Speculative Flash Fiction
Hey there. Thanks for the visit. You are about to launch into an adventure at AntipodeanSF, the online magazine that's devoted to the regular monthly publication of fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, or horror mini-stories of about 500–1000 words each, with occasional feature stories of 2000 words and beyond.
AntipodeanSF will entertain you and may allow you to meet a minotaur or two — yet won't take hours to read. You do have time!
Please read all of this month's stories, and then you can listen to them again in audio a few months later on the AntiSF Radio Show...
...Nuke.
The Gold Farm
By Nick Sheppard
“CPU utilisation is at ninety-five percent again,” Carly said, sounding as tired as if she carried the ninety-five percent utilisation herself. She pointed one slender finger to the chart saying so.
Javid, the grey-bearded system administrator, frowned. As far as Carly could tell, Javid had been system administrator since at least World War II and possibly the Crusades, and he knew perfectly well how to look up the CPU utilisation of the supercluster. But it seemed a courtesy to point to it anyway.
“Hm,” said Javid. “Judy’s already grumbling about the electricity bill.” Judy was Javid’s nominal master, approving and denying the supercluster’s requests for money and staff according to machinations beyond the understanding of either Carly or her companion.
Meteorites Strike Twice
By Chad Bolling
Leon thought he’d arrived first. His tank-like rover rolled down the shallow wall of a massive crater. The vehicle cruised along the crater floor with its floodlights on their highest setting. Once he reached the centre of the crater, Leon stopped the vehicle. He lowered a drill from the rover’s belly down into the surface. Once the drill reached its desired depth, it retracted back into the rover and examined the sample. Inside, the computer screen flashed:
MINERAL DEPOSIT LOCATED
MINERAL DEPOSIT LOCATED
MINERAL DEPOSIT LOCATED
Let me go (Honey oh)
By Catherine Rockwood
Erin wanted to go down to the dog park again but Ann, Erin’s mother, couldn’t face it today. Anything else — any amount of tattoo-candy. A rare and expensive longlink message to Erin’s dad, complete with biotailoring for an overnighted goodnight hug. Real popcorn.
“It’s almost five o’clock,” Erin said, hopefully.
“I’m sorry sweetheart,” Ann said. “Wait just a second.” With a silent apology and a flick of her fingers she diverted routine comms to the twelve-hour waiting pool. Another early morning tomorrow then. Didn’t any of the dog park people work? She supposed not very many. Still half-blind, her vision spotty with the effects of the sudden shutoff, she turned to meet her daughter’s intent gaze.
Lady in Red
By Harris Coverley
I walked those streets, searching for life. I came from the north. Kantar had said not to, but what did Kantar know? The old fool, decrepit, withered…a failure by our standards.
I saw the village still lit up at night, and camped by a tree on an overlooking hill until the sun rose. By the time I walked through its gates the place seemed entirely vanquished. Many had dropped where they had stood as though they were felled by the blow of a sword or the pellet of a matchlock. Many buildings were aflame, and the smoke was an acrid fog which hid the newly inaugurated necropolis from the dawn’s light.
Stepping over corpses, I went down some steps onto a wide cobbled street where the dead lay against the walls like they were dozing.
I Just Wanted to Get to Titan on Time
By Kristina. T. Saccone
We were halfway there when Jessie’s diaper exploded. Despite the nanobots built into its operating system, despite the extra expense that went into buying this ridiculous piece of technology, the diaper still got loose. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only thing to blow up on this family trip.
They dubbed Saturn’s biggest moon “Florida Redux” for its expanse of manufactured beaches, retro replicated foods, and the guarantee of a fake tan built into every hotel package. Most importantly, it offered 24-hour childcare. We were looking forward to messing around in bed, some old-school nightlife, and surfing waves like those at old Cocoa Beach, our favorite spot from years ago, before it washed away.
“I don’t love that this is a corporation flyer,” Micah said after we strapped the baby into her seat and locked 12-year old Jackson into his VR goggles. My job was trading in solar and wind energy, and one of the perks was borrowing company ships for off-world travel at cut-rate prices. But Micah, who stayed at home with the kids, long questioned the corporation’s drive for profits on Post-Greenhouse Earth.
Fly Trap
By G.A. Thresh
The flaxen strands of cloud congealed. Rising falling, making great bundles and wisps on the deep. Secrets hidden. The great mass of the atmosphere was a veil. A veil to the truth that was the surface of Venus.
It was here that Aron would go down and get down as the first person to set foot on that great unknown. The capsule hung in orbit. Like a knife above the heart.
‘Houston, I am ready for entry.’ His hands moved up the necessary switches, stopping at one waiting for the word ‘go.’ It was given. At the switch the thruster fired and the capsule was pulled in by the planet’s gravity. It was now inevitable, impossible to escape...
Establishing a Precedent
By Wes Parish
"Fifty thousand for that last piece of precedent," the lawyer said. The Zoom call was being monitored, of course, ever since the one where the next-to-last courtroom we were negotiating with tried to blackmail us, but ... you do what you have to do when you are trying to teach law these days.
