almost a boulder-a-round, and she decided it was a good moment to introduce him to her daughter. She didn’t want to wait longer, because, as she said, Maisie’s opinion was a make-it or break-it. 

“Yeah, I met her,” Kenaed nodded, “but-- It was fine, there was nothing-- Maisie is a sweet girl. If a four-years-old can be sweet, that is, she’s pretty rebellious.” The memory made him smile. “No, I’m-- It was okay.” 

[...]

“I better go,” he forced out. He didn’t like where this conversation with Angeline was going. He trusted her, unreservedly, but he couldn’t talk to her now. 

The outside wasn’t as oppressive as he’d expected. The sun had just passed the zenith, so those were the hottest hours, with temperatures rising close to forty degrees. The insulating layers of the EV suits and photochromatic visor cheated his receptors to some degree, making it feel like it was just above twenty. Spending hours inside this rubber-and-polyester tin-can, breathing the filtered air, that was what made it uncomfortable. 

Kenaed pulled the containers from the back compartment of the cruiser and, following the indications on his sleeve-screen, found the right spot. Just as he was about to kneel and start digging, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. 

At the same time Angeline screamed in his earpiece, “Keen, don’t move!” 

He froze. 

#.

Tagging @hithelleth, @echo-bleu, @drippingmoon, @did-i-do-this-write

Thank you for reading and for your previous comments and reblogs *huggles*.

If anyone else reads and wants to receive updates on this story, please let me know and I'll tag you too. ;)

[mckitterick]

these lobsters sure can

link to the story (as part of the full novel) on the author's website here, free to read in plain HTML

There was a paper in 2016 exploring how an ML model was differentiating between wolves and dogs with a really high accuracy, they found that for whatever reason the model seemed to *really* like looking at snow in images, as in thats what it pays attention to most.

Then it hit them. *oh.*

*all the images of wolves in our dataset has snow in the background*

*this little shit figured it was easier to just learn how to detect snow than to actually learn the difference between huskies and wolves. because snow = wolf*

Shit like this happens *so often*. People think trainning models is like this exact coding programmer hackerman thing when its more like, coralling a bunch of sentient crabs that can do calculus but like at the end of the day theyre still fucking crabs.

[dnschmidt]

What Critics Are Saying About The Doom Tapes

“The best science fiction collection of this century.” - Me

“A talent like this comes along once in a generation.” - Also Me

“Not to be missed.” - Me Again

“The author is a very special boy who I am so proud of.” - Mom

(Just Kidding, It’s Still Me)

Read The Doom Tapes - Print, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited

[pulpsandcomics2]

Future Sept 1950