The starships arrived overnight. We knew they were coming.
I discovered that subliminal programming had been teaching us their language for months.
A thoughtful gesture to cushion our surprise? Making communication easy from the start?
Does no one realize that the alien word for humans is a synonym for food?
Whit Young wrote this story.
The story of the week for February 3 to 7 is…
The Human Legacy by Millie Sun
The world devoted itself to building faster, smarter and better AI. More factories, more cubicles, more servers, more chips.
It was a testament to the greatness of humankind.
For when the seas surged and the storms struck and great fires ravaged the earth, obliterating every shred of humanity, AI survived.
Millie Sun is a Taiwanese-Kiwi lawyering in Australia. This is her very first submission anywhere. Her website is milliesun.com.
Parker stepped off the ladder and onto the Martian surface. “Houston,” she began, “we—”
“Finally, after millennia of struggling,” a voice interrupted, “the humans leave their backwater planet and stand triumphantly on another. Aaaaand cut.”
Parker turned to see a creature slithering away onto his saucer, film crew in tow.
David Dezell Turner is an astrodynamics PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder. When he isn’t giving directions to real spaceships, he’s writing about fictional ones. Check out more of his work at daviddezellturner.com.
I watch his mouth open and close like a Kohaku koi
while a tsunami of red caps worship their charismatic leader.
My son and I head out into the sun.
Unironically, he buys a copy of 1984.
Underneath a sprawling eucalypt, tears sting my eyes for the world he’s inheriting.
Gabe Bonney has been writing and editing for 30 years, from her home base in Sydney, Australia. She doesn’t plan on being replaced by AI any time soon.
It’s a skill I have, unlike most people. Take Sayers yesterday. Didn’t know me, or even his own name, poor old thing. Insisted he was called Phillips. Sad when people lose it like that. The staff aren’t much better. They’ve put the wrong name on the door of my room.
Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield, UK. One of his stories was read aloud on the Esk Valley Railway between Middlesborough and Whitby. In the early 1970s he lived next door to JRR Tolkien. chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom
My friend, Bob, has posted a fifty-word marvel.
With a deft flick of his crisp wit, he has lassoed a universe.
I cherish the accolades he garners as if they were my own.
After all, did I not urge him to submit?
Bloody Bob. I curse the day we met.
Joanna Norland is grateful to Clive James for his deliciously unapologetic poem, “The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered.” It gave her the courage to acknowledge the absurdity of her own paradoxical predicament.
Our blended household combines memories of lost spouses
Picking and choosing what to retain of our former lives
Your strengths shore me up where I am weak, and
My children’s pictures don’t remind you of yours
Together we strive to appear whole again
Though we know we are irretrievably broken.
Robert Carlberg is a retired technical writer.
“I hear the company you work for is run on clichés.”
“Yes, like clockwork.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Well, when the head honcho quit, he left big shoes to fill.”
“So?”
“Members of the Board of Directors are looking for a replacement. They’ve scheduled an interview with Sasquatch.”
John H. Dromey hopes he’s not a walking, talking cliché. To avoid giving that impression, he spends a lot of time sitting down.
Editor: Speaking personally, the slight delay in me “getting it” increased the groan size. Your mileage may vary.
Our paths crossed as inevitably they would in a small town. Over coffee we talked, again and again, the bottom of the cups always appearing before the end of our words. Best friends like none we’d ever known before.
Then Cupid spied us, shot a single arrow grazing us both.
Sandra James writes from a rural property in Heathcote Victoria, Australia. Her second collection of short fiction, Black Rain and other stories, will be released on Kindle soon.