41

Mom and Dad had tried to raise me and Taylor without gender stereotypes. They’d given both of us gender-neutral names, and had me wearing her hand-me-downs, skirts as well as pants and shirts, until I was old enough to rebel against them.

Imbecile

1

Burt reclined happily in the long pleasure boat with grandmamma as her manservant gently guided them across the centre of the lake in the morning sunshine.

“So you talked to that idiot maid then,” said Grandmamma.

“Yes,” replied Burt. “I did.”

“And how did she take your kind guidance?”

Burt raised an eyebrow. Grandmamma was smiling playfully. His first instinct was to be snippy, say something like, You were right. She’s nothing but an ignorant lazy girl who doesn’t deserve a kind hand.

Meeting the Earl

1

The next morning Ann woke up outside.

She was lying in a ditch with her legs up the bank and her head and left arm in its dank muddy bottom. She raised her head and saw the half-dried vomit down the front of her shirt and on her trousers.

She chuckled to herself and struggled over onto her hands and knees getting even wetter and muckier. She got to her feet and sidestepped, losing her balance as she realised how drunk she still was then fell through the side of a gorse bush.

After the Battle

I had lost, and my opponent loomed over me.

“Yield.” The hooded figure said.

“What happens then?”

“You will live ... as a woman.”

I had no choice.

36

34

Imagine That, part 15 - Doing good and doing right are two edges of the same sword

We rejoin the Empress of Time and Space in Reilly Research Station’s Infirmary where two survivors of the ill-fated invasion force recuperate. A mysterious message received by CINCPAC causes more to be revealed about the Sisters of Kili and Alex must both hold and fold her cards with regards to members of the USS Detroit’s crew. Might the recently neutralized Janelle Hathor still have an ace up her sleeve, though?

A Quiet Strength - Trial and Tribulation
by Anon Allsop

-Part Three-

-Six-

As morning dawned, the storm and fierce wind had abated and a clear blue sky was overhead. Etu pushed through the drift that had sealed them inside the boughs, and stepped out into a strange but beautiful landscape. Aponi passed the papoose with little Machk through the opening to Etu, as she stepped through to the outside she was forced to shield her eyes from the brilliant sun.

She quickly glanced toward Machk, making sure that the covering over his face had remained. Her breath hung in front of her like a fog, within moments a negligible breeze seemed to push it away.

Etu wore the papoose and was aiding Aponi as they walked, both being very careful to avoid falling with little Machk. "The snow is very deep in spots, but showing ground in others." Aponi commented as they picked their way through the trees.

"Such is the way with the great white death. In one area may be a drift only knee high to a child, in another it could be well above a brave's head." He replied, assisting her to a clear area where no snow was lying.

Aponi cringed as snow dropped into the moccasins that Etu's mother provided, leaning against her husband she dug out the offending snow with her finger. "I am still amazed that I was able to survive being out in that storm."

What happens to the world when the human population grows so massive, the number of human thoughts becomes so dense, that their interaction begins to affect the fabric of reality? What happens when dreams and nightmares come true, when people who know how to manipulate the collective consciousness, the mass mind around them, can use it to twist reality?

28

27

Diverting Pastimes

1

After breakfast, Burt was wandering through the duchess’s huge town house, simply enjoying yet another day off from mucking out the stables and lifting sacks of grain. He was convinced he had the better part of the deal he and his beloved Lady Ann had made, even if he had written her a note to give her the fortnight off.

It still seemed incredible to him that he’d been able to write that note – and sign it with her very own signature; but it wasn’t the only change he’d noticed in his education. He was finding it easier and easier to discuss the arts and culture with grandmamma – something he never could have done before; and he really enjoyed it. He thrived on the intellectual conversations he was having now if truth be told.

From Head to Toe

1

Anne woke up with a stretch and a yawn. The hotel she’d slept in was the best she could find in the scummier end of the city of York. It was a bit shabby but the bed was fifty times more comfortable than her pallet back at Griply manor and there were no gaps in the walls and window. It was probably the best night’s sleep she’d had since becoming Burt.

Since becoming Burt…

24

A Quiet Strength - Trial and Tribulation
by Anon Allsop

-Part Three-

-Four-

His hands stinging from the cold, Etu continued to smack it against the bole of the tree, its impact scarring the bark deeply. To have come so close to his beloved and to lose her in this snowstorm would seem almost unfathomable to the young warrior. Always before his eyes, the swirling snow blowing in his face, seemed merge everything into one ferocious gray fog.

Desperately wanting to strike out in search of Aponi, yet he knew that once he left Machk, he might not find him again. So, the young brave did the only thing he could and continued to strike the limb against the trunk of the tree.