Thank you for following along with Martian so far this year. We still have many exciting science fiction Drabbles to share with you for our first year of publication but first, we will be taking a break through the new year to spend time with our families for the holidays. We hope to see you …
The Wanted by Tianna Grosch
The hoverboard vibrated beneath the soles of his feet as he zoomed fifty feet above ground, a red bandana covering his nose and mouth, marking him. He swerved, trying to shake the botcops but they followed with ease. “Target locked,” he heard behind him. The world turned into a ball of blinding light, flames licking …
Peripheral #13 by Hal Y. Zhang
Are you oriented? Good. Go left--not that much--good, forward, grab the gun. Yes, it doesn't quite look like one. Careful with the claw. Click the trigger twice. That's it. By the time they find this you will be long gone from the sim, and we were never there, so this is legally not a crime …
A Doorway Left Ajar by Maria Haskins
It's 1979 again when I find her. She's on her bike, riding too fast down a steep hill. The wheels spin, spokes blurring into ghosts of movement - strands of tangible reality, merged; filaments of light, fused. I breathe the day in - sky, sun, cut-grass. I'd forgotten what the world was like, before I …
Catching Snowflakes by Gregory L. Norris
“No two are the same,” said the girl, one of three children playing in the backyard as the first snowflakes of the young winter floated down from a sky filled with gauzy gray clouds. Giggling, she and her two friends extended their tongues to catch the December snowflakes. Inside the house, cocoa and oatmeal cookies …
Unnecessary Roughness by John H. Dromey
Assured of a flat, unobstructed landing surface, an alien species agreed to set their spacecraft down on the 50-yard line of a football stadium for first contact with Earthlings. One-hundred-thousand spectators were present. The extraterrestrials were late. “You gave them GPS coordinates?” an organizer asked an aide. “Incompatible with their navigation system. I described nearby …
Strung Out in Alientown by Desmond Warzel
Another day hustling for work in the Squid capital; another fistful of gaudy local currency; another day closer to Earth, and revenge on her ex-partner; another night in her Alientown shanty, among miserable fellow-humans and a menagerie of extraplanetary riffraff. The knock came, as always. She answered the door without hesitation. Thrusting most of the …
