The two boys trying to hack their way past a stubborn encryption interface were the final answer to that ancient argument of upbringing versus family; environment versus heredity; conditioning versus genetics.

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“Technically you’re a parasite,” I shot back. “You implant fertilized eggs in the female uterus, a clone of yourself. You’re like a cuckoo, putting your egg inside another bird’s nest, forcing our women to raise your offspring, who will grow up to exploit other women. That’s parasitic.”

“Technically,” Daniel corrected without a hint of animosity, “we are exoparasitoids, and it’s not something we are ashamed of.”

AVALON BURNING
by
Lenny ZerO

Michael’s supervisor was being a real @$$. Three weeks into collecting second quarter assessment results, he’d decided that Michael wasn’t being a team player and was more than likely manipulating data.

“How else do you explain these gains?” he demanded.

Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. A lot of ‘knock-knock’ jokes?”

His supervisor tensed. His superiors were expecting results, but any deviation from the standard projections would call a lot of attention by the audit department.

“Listen, Wood,” he demanded.

November 12, 1942. WOC (Wartime Operations Center) number 6, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. War Cabinet meeting of the executive branch; recently evacuated from temporary headquarters in Chicago.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt adjusted himself in his seat, but could not find a comfortable position.

The Martian Civilization
By Richard Knelling
Saturday Evening Post, August 1943

The Martians are exactly the ancient and cold race described by Wells. Where he went wrong was ascribing to them a 'vast intelligence'. In actual fact, individually, Martians are not much more intelligent than an Earth wolf. The comparison is apt in other ways; we know from deciphering their electronic records that the Martians are descended from semi-aquatic pack hunters who once ranged across the long lost shallow Martian seas and the great stretches of marshland surrounding them.

SkullHack 7
by alphaborie

Link:Part 1 | Link:Part 2 | Link:Part 3 | Link:Part 4 | Link:Part 5 | Link:Part 6

“Hello Philly, this is Neve16. I’m vid feeding from 13th street where something strange is going down. I’m not sure how to explain it, like, you’ll just have to see for yourself.”

The shaky image panned away from the face and came to rest on a man. There is something shocking and unnatural in the way he moves; the floating, billowing waves that undulate around his form with each step taken, as if the force of the ground upon the soles of his feet are sending tremors through his body. It almost looks like each tiny cell wants to fly off in its own direction, but something holds them back. A crowd of onlookers are gathered on the side of the street, all filming and talking feverishly into headsets.

Wire News, October 27, 1919

Scientists at Stanford University in California have discovered the basic principles used by the Electronic Brains found in Martian machinery. It is believed that this will lead to similar electronic brains being made available for government and businesses within a decade.

Says Stanford professor Trevor Lickman; "There could be a market for as many as two or three hundred electronic computation devices a year."

I’m sure you are all familiar with H. G. Wells classic SF novel The War of the Worlds. You may also be aware that it has spawned a small industry of adaptations and related stories by other authors.

Rymer, Jeffrey N.

A gray Sony mini-cassette is tucked inside a smoky plastic case. A hand-written gum label is affixed to the case. Subject: Rymer, Jeffrey N. Beneath the cassette case, a stack of bond paper, slightly brown with age. The top and bottom margins appear to have been trimmed, so that the pages are 8 ½ by something less than 11. The type is bold and distinct, IBM Selectric. In several places, words have been redacted with the use of an x-acto knife.