“Like Cattle” by Ashley Sgro
“Can you use me?” My hands keep shaking.
Category: Fri-SciFi
Fri-SciFi: Original Speculative Fiction
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a rare literary science fiction novel set in a future universe so gorgeously described and perfectly self-contained—and yet so harrowing and cruel—that its only parallel universe is our own.
Solomon’s novel inspired us to create Fri-SciFi—our new flash fiction series.
We’ve been through the past, and we haven’t really learned from it. The present? We’re too busy attempting to survive it. So we’re asking you to provide us a glimpse of what comes next. Illustrate the essential choices we must make in the present that will lead us to your brilliant utopian future. Or, if you cannot anticipate utopia, provide us instead with your cautionary tale. Show us where we will fall if we—when we—fail to alter our course.
Fri-SciFi stories are published on Fridays because we expect we’ll need the weekend to contemplate your vision.
“Implant 6428007891” by Philip Quinn
Saw Dr. Vaughn Romo yesterday. My second consult. We discussed the various options again. The consult was free this time, but not of arrogance . . .
“The Last Caucasian” by Yvette R. Murray
Dr. Stacey Roman watched as Roy, Chief Militia for Apex building, put down the copy of Fire Next Time he had been reading to reluctantly unlock the door for her.
“The Time Stitcher’s Revenge” by Jean Wolfersteig
Time marches on! What a ridiculous cliché. If I had a minute for every time I’ve heard it, I’d . . . well, don’t get me started.
“Adam Is Banished” by Michael Diamond
The boundary between information and inert matter was ruptured irrevocably when mankind learned what our ancestors knew before the birth of civilization: to touch is to know.
“Dawn of the Aquarians” by Michael Diamond
I am reincarnated as the middle daughter of my youngest grandchild, Eliza.
“Cranky Chariots” by Pamela Booker
I waved my hand across a bank of monitors that precisely registered my status and identity.
“A Game of Faces” by Carrie A. Brown
Skimming the instructions again, I was really just playing for time…