Carl woke up next to his wife just as he had since he was 19. He wasn’t surprised to see that his daughter, Ava, had climbed into bed just between them in the middle of the night. She had been having nightmares for a few days now. He used his phone’s flash to figure out…

Proxima Centauri b—Earth’s nearest exoplanetary neighbor—had been a subject of fascination for nearly a century. Now, nearly four years after the first launch toward its orbit, John found himself marooned aboard a ship swallowed by its own jungle of oxygen-producing foliage. John was resting in his cot. Sluggishly moving out of his uncomfortable pod, followed…

A peaceful death, lying in bed next to his wife of fifty years. He was an old man, and both he and his wife knew that either of them could pass at any moment these days. The two had all their affairs sorted and were just enjoying their final days in peace.  Some of the…

“At least it’ll be quiet here”  It was the first warm day of summer. Across the green fields, just south of the town square, boys and girls of all ages were kicking a football around. Each team was trying to get it through the others’ goalpost, where one team was using a log and a…