Star Trek: Voyager — Echoes
{5/5} “The statue’s expression was a gentle half-smile made strange by the disturbing filmy eyes. What this balding creature was doing, or what he represented, was beyond Janeway’s comprehension. But the entire feeling from the statue was one of a people Janeway felt she might have liked. So where had they gone? What had happened […]
Starling House
{5/5} “He doesn’t know why it would want her, of all people: a freckled scarecrow of a girl with crooked teeth and holes in the knees of her jeans, entirely unremarkable except for the steel in her eyes. And perhaps for the way she stood her ground against him. He is a ghost, a rumor, […]
Sweet Harmony
{5/5} “There were actors and actresses, models and singers who ostensibly went for the naturalists’ approach, who were genetically beautiful from birth and didn’t need to worry about what they ate — if you believed the magazines. Harmony didn’t, but even if it was true, she knew that the natural look could never send such […]
Miniatures
{5/5} “I try to look at it philosophically. Seventy-six years is a fine run. And now I’m sort of the spokesperson for an entirely new class of objects: The dwarf planets. I understand it’s meant to be something of a consolation prize, but you know what, there are more of us dwarf planets out here […]
Radiant
{4.5/5} “I was a wet-behind-the-ears Explorer Third Class. Tut was not only more experienced than I, but he outranked me: as an Explorer Second Class, he was my superior officer. Protocol demanded that the captain address all Explorer matters to Tut, who would then bring me in if he chose. Going over Tut’s head to […]
The Road to Roswell
{4.5/5} “Where was everybody? … You couldn’t go ten miles without running into construction. She should have come across some by now. Unless every single person in New Mexico had been grabbed getting into their cars, forced to drive to the aliens’ flying saucer, and been spirited off to their home planet — and for […]
Star Trek: The Next Generation — Forgiveness
{5/5} “And yet, almost a century has passed since the Palami plagues. Their present generation had no part in the disaster. I cannot help wondering if we are compounding their crime by insisting on this harsh curtain of permanent separation.” Star Trek: The Next Generation — Forgiveness by David Brin, published in 2001 Decades ago […]
Usurpation
{4.5/5} “This is one reason why farmers call us lucky bamboo. Their crops grow better in our presence. This is also why you have heard of witchweed but have never seen it. I have a natural revulsion to parasites the same way that humans have an inborn fear of snakes.” Usurpation by Sue Burke, published […]
ST: A Year To The Day That I Saw Myself Die
{4/5} “Without a unifying philosophy, our civilization was trapped in an endless cycle of struggle. Our conflict perpetuated itself for its own sake, just as a flame seeks fuel to sustain its burning. For the survival of our species, Sokor, we must break the cycle — or be consumed by it.” (from “Sundering” by David […]
The Clan Chronicles: Tales From Plexis
{4.5/5} “W’harton paused. ‘I think I parse your meaning. My kin had plans for me, too. But Plexis is a mix of strange and familiar.’ He upped his head back, his rounded tongue licking the last droplets of stew from the bowl. ‘You might find a home there yet.’” (from “The Stars Do Not Dream” […]