Analog

Clocks are next to useless and no alarm cares what you think of it. Their noise is neither birdsong nor church-bell. It is measured by eye-blinks and muscle contractions. Clocks reflect anxiety when the big hand overtakes the little. Their seconds are like tickles of hair. Sometimes clocks are said to be buying time. But what happens when that time is only borrowed? Clocks stop without notice when their time is up. When their battery runs out, it sounds like the click of a tiny rifle; the tapping of a deathwatch beetle. No one hears it until it’s too late.

From Guest Contributor Cheryl Snell

Do Electric Cars Dream Of Beach Holidays?

Is everything packed?

Yeah, pretty sure it is.

Want me to double-check?

I already checked every room twice, but if you want to be completely sure…

No, I trust you.

Shall we load then?

Is the battery charged?

I don’t know.

So you didn’t charge it?

Honey, if you don’t tell me to, I don’t.

You drove the car last, you should have known.

I hadn’t given it any thought. Sorry.

Do we have enough to get home?

No, I’m afraid not.

And what now?

We could stay an extra night, of course.

Shall we do that then?

Good idea.

From Guest Contributor Hervé Suys

Hervé (°1968 – Ronse, Belgium) started writing short stories whilst recovering from a sports injury and he hasn’t stopped since. Generally he writes them hatless and barefooted.

Better Charge

He saw the new battery subset the last time he was sent in for routine maintenance. His two cycles out of style power supply barely sputters in comparison. But his owner does not think it worth the cost: that he is a serviceable hebot just as he is. He could be much better with pricklier power. No matter what arguments he makes, she will not upgrade his electricity fetch. Next time she configures him for intimate entertainment duty, he might simulate a power drain that interrupts performance. It is a trick he has seen this owner use with her husband.

From Guest Contributor Ken Poyner

Ken’s eleventh book, “Winter’s Last Apple,” is just out. Eight of his previous ten books are still in print. He lives in Virginia with his wife of 45+ years, assorted rescue cats and various betta fish.

The Coming Wipe Out

The coming wipe out of this reality? End of reality? June the Federal Government shuts down to cause more pain to the United States' people. July the wipe out of trillions of dollars of value as the electronic coin or Microsoft 2000060606 Cryptocurrency battery operated humans are turned on. Is it the end of humanity? Yes, I know humanity does not survive this aeron or era of mankind's sixth age. In yet? If I am real, I saw humanity's seventh age. Not so glorious, but the mirror image of this reality. Seriously? Read Wondering Mind through the Multiverse on Prose.

From Guest Contributor Clinton Siegle

Twisting Time

Twisting time. Watching all the quantum news, I ponder the latest statement about quantum religion. An attempt by corporations to combine the ideology of Hindoos into the quantum realm and do away with individual religions for a planet-wide religion.

Freaks me out three religions talk about this very topic. And the outcome is not good for humanity. The end result is a system of things or what people reference from movies as the matrix. Kind of wild to see the ending of humanity. The beginning of the terminator reality is just happening. Age becoming a battery. An end of humanity?

From Guest Contributor Clinton Siegle

Who Cared?

Robots Contest Entry:

He tinkered for a year, ignoring his phone and only leaving the house for Wacko Wake or the hardware store. The rest was delivered.

The garage was littered with tools and metal shards. The WiFi flicked on for two hours each night so he could comb websites.

His friends had given up on him. Who cared? He was done. Done with living like an open wound, a scrap of plastic blown in someone else’s breeze.

Finally, it was time. He flipped the switch and felt an electric jolt. The eyes lit up. The battery hummed.

Then it spoke. “Yes, master?”

From Guest Contributor Faye Rapoport DesPres