Why did Commander Jvuznart always make him do the worst jobs, like replacing xenobiological specimens? It wasn’t his fault that Doctor Gralpuxt’s specimens expired. They should have had a failsafe on the specimen holding environmental controls. It wasn’t like he killed them on purpose when he shut off the lights along with the atmosphere generator and temperature controls, was it? These new specimens from the 3rd planet were so soft and needed just the right temperature and gas mix to live. Sheesh, how did they survive to make it this far? They were even fouling their own nest; give them another few hundred cycles, if that long, and they wouldn’t even be around, he was sure.

Chapter 1

They say that if you take life as a continuous learning experience, you will never be bored. You will also realise that you could never know everything. Some make learning an excuse for never trying to get a job, becoming life-long students. Others just learn as they go on the job. I fell somewhere in between.

Alienation
by Bryony Marsh

March 2023 story contest entry on the theme of abduction. After many years, an old friend arrives with a strange tale to tell. An engine that dies on a lonely stretch of road; a brilliant beam of light from above; being kidnapped and experimented upon by those of another species... with a transgender twist, of course!

Trevor looked in horror at the gaping vagina before him, the same one he had impotently obsessed over and fantasized about for so many years, he couldn’t help but think: where had everything gone so very wrong?

Roadside Encounter
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

She was she, at least for the day. It was never more than a day, and usually a Sunday. She would go to bed as her and in the morning, she would face the week as a man, and just dream about next Sunday. But on that fine day she drove for an hour just to be her in public for 3 or 4 hours, and then was driving home, with a bright new dress and some other things on the passenger seat.

Haida awakens from her dreams to a nightmare.

Chapter Four – Toast and Marmalade

The Professor knows that Valerie is sitting on secret but remains infatuated with her. What will he do now that he has the tools to blackmail her? At the same time the FBI and MI6 are closing in our beautiful ingénue and Soviet spy. Can Yuri save Valerie and will he have to sacrifice himself to do so? Please heed the cautions.

I couldn't focus on my classes. The jars I'd stolen sat heavily in my bag, and I was certain that any minute the nurse would come and call me a thief. I wasn't sure what the punishment for stealing from the infirmary was, but it was probably worse than detention.

The Font

The internet is a wonderful thing, a veritable Font of Knowledge. It can give you hope, it can give you grief, it can inform you and dis-inform you with equal ease. I was born after it became used world-wide, and I never knew a time without it. I also had to bear the name picked out for me, whether I was a boy or a girl, I would be called Nimbus. They had decided that I would be their halo of light, blended with a flying broomstick. They had read the Harry Potter books several times.

So... here we are. My output is picking up a bit more, so maybe I'll manage to get a thing or two done.

Please enjoy, and mind the hints.

When Robert’s wife’s body is stolen, Robert must discover where and who she is and get her body back. But can he succeed when Exmuritious Forrester, the CEO and owner of Transmigration Studios, decides to stop him? Who can Robert trust, when anyone could be anyone?

The road work was moving along nicely. The dead under directions from the living were clearing the streets of debris, slowly but steadily making a path to the granaries, armouries, warehouses, and hospitals. Soldiers in small groups, starting with former inhabitants of the city, were allowed to survey the various neighbourhoods. If they came back with some keepsakes, clothes, blankets or food, it was ignored by their officers, and another group was allowed to head out.