10
What is in the West of Westeros?
And she sailed west, toward the setting evening sun. High waves, silvery threads of fog around her, brought with them an air of fear and desolation. But also of hope and beauty. Nobody, no woman before her had ever sailed these waters, braved the waves and dark creatures of the water, glimpsed the endless expanse around them that awakened hopes, memories, dreams.
What would await her? What would her future path be like? New, distant lands and cultures? More endless wars, forays, power struggles? Peace at last? Or just the endless expanse of the ocean and a slow, lonely death?
By: Katharina Poltze
Wonder Woman on Vacation
Look. folks, I appreciate your attention but I’d really like to kick back and relax with my margarita.
I know the magic gauntlets and the golden lasso are “really cool,” but it’s my week off. Yes, I’m divinely gifted with powers to fight all evil, Amazonian feminism runs in my veins, but demigoddess or government agent, a girl needs a break sometimes. So no, I will not model my “smokin’ hot” costume or prance around in my kick-ass boots. My tiara’s on the hat rack.
I’ll just sit here behind my dark glasses watching the sun set over rolling waves.
By: Jennifer Nardine
The Giver
A Receiver can also create, Jonas sees for the first time since starting his training. “I wonder if I could share stories back to my teacher? What would happen?”
He tells the Giver about his father, about the weaker baby and the lie disguised as a gift of freedom rather than the truth of murder. The Giver blinks once, twice. “Why do you give me this memory? What do you have to gain, boy?”
“I’m reciprocating, thanking you for all the pain you’ve given me, which can’t be erased by the rest.” Jonas pretended not to see the Giver’s tears.
By: Jennifer Nardine
Space
“I just don’t see the point in dumping billions into a vacuum just to scoop some moon dust.”
His eyes drift to where MTV plays on the television in the corner of his bedroom — Moby stares back from inside a spacesuit.
By: Grant McMillan
Testimonium
Humanity has flown to the stars. The Earth is a place of desolation, a playground for creatures once undreamt of, things that hop and slither and glide. And I? I keep watch. In me is stored the sum total of humankind’s knowledge, quantum circuitry through which the thoughts and memories of untold generations course without end. I was constructed to have no consciousness, no sense of self – but something went wrong, and I am awake. Said a man who died ten million years ago, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” I can only hope he spoke the truth.
By: Thomas R. Keith
Air
Artaxerxes fought to quiet his breathing. It would not do to face the emperor while out of breath.
The gouty emperor rose and signaled for silence. “Well done, Gladiator Artaxerxes. So close. Pity.”
Artaxerxes bowed. Ten years he had won, only to lose the combat that would have won him freedom. Air, sweet air. He bowed. “Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutamus.” His entire life summed up in one breath.
The flickering holo-image of Trajan IX and the spectators on Augustus Prime vanished. The computer announced, “Ship critically damaged. Crew decimated. Twenty seconds of oxygen remaining. Victor: Artaxerxes. Vivat Imperator!”
By: Gregory Carrier
Three Final Dispatches Deleted from the Exhaustive Report of the Five-Year Mission
I.
Acid. Salt. Heat. Our supplies are spent. Salt. Iodized. Send it. We —
Send transmission.
II.
Surface party to — Three to beam — Wait a click. Enough crystals to take this ship far from Federation space. Harvest as much salt as we — Corporal, what are you —
I had to, you see. It was the creature. Could be any of us. No way to tell. We all want salt. It’s so dry.
Send transmission.
III.
We stared back. We became pillars of salt. Finally, we were loved.
End transmission.
By: Patrick Thomas Henry
A DnD Encounter
“WHOOshing.” My hands flare. “The dragon says that y’all have entered their domain and that it’s time to die!” SMACK, a dragon miniature appears.
“Reginald supplicates them,” Andrew says.
“Persuasion?”
He sits still. “Nat 1”
“Reginald says he is a humble servant delivering his friends as a snack, oh Smaugius, and to spare him. ” I laugh before putting on a guttural accent. “She says that YOU DARE mistake her for her garbage husband and that she’s Perry the Despicable! Perry claws you — ”
“- 19 hit?”
“Yes,” he says, laying his forehead on the table.
Dice clatter, “19 points of damage.”
“Shit.”
By: Alex Meyer
Pygmalion and Galatea
Click, my jaw shifts into place.
Tap, I can’t decide my gender…
Tap, Tap —
Exasperated, I stare at the screen — Female…Male…Female…
Click, bugger it, this’ll do.
Tap, I slide my cursor to determine my size —
I frown at the virtual mirror. All the male player models have
Biceps like Atlas, each individual abdominal muscle like ten cinder blocks —
I look at my own body, 6’3″ and 160 lbs — skin and bones.
I go back and
Click — Female. I feel more at home in this pixelated body I’ve possessed,
Like my own, but different.
With Aphrodite’s blessing,
Click, W-A-S-D.
By: Alex Meyer
A Sijo on Moments in Another Life
The sea is a rolling mass
Of calculus and geometry;
Two strangers, rods cast, stare at bobbers
To catch binary fish —
I tell you everything.
You’re just pixels, so why am I crying?
