Imagine having a conversation with God---Yesterday, I lived in a world of boundless possibilities, of a universe to explore, of discoveries to be made that would shake us to our core. Yesterday, I was young and stupid, and all the better for it. Today, I look at the prison, I see the bars – the tantalising hints of what lies beyond – and I wish that I had never ventured out there in the first place.What was I thinking? Who was I kidding? They say that ignor...

Imagine uncovering the biggest secret in human history---New York, 2087, a leading British banker is murdered. Not trusting the Americans, London sends an investigator, but quietly. They send Rendell Stone, a non-conformer, an unknown, and loaded into his tattoo is a nullspace-addicted sentient machine.Constance Granger is NSA and served with Stone during the Xinjiang Excursion; the horrific scenes from that vault haunt her still. Stone quickly ties the Rim...

Imagine causing the very thing you were sent to prevent---They were the farthest out along the rolling way, and so they knew that they would be the ones to go and come again to prevent the all-ending. To protect their blessed biome, lost to the future but safe still in the past.Of course, they understood the loop trap that they could not roll around, but then it was only theoretical within the fixed nature of the universal all-brane.And so dutifully...

Imagine witnessing the lifecycle of an entire world---That an observed system can be altered merely by the act of observation is well known. Less well known is the effect upon the observers by that being knowingly observed. So to figure that out, a team of not particularly gifted observers was sent to a gash-city on the fringe.Bahri loved the job even when unsure as to exactly what was going on. Fragranel didn’t love the job, or Bahri, but being perpetually...

Imagine living in the clouds of Venus---As far as I can work out, from examining my whole life in its complete entirety so far, humans are loud, smelly, and annoying. If it weren't for them, and all their endless banality (my new favourite word), I'd be able to get in a lot more important thinking. Being clever is already really hard, without these distractions all the blinking time. Mum says that I should lighten up a bit and not take everything so literally, but ...

Imagine being watched; always being seen – what would that do to you?---It happened on 18th March 2078 – the thing that changed everything. It was a Friday. Everybody, everywhere, was affected. Onikanawa wrote a diary to catalogue her journey through the early days of the change; what it made her parents do, her friends, the city, even. Rayn transcribed a letter to her husband to explain The Fright and what was being done to understand something beyond human unders...

Imagine living in the clouds of Venus---As far as I can work out, from examining my whole life in its complete entirety so far, humans are loud, smelly, and annoying. If it weren’t for them, and all their endless banality (my new favourite word), I’d be able to get in a lot more important thinking. Being clever is already really hard, without these distractions all the blinking time. Mum says that I should lighten up a bit and not take everything so literally, but ...

Imagine living on a world that wants to kill you---This morning I woke with the rosy glow of someone pumped and aching to begin a day brimming with the promise of this world’s strange nature being revealed at last.By this evening everyone is dead, and I’m trying to get off this accursed planet.And in between, a load of stuff happened; not all of which I’m especially proud of.Strange how quickly a day can just skitter away from you.--...

Imagine witnessing the lifecycle of an entire world---That an observed system can be altered merely by the act of observation is well known. Less well known is the effect upon the observers by that being knowingly observed. So to figure that out, a team of not particularly gifted observers was sent to a gash-city on the fringe.Bahri loved the job even when unsure as to exactly what was going on. Fragranel didn't love the job, or Bahri, but being perpetually...

Imagine knowing that the world was going to end---There was a time when all I wanted was Óreillia, and all she wanted was to be left alone. Not that I was put off, because I knew that come Choosing Day, it would be Órei and me, sitting in a tree...Her current preoccupation (until she finally opened her eyes to my heroic manliness) was the blimmin' Tower, and the Man who lived there. The Man she believed could help her, because for some reason she was convin...

Imagine uncovering the biggest secret in human history---New York, 2087, a leading British banker is murdered. Not trusting the Americans, London sends an investigator, but quietly. They send Rendell Stone, a non-conformer, an unknown, and loaded into his tattoo is a nullspace-addicted sentient machine.Constance Granger is NSA and served with Stone during the Xinjiang Excursion; the horrific scenes from that vault haunt her still. Stone quickly ties the Rim...

Imagine there is no more original thought – and then you have one.---Rhymbit Qurialyn is anxious. His palms are sweating. He is sitting in what appears to be an interview pod. He thinks this is about what just happened. Did it just happen? But worries it might be about the other thing. Because in a world wrung dry by the all-knowing Stream, no one has had an actual original thought in, in… And so suddenly having one was always going to be dynamite...