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Nineteen humorous sci-fi stories telling of the man who saved the world (kind of), and the man who didn’t, the laptop that discovered it is self-aware, the puzzling Christmas message from outer space, the unluckiest man on Earth, and the spur-of-the-moment decision that doomed mankind.

Quiver, a mostly human astronaut, takes refuge from the monotony of harvesting minerals on remote asteroids by running through a virtual reality called the Lights, chasing visions of an elusive red-haired beauty. Her high-strung robot partner, Mic, pilots their Wobble and entertains himself by surfing the records of the obliterated planet Earth stored on his Swift Wheel for Al Pacino trivia, recipes for reconstituted sushi, and high-fashion trends. But when an accident destroys their cargo, Quiver and Mic go rogue, setting off on a madcap journey through outer space.

Pandora Lynch lives in Alaska with her single dad, an online therapist for Silicon Valley's brightest and squirreliest. Homeschooled by computer and a self-taught hacker, Pandora is about to enter high school to learn how to be normal. That's the plan at least. NorCal runaway George Jedson is a hacker too - one who leaves the systems he attacks working better than before. After being scooped up by a social media giant, will George go legit - or pull off the biggest hack ever? Not even his therapist knows for sure, but maybe the headshrinker's daughter....

An action-adventure sci-fi comedy, starring Captain Tim Clark, who isn't really a Captain at all. As a terrifying supernova unleashes its destruction upon the Earth, Tim's slow solar powered computer overloads and boots to life. To avoid capture after averting nuclear war, the computer shuts down to return to Tim in the form of a female robot he names Lotus.

Follow a day in the life of the government agency that creates conspiracy theories to keep society stable. The story follows employees of the Conspiracy Department as they wrestle with the ethics of their work, balancing their belief in protecting society against the knowledge that they're manipulating public perception.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans. To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

Beverly Cryer (Vurl) has to choose a dystopian faction to live with for the rest of her life. If she doesn't make it through initiation, she'll be factionless and declared a Detergent. But, Vurl is determined not to spend the rest of her life doing everyone else's laundry. She is an independent young woman with skills she doesn't even know about and with the help of handsome number Two she'll not only make it through initiation, she'll save the city from disaster.

Heroes are the worst. Jim Riven would know—he used to be one. Now he just wants to run his crumbling old bar and be left alone. Beer and chicken wings don’t try to vaporize him. Well, not since that one time. But when remnants of his old life come calling, they bring the one reason he can’t ignore. Lock, a hero who died fighting for the Spectrum world’s premier hero team may not be so dead after all. But if she’s alive, where has she been?

The galaxy is a colorful place and Crustacea is no exception. Born on a whim of a madman, the planet of psychic crabs evolved through a combination of radiation, cosmic energy and what scientists could only describe as 'the right vibes'. Now, the crustacean leadership must deal with the impending arrival of the first ambassador from the United Commission of planets, renegade lobsters, and foul creatures lurking in the deep.

Kill-crazy mercenaries, gargantuan monstrosities, and a "sixth sense" that may be a death wish in disguise. Augie Brunthouse's first day of work is not going well. It all started with Chuck Vestiglio's exile and subsequent suicide on his private island, derisively dubbed "Supersize Island" by the press. Now the disgraced hamburger baron's unhinged son has vowed to silence the family's critics with a psychotic plot to grow beef better. Alas, his wildly illegal biotech experiments have gone wrong in a very BIG way. Somebody needs to look into it.

Minutes after baby Jean is born, a deal is struck—his heart is sold to save another child’s life. While Jean is given a high-tech synthetic replacement, Illyia grows up with his heart beating in her chest. But neither finds happiness: Jean aches for something he can’t name, while Illyia’s guilt drives her to give away everything she has—except the one thing she can’t.

In a wild ride suitable for all ages, Zoomarble is a nonstop comedy action tornado with a literary flare. Siblings arriving in a quirky new town are quickly entangled in an absurd mission to save the Earth.

Neal Gordon and his partners, former actress Lucy Westenra and intelligent canine Barksley, are in hot water with Cyberlife after a bust goes disastrously wrong. Put on what is likely to be permanent suspension, they receive a job offer to work for EarthGov directly. Unfortunately, EarthGov is hiring them because they know a catastrophic plague is about to be unleashed throughout the Moon's neighborhood.

From the warped mind of award-winning sci-fi author Steve Bellinger. Weird things happening in the Earth’s core, environmental pollution from an unexpected source, and a rogue comet with strange properties. Put them all together and you get the end of the world as we know it.

Armed with overconfidence, questionable piloting skills, and a ship held together by sarcasm (courtesy of ZETA, their snarky AI), Dirk and his ragtag team navigate the galaxy’s most dangerous challenges—including rogue space bacteria, deadly sports tournaments, and the occasional bounty hunter out for revenge.

One day Tam is waitressing at a neighborhood tavern and taking community college classes in firefighting. The next… Well, months later when she finally gets her sight and hearing back, after waking up in a hospital… She’s living on a county-sized space station, one of the few humans in a community made up of giant, sapient lizards and birds.

2 B R 0 2 B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction for January 1962, and collected in Vonnegut's Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination.

Marcus Aimond, untrained tag-along aboard humanity's first intergalactic exploratory commerce vessel, has a singular mission: sell off-brand misprinted merchandise. When the rookie and his crew encounter the Nerelkor, a frog-like civilization, he is thrust head-first into an alien civil war. The opposing factions, Rejault and Dinasc, are stuck in an ill-fated feud driven by deep-rooted ineptitude. To avoid the planet’s annihilation and establish a local sales office, Aimond and the crew must survive arena combat, reshape the very structure of the planet, establish world peace, and stay alive.

Private detective P. Manjunath thinks like fire and works like dust as he sets out to investigate existential cataclysms unfolding over the globe—not knowing that the ripples in reality he sees are being caused by Dr. Krishna, a scientist in a utopian future and technically the god of their world. As Manjunath’s investigation disrupts God’s plans, a Danish police officer attains enlightenment, a lapel pin gives disruptive advice, a sentient wall provides the key to creativity, a pill cures the human condition, and everyone in the world develops a lisp at the same time.

In Sir Lanka, an island city where the Thieves Guild rules supreme, meet DaVic, a private eye with more quips than credits, whose idea of a successful day is solving the mystery of how to afford his next smoothie. But when a femme fatale hands him a mysterious package and a high-paying job for the Thieves Guild, DaVic finds himself on the run through the dark streets of Sir Lanka.