“You’re all dismissed!” Leanna rang out cheerfully as the clock at the back of the room chimed, prompting her class of third grade biologists to begin gathering their things, chattering amongst themselves as they exited.

“Remember, you’ll need to bring your botany worksheets with you on Friday!”

“Yes, Mrs. Johnson!” called out little Abby with the curly brown hair, her best pupil, before scamper...

Twelve hours of travel and Jazzie’s view outside the holo window of her AirTram looked much the same as when she set out early this morning. Tall, silvery domed skyscrapers stretched out for miles, past the horizon. Patches of green spread out among them (100 by 100 foot squares, as regulated by society ordinance) filled with all kinds of crops: corn, wheat, lentils, various orchards, vineyards. S...

I always liked the morning.

No, I don’t mean 10 am, when the normal hustle and bustle of the day is well underway, or even 8 am, when Ma is just putting the eggs and bacon on to fry before Pa comes back from milking the cows—I mean 5 am. That brief moment of each day when the sun hasn’t yet peeked over the mountain ridge to say hello, but you can see him coming. That moment when you see the promi...

Mascara. Eyeliner. Lipstick. Carla gave herself a once-over, twice-over, no, thrice-over in the mirror to ensure her makeup was perfect for tonight’s Valentine’s Day date with Jeff. Fourth time checking herself and she sighed, now that she completed her work—wait, no. Was that a rogue hair next to her eyebrow? Pluck. Gone. Now she’d have to start over, lest she missed something else. Tonight requi...

Never before had I faced a robot whose main cannon also happened to be a giant, red eye on the front of its spindly, arachnid-shaped body. It was terrifying. The cannon wasn’t a traditional one that shot one round after another, sequentially—no. It was a heat ray that was always on, always deadly....