Showing results for "dark matter" in Science Fiction

'Are you happy in your life?' Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he wakes to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before the man he's never met smiles down at him and says, 'Welcome back, my friend.' In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

After achieving Tier 3 as a Dark Matter Aspirant, Jace Seren and his allies—Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and Quinn Cipher—are on their way to Earth. Their mission is dangerous: take down all five megacorporations to clear the way for the Star Council to instill their control over the world and lift Earth’s civilization to its pinnacle of possibility. Corpo-mercs, cybered-up soldiers, lingering Aspirants, and Ascendants? That’s only the start of it. For the Nebula Alliance already has agents on Earth, and they do not take kindly to hostile takeovers.

Lucy Harris is on the run, not sure where she can turn to for help, or if help is even available. But even as her abductors chase her down, she realizes they don't just want to recapture her, they want to erase her. When your very existence puts a planet at the risk of war, there's no choice but to do everything in your power to stay out of your enemies' hands.

Fell times have come to the galaxy. Cadia has fallen, destroyed by the onslaught of Chaos. A Great Rift in the warp has opened, and from its depths spew daemons and the horrors of Old Night. But all hope is not lost… A hero, long absent, has returned, and with him comes the wrath of the Ultramarines reborn. Roboute Guilliman has arisen to lead the Imperium out of darkness on a crusade the likes of which has not been seen since the fabled days of the Emperor. But never before have the forces of Ruin amassed in such numbers, and nowhere is safe from despoliation.

For a decade, Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury. But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance.

The Dark Reading Matter is a theoretical realm that suggests that the observable bookverse can only account for 20% of the calculated total readable mass. Out there somewhere, possibly, is a larger and more expansive and unseeable 'Dark Bookverse' that contains millions of deleted novels, slush-pile manuscripts, lost poems, forgotten pop culture references, stories and ideas that were still in people's minds when they died. It seems The Goliath Corporation hope to exploit the Dark Reading Matter for profit, and Thursday Next is once again pitted against a familiar foe.

29 Brand-New Sci-Fi Horror Stories. The future is now, and it's not what we were promised. The optimistic science fiction of old was wrong. Progress is not linear, technology creates as many problems as it solves, and the concept of a better tomorrow has become an abstraction that is in no way guaranteed. When looking at the future now, we no longer ask what is possible, we wonder how we'll cope. Contained within this anthology are 29 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors.

"Bist du glücklich?" Das sind die letzten Worte, die Jason Dessen hört, bevor ihn ein maskierter Mann niederschlägt. Als er wieder zu sich kommt, begrüßt ihn ein Fremder mit den Worten: "Willkommen zurück, alter Freund." Denn Jason ist in der Tat zurückgekehrt - doch nicht in sein eigenes Leben, sondern eines, das hätte sein können. Seine Frau hat er nie geheiratet, sein Sohn wurde nie geboren. Und Jason ist kein einfacher College-Professor, sondern ein gefeierter Wissenschaftler. Doch ist diese Welt real?

On a return visit to Dal'no'nuuur to aid its inhabitants and get some upgrades, the crew of the Junkyard finds themselves ambushed by a Bastet intent on capturing them. Before meeting his 'unfortunate' end, Dax and Kane manage to extract a name from their assailant: Tussanu. Retreating to Tachyon, they discover Tussanu is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. This reclusive individual, whose race, age, and appearance remain unknown, invites his contractors to his home once a month to contribute to his extensive collection.

Un soir, en rentrant chez lui, Jason Dessen, professeur de physique, est agressé et kidnappé par un inconnu masqué. Quand il reprend connaissance, tout a changé : Daniela n'est plus sa femme, leur fils Charlie n'est jamais né, et Jason lui-même est un physicien de premier plan à l'aube d'une découverte fondamentale.

Who loses, wins. The owner of an illegal micro-casino must deal with the murder of a former business partner and the fine print of an old AI contract as she races to recover her life from other versions of herself.

Jennifer Plummer and the Divine Flesh have exactly three things in common: They're trapped inside Jennifer's body, they despise each other, and they're in love with Daryl Plummer, Jennifer's ex-husband.

In April 2020, the world faced imminent lock-down, so a group of filmmakers started a virtual support group. Once a week, these diverse voices would assemble to do what they do best: tell each other stories. Campfire horror tales, emotional cosmic mysteries, and anything else that either made them take their minds off what was happening to the world, or help them understand it. HAUNTED REELS is the best of those stories.

Ryan Stathis has everything he ever wanted: A family, a nice home, and a career with a government agency designing military aircraft. That is, until one late night at the office ends with him being snatched by an alien spaceship, and he's forced to take command. Thrust into a new universe, Ryan unknowingly holds the key to the one thing standing between Earth, and it’s annihilation. Listen to one man’s journey, as he evades an alien empire's grasp, and searches for a way home.

A collection of three stories by John Kaniecki: "Heretic", "Johnny Can't Run", and "The Psychology of Lady Jane Perkins". Religion and truth battle for control in a future society underground on Earth. In the not-so-far-off future a group of Nazis have been exiled to a distant planet. An engineering student is swept away in love by one Lady Jane Perkins, but what does the young man see in this homeless psychiatric patient?

An eclipse is supposed to be a wondrous event. Not the end of freedom for humanity. For Maggie, they’re one and the same. In only a few days, the collectives will coalesce, and the forced assimilation of humanity will begin. Maggie and the team need to find a way to stop it, but they don’t know where to start. While Maggie fights for knowledge, the rest of the team faces challenges of their own. Loyalties will be tested, obscure memories will break through, and betrayal may kill the only chance they have to remain free.

Rudolph "Rudy" Dersch is the newly minted CEO of the world's largest, multi-trillion-dollar corporate conglomerate. But the job comes with an unexpected twist - an invitation to join the Consortium, a small, secretive group of global elites who effectively decide what's best for the rest of humanity. How does Rudy's struggle to reconcile business and family impact the world's future? And who, if anyone, can break the Consortium's iron grip on the status quo?

Despite the tragic events at Hanssen Scientific, Monique Durand and her newfound companions continue their search for the source of her compelling visions. Are they somehow linked to the secrets of dark matter, as Professor Hanssen is so desperate to believe? Or does the truth reach even deeper - into our Universe's past, and our planet's ultimate future? To find out, they'll need to outwit the Consortium, a secretive group of trillionaires who now have what they need to achieve their own, long-awaited end-game.

Several months have passed since the shocking events in Ramsar. Monique and Jonas remain locked away in an Iranian prison; billions watch as the world's leaders continue to debate their fate. Meanwhile, the Hanssen asteroid is fast approaching Earth's orbit. At last, the Consortium's end game is at hand. Will Rudy uncover the truth behind the Chairman's unimaginable plan, before it's too late?

The Lithirian Empire have found their long lost home world, and they want it back. Unfortunately for Ryan, that world is planet Earth. Separated by a wormhole that spans the Milky Way, Ryan is desperately trying to organize a group of ragtag aliens to fight back before humanity is destroyed. With time running out, only a high risk insurrection will make he and his team of rebel misfits a real threat against the Empire.