”Angels, mommy, look!” I glanced away from my sad excuse for a sand castle and back at my younger brother, who was standing at the edge of the beach in his bright yellow trunks and leaning forward as if trying to make out something in the distance. ”Look, mommy, look! …
I hate snow. I hate the way it silently descends from the sky, I hate how cold it is to the touch, I even hate the puddle it leaves behind when it melts. But, most of all, I hate it because it reminds me of the night my husband was …
I don’t work for NASA. I’m a lowly office tech at a company affiliated with NASA. We store data off-site mostly concerning their many, secret unmanned missions to the moon, including the countless ones that took place in between the Apollo launches. There are regular landings, even today. As you …
43 years ago, on the 5th of September 1977, a space probe was launched from Earth, and sent on an endless journey through space. The probe, which was affectionately named Voyager 1, contained a multitude of information regarding humanity, including our language, our art, and in a more metaphorical way; …
There it was. A fragment of the universe, hurtling through the cosmos. And there I was, gazing up from the comfort of a farmhouse rooftop, built by my father’s hands smack dab in the middle of nowhere. In all the years we lived out there on the countryside, not a …
Freedom, contrast, and relief. These words described the start of a particular May day in 2009. I stepped foot outside my house to see the bold, glowing sun escaping the somber clouds in the sky. Intruding through this sight was a collective of royal blue-colored balloons; a color that fit …
Hello… Static….error Hello, is this damn thing on, how in the hell… Static….error This is Captain William Brink…. Static…. Ok, got it. This is Captain William Brinkman of Boson Fleet Nova transmitting. We’re on an exploration and retrieval mission for Tula 13. We’re scheduled to arrive on the planet in …
The Lost Transmissions of Captain William Brinkman Read More »
Late one night, I found myself driving down what seemed like an endless stretch of road. I was on my way back from a week-long business trip, facing at least a twelve-hour drive home. Having always been scared of flying, the monotonous trek was unavoidable. Though tedious and sometimes downright …
When the leaves began to fall that first week in October so many years ago, I could not have been less prepared for what would ultimately alter the course of my life and any foreseeable future linked to it. Autumn was the time of year that I would spring to …
“Holy shit! Is that what I think it is?” Brandon’s eyes widened into saucers and, despite being filled with an unabated rage towards his older brother just a few hours ago, Michael couldn’t help but smile and nod at the expected reaction. Even with everything that had happened earlier in …
*Static* …Is it… *Crackle* No…just turn it…tha- *Static* *Pop* KJ: Hello? *tap tap* Hello? There we go. Okay, starting now. My name is Katie Johns, and the following testimony from Andrew Kirby is being recorded in an attempt to preserve our history and make sure a tragedy like this never …
“THEY’RE NOT COMING, THEY’RE ALREADY HERE.” That’s all the email said. No subject, no name, and the email account was clearly a junk or throwaway account linked to AOL mail. At first, I laughed at the ridiculously serious message, not paying it much thought. I used to sign up for …
Part 1 As you may have expected—though probably not with the particularly correct prescience—the siege of Area 51 ended disastrously for everyone involved. How do I know? I was of the deluded though determined congregation that stormed the base. Our numbers were minuscule in comparison to those who had pledged …
It was a clear night in a small community near San Francisco, California when a mysterious blue light was seen by several residents as it fell from the sky. The next morning, a none-too-bright man in his early twenties went to check out the field where the strange blue object …
When I was a boy I used to live in this little town outside Casa Grande, Arizona. Well, when I say small town, what I actually mean is five houses in the middle of nowhere in the desert, with a water tower and a separate generator that ran the electricity …
The scratching of graphite on paper. The short, whispered phrases. The gentle, distant ticking of a muffled old grand-father clock. These are my recollections of my time talking to Thomas Berkley in January, 1980. I was called in to see Mr Berkley at short notice. My time in Boston was …
It was supposed to be such an uneventful day, but overhead the clouds churned and plotted. Rebecca Madison saw and heard the roaring of the wind against her car, but she didn’t care. It was warm inside, so what did the fierce cold outside have to do with her? It …
I’m unsure of what to say. All I can say is that I’m scared. Very scared. My hands shake violently as I hastily scribble down a few words onto the coarse wooden tablet. This is my only hope. “In the month of Tammuz, day 25 of the year 569, I, …
‘There are no such thing as monsters.” That’s what my mommy used to say. She would tuck me into bed, make sure that my favorite doll, Casey was in my arms and tell me, “There is nothing to be scared of; there are no monsters, no real monsters.” She would …
Radio waves have traveled through and past the Earth’s atmosphere for decades. They carried snapshots of humanity out into infinity. Music, broadcasts, TV shows, news commentary; it was all out there, racing away at the speed of light. The antenna from the U.S.S. February’s lifeboat angled itself automatically; detecting a …
It started when we called out to the stars; into the darkness. We felt so small, tumbling through vast emptiness while clinging to the skin of the world, and without a single reason why. We were curious, yes, but ultimately I think we were just terribly frightened. And we were …
Alien invasions. It’s been so overdone it’s turned into a never ending cliché. There are hundreds of films. I’ve watched them all, loved them all. Now, they just make me sick. The pickup I’m driving shakes as I brake, the ABS is stuck on due to an internal computer malfunction. …
Cynthia smacked, howled and screamed against Todd Barrett’s motel room window that night. Times like these, he was glad he hadn’t fully committed to “tramping,” and bought himself a fifth-wheel. Sleeping in a camper on a night like this would have been impossible. Instead, he had a soft bed below …
Let me begin by stating that I have always had a fascination with nature and its creatures. Even at a young age, I would watch documentaries that explained nature, its inhabitants and humanity’s place as the apex predator. As I progressed from childhood to adulthood, the documentaries ingrained in my …
