Short Stories from Professors Hayles and Kruse forthcoming!
Chapter I It’s 7:00 am on a Friday. A big, brown eye dilates then contracts, scanning the room. It stares at the same light fixture and fan hanging, wobbling slightly as it rotates. Finally recognizing that he is awake and fully conscious, TJ opens his other eye as he sits up and looks out the […]
Chapter 1 The clamor of his phone striking the hardwood floor startled Jason from his sleep. Picking his face up off of his cluttered desk, he reached down for his phone. His thumbs moved mindlessly over the touchpad, 1 2 6 5. To most people this string of numbers would appear to have no significant […]
There must be some kind of way out of here… Charis’ sleep had been invaded. She battled through the covers, paused to hear Hendrix’s liquid solo, and turned off the alarm. She arched her back and stretched, forcing awake her body. Light had already begun to glint through the blinds. Neither the alarm nor the […]
Craig’s position as a cue card designer would prove more important to the course of the universe, at least the part that matters, than the big bang itself, more even than the little bang, that silky strand bound to the ebb and flow of threaded space-time. The forgotten younger brother, cast from the minds […]
Crossing Everyone makes decisions in their lives, to go to the grocery store or not, to buy that hat or save money for something else, but once you make the decision you must move onto the next one. At least that’s what Mr. and Mrs. Hue believed when their son Everett was born. They were […]
March 17: 39 days Well, I’d say it’s good to be back, but it isn’t. The last week has been a blur; feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Cruises, they get to you. Spring break, now that really gets to you. What was I doing? Leaving? It feels like we only just boarded […]
139 139 Days. Is that really how long I’ve been here? It feels like eternity. Fiona absentmindedly traced the figures on the screen of her calendar, with each day meticulously marked off, lost in thought. 139 days. Not even a tenth of her 5-year isolation period had passed, and already it felt like she was […]
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. This was always the worst time of day, Tim thought, watching his newly acquired walking alarm clock travel around the room. Even if he was dreaming of an evil alien chasing him, he might not feel good about waking up to hunt that walking thing. It would have been great if he […]
February 11, 2005 Quantum Computing Group “More resumes for you, Dr. Peterson,” Mona said to Rick, as she placed seven resumes onto the tall stack of hundreds of resumes already on his desk. “Thanks babe,” he called to Mona as she walked away. Rick licked his lips as he stared at Mona’s butt in her […]
The flames took the wood with an unyielding fervor. It was an old shed made of brittle oak and it put up no visible resistance to the spread of the combustion process. A small finger of light had danced its way into a large, pulsating hand that sought to cover the entire structure. Before the […]
It was hot in the bedroom, an old fan spun lazily above her sending slow pulses of air across her body. With each pulse she felt herself sinking slowly into the mattress. Turning her head she looked out onto the balcony and saw him standing there. He was hazy as though he might melt away […]
Prologue Many years later, as Professor Bob looked into the mirror, he was to remember the distant night when Charlie and him sneaked into computer laboratory at Cambridge University. At that time Bob was still a graduate student at Physics department Cambridge, oblivious of his neuron degeneracy disease. The room looks like a section of […]
As the buzz from his late night of drinking and celebrating slowly faded into a dull headache, Dr. John Conley found himself alone in his dark bedroom. Above him, the gentle gyrations of the ceiling fan cast a slowly revolving shadow, and, on the nightstand, the alarm clock quietly ticked away the seconds. On this […]
Chapter 1 John Stewart was sitting in Professor Hull’s quantum time manipulation class. He was fascinated by every detail he learned about this new field, taught by the leading researcher. But Professor Hull wasn’t just the leading researcher, he was the one who created the sub field, and was for the most part the sole […]
Section 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum”, written by Cicero in 45 BC “At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et […]