"Fifty thousand dollars ... is that your final offer?" I wished I could take a drink from the glass that hovered just out of sight of the webcam. "Or will you raise it once we've agreed to pay you that, and screw us even further?"
"We're not thieves, nor are we pirates, professor. But — we must have a return on our intellectual property, you understand."
CHAZ
By Rebecca Douglas
The fella down the road was the first to get a bunker. Chaz. Long hair, longer yarns if you made the mistake of docking eye contact. Mostly about brewing exploding bottles of ginger beer in his back shed and cultivating dope-infused mushrooms in his spare room.
I wish I could tell you his partner’s name was ‘Shaz’. She hated ‘Melanie’ so she went by ‘Misty’. Misty of the glassy eyes, burnished pixie crop and off-the-charts anxiety when her last bong-hit had floated too far from her nervous system.
They were alright, though, Chatty Chaz and Manky Misty. He’d invite me around to knock back a few Vic Bitters, the filthiest beer some nut-job had ever dreamed up short of XXXX Golds. She’d float in and drop off some vegan chocolate muffins on a chipped paisley-patterned plate, while he’d talk ’80s hair metal and real estate, and I’d be soaking up the warm, orange-and-spice aroma of his living room laced with sour, days-old cigarette undertones.
Abject Offspring
By Chris Karageorge
Tom gasped for air as he awoke from a night terror. His sleeping bag had twisted around him like a snake devouring a rodent. He was leading a scavenger team to head into the Arctic World Archive, the only remaining facility preserving the world’s digital data, located in Svalbard on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway. It contains data of historical and cultural interest from all countries, as well as source codes for each technology giant and government military arsenal.
The latest Carrington event had sent the entire planet into a complete electrical meltdown. An unprecedented solar storm, not seen since 1859, caused widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, damage due to extended outages of electrical grids and ultimate data loss. The Archives, impervious to the electromagnetic waves, held the last backup of all critical electronic information before the event — a delicious prize for the highest bidder.
Push Button
By Eric Farrell
Push button for service.
That’s what it says. For service. On a little laser-engraved placard beside the door. I’m staring at my ghoulish reflection in the spotless glass storefront. Silk gabardine swathed around a lithe body. I look good.
My eyes focus: Push button.
I’m a push button boy. This is a push button world.
AntiSF & The ASFF
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Please visit the ASFF website and consider joining for up-to-date info about Australian SF cons, awards, competitions, and to receive the Foundation's newsletter, Instrumentality, and more.
AntiSF's Production Crew
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
“Nuke”, who it turns out loves editing more than writing, lives in the New South Wales North Coast holiday destination of Nambucca Heads, where he is self-employed in IT training, computer support, desktop publishing, editing, writing, and website implementation. He is also the resident tech-head, skeptic, and board member of community radio station 2NVR, where he produces a number of shows including The AntipodeanSF Radio Show.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
One of Mark’s very best forms of writing procrastination is to produce the eBook series for AntipodeanSF, which he has been doing since issue 175.
Main Menu
In The Next Issue...
Coming In Issue 280
Atmospheric
By Michael Leach
Diplo
By Tony Steven Williams
Free Market
By Botond Teklesz
Groupie
By Col Hellmuth
I Am Sorrow
By R.E. Diaz
Kayla
By KJ Hannah Greenberg
Sleight of Hand
By Ishmael A. Soledad
The Future of SF (The Image Manipulator)
By S.R. Malone
Meat
By Chris Karageorge
To Dwell Forever
By R.H. Stevens
scifaiku
By PS Cottier
AntipodeanSF December 2021
ISSUE 279
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
Download AntiSF E-Book
AntiSF's Narration Team
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
She is the author of The Butterfly Stone and The Tiger's Eye (YA/Fantasy) White Fire (Sci-Fi) and The Good, the Bad and the Undecided (a unique collection of short stories set during the events of White Fire/Sci-Fi).
You can read more of her work on her blog <www.solothefirst.wordpress.com> Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
Rambles, writing and amusing musings
Smile! laugh out loud! enjoy the following
<www.solothefirst.wordpress.com>
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
She enjoys writing short fiction, plays for radio and stage as well as her own brand of weird poetry.
She hosts the 'Off-Beet Poetry Slam' held bi-monthly in Katoomba.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
He’s also a songwriter, and has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his working life doing something else he loves, flying.
Tim lives with his wife Georgie in beautiful Far North Queensland. For more information, visit his Tim Borella – Author Facebook page.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
You can read examples of Garry's fiction on his website <https://garrydean.wordpress.com>
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
She’s fascinated by stories that expand upon today’s technology, addressing the moral and ethical issues that might arise. Equally, she enjoys the creative freedom that writing for children allows. Right now, she’s writing a young adult novel, reworking a middle grade novel and writing adult short stories when inspiration strikes. She lives with her husband, Tim, in Yungaburra, Far North Queensland and dreams of one day taking a European gap year.
Carolyn's work spans devising, performance, theatre-in-education and a collaborative visual art practice.
