From the Phantom of the Louvre collection It's 1957. In a Toronto waterfront warehouse, a group of automatons are having a religious experience. WHAT? ~4,700 words.
Moran cut apart the yard-long monstrosity with a slash of flame. The thing presumably died, but it continued to writhe senselessly. He turned to see other horrors crawling toward him. Then he knew he was being marooned on a planet of endless terrors.
Earth has been conquered and is a subjugated planet, the humanoid new rulers extract heavy taxes, control industry and reproduction and interfere in every aspect of life. Rumors of their brutality and vicious massacres increase every day. They must be thrown out and rebellion seethes among the patriots. But on the other hand, others are not eager to get rid of the overlords: the terrible nationalistic wars have been stopped, famine is long gone and health care is almost universally available.
Tomorrow's technocracy will produce more and more things for better living. It will produce other things, also; among them, criminals too despicable to live on this earth. Too abominable to breathe our free air.
Sometimes an organizational setup grows, sets its ways, and becomes so traditional that once-necessary jobs become unnecessary. But it is sometimes quite hard to spot just which man is the unnecessary one. In this case. not the one you think!
John Carter risks everything to rescue his wife, Princess Dejah Thoris, from the clutches of his evil adversaries, but he is always just one step behind! His battles cover the face of the red planet, as his quest carries him ultimately to the mysterious northern pole. Will this civilization, submerged in ice, prove fatal to our hero? This is the third of eleven in the popular 'Martian' series.
FBI Agent Kenneth Malone faces his toughest challenge yet, discovering why the government operates so inefficiently. Is it a plot by some mastermind operating out of the Kremlin? Or is it an even deeper conspiracy whose goal is to sow confusion and chaos throughout the world. Will Malone be able to find the cause of the mysterious psychic static causing the disruption? What will he find when he faces the Supermind?
A Not-Quite Human Story Unable to find a home and acceptance on Earth, an intrepid band of misplaced youth seek their ancestral home among the stars. Unfortunately, their reception is not what they hoped. The home they discover is a hostile environment, involved in a huge interstellar war with a hostile alien species. Viewed as untrusted interlopers, they search for a place in a universe with no use for them, and no place turn for assistance. One chapter has some explicit interspecies sex, but it's part of the plot.