She tours children's works to schools nationally with School Performance Tours, is a member of the Bathurst physical theatre ensemble Lingua Franca and one half of darkroom — a visual arts practice with videographer Sean O'Keeffe.
(Photo by Jeremy Belinfante)
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
You may find him on Twitter as <@mr_al> and online at <alistairlloyd.com>.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
She is currently working on her first novel but loves diving into short stories to bring a little lightness, intrigue or humour to the day.
Her work has appeared in Sponge Magazine and The Commuting Book.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
All this science hasn't damped his love of fantasy and science fiction. It has, however, ruined his enjoyment of rainbows, colourful flames on romantic log fires, and rings around the moon. He has previously been published in Stupefying Stories Showcase, Everyday Fiction, Escape Pod, Perihelion and also on AntipodeanSF where he is part of the narration team.
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
She feels so lucky to be a part of the AntiSF team.
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show
AntiSF Radio Show
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show delivers audio from the pages of this magazine.
The weekly program features the stories from recently published issues, usually narrated by the authors themselves.
Listen to the latest episode now:
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show is also broadcast on community radio, 2NVR, 105.9FM every Saturday evening at 8:30pm.
You can find every broadcast episode online here: http://antisf.libsyn.com
SF Quote
Nothing is always absolutely so
The Contributors
Catherine Rockwood lives in Massachusetts with her family.
She reviews fiction for Strange Horizons and reads for Reckoning Magazine.
You can find her poems in Contrary Magazine, Psaltery & Lyre, Moist Poetry Journal, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and elsewhere.
A poetry chapbook, "Endeavors To Obtain Perpetual Motion", is forthcoming from the Ethel Zine Press in 2022.
Eric Farrell hails from Long Beach, California, where he works as a beer vendor by day, and speculative fiction author by night.
His writing credits stem from a career in journalism, where he reported for a host of local and metro newspapers including the OC Register, Patch.com, and the Grunion Gazette.
He has fiction coming in Pulp Modern, Gutslut Press, and Savage Planets.
His website is <stygianspace.com>.
G. A Thresh is a student, residing in the hunter region of New South Wales.
His interests include history, walking up medium sized hills, painting tiny things and sushi.He enjoys writing speculative and historical fiction, because he spends far too much time thinking about space travel not to.
Harris Coverley has short fiction published or forthcoming in Hypnos, The Periodical, Forlorn, The Centropic Oracle, and Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine, amongst many others.
A former Rhysling nominee, he also has verse in Polu Texni, California Quarterly, Star*Line, Spectral Realms, Scifaikuest, Corvus Review, Better Than Starbucks, The Oddville Press, and elsewhere.
He lives in Manchester, England.
Rebecca Douglas is a writer based in Adelaide, Australia whose work spans fiction, feature articles, and essays.
Her words have appeared in Overland, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Kill Your Darlings, Visible Ink, Verandah Journal, The Big Issue, ABC The Drum, and various other lovely places.
She's on Twitter and Instagram as <@becksandthecity>.
Kristina T. Saccone crafts flash fiction and creative nonfiction.
Her work has appeared in 365 Tomorrows, The Bangor Literary Journal, Emerge Literary Journal, and Unearthed, and she curates Flash Roundup, featuring the latest releases in flash fiction.
Find her on Twitter at <@kristinasaccone> or haunting small independent bookstores in the Washington, DC, area.
Chad has a B.S. in Biochemistry from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
His fiction has appeared in Farther Stars Than These, Larks Fiction Magazine, 365 Tomorrows, Verdad Magazine, and AntipodeanSF.
Chris Karageorge is a lover, brother, son, neighbour and a keen observer of all things in sight.
He reads, writes and cooks in his spare time and dreams of coffee darker than a moonless night.
He is from Melbourne, Victoria and can be found walking his pug Monty during the weekends.
PS Cottier is a poet who lives in Canberra, with a particular interest in speculative poetry.
She has been published widely at home and in Canada, England, New Zealand and the USA.
Two of her horror poems were finalists in the Australian Shadows Awards for 2020. Her latest books are Monstrous, which is a volume of speculative poems, and Utterly, which is non-genre.
PS Cottier is the Poetry Editor at The Canberra Times and blogs at <https://pscottier.com>
Wesley Parish is an SF fan from early childhood. Born in PNG, he enjoys reading about humans in strange cultures and circumstances; his favourite SF authors include Ursula Le Guin, Fritz Lieber, Phillip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard and Frank Herbert. He lives in Christchurch, NZ, is an unemployed Java and C programmer, and has recently decided to become a mad ukuleleist, flautist and trombonist, and would love to revert to being the mad fiddler and pedal steel guitarist.. "Where oh where has my little pedal steel got to ... ?"
Nick Sheppard is a software engineer and academic based in Wollongong, New South Wales.
He has read science fiction and fantasy since encountering "The Hobbit" in primary school, but later found himself writing tedious research articles at a university.
For lighter reading, he’s published fiction in AntipodeanSF and SciPhiJournal, and non-fiction in Aurealis and Cockatrice.
His novella "Machines" is now available from Smashwords.