B. Warnsby

In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.

Dr. Nathan Avant and Jacqueline Dior were torn apart by an ambitious time travel project in 2008, and it took them many lifetimes to find each other again. Now a rift in the fabric of time threatens to do the same. It is 2016 and the international community at last is united on a single project to benefit mankind. Yet even in the ethereal realm, the effects of human interventions on the planet are being felt. Conflicts among immortal beings are increasing, and otherworldly feelings toward humanity may cause a cosmic conflict that threatens to annihilate humankind.

Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption. One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.

If you’re a fluffy feline haberdasher named Barry with dreams of fame that reach beyond the stars, you’ve got to leave boring old North Platte sometime. Thankfully, NASA’s testing out just the thing...a new space-traveling goo. Barry’s mind-bending journey whips him into a parallel universe - where cats' ears are used to tell time. This works out well for young Barry - who’s “perfect” Earth-cat ears clearly point noon…a phenomenon never seen before on this alien planet.

John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (1644-1722), was one of the greatest military commanders and statesmen in the history of England. Victorious in the Battles of Blenheim (1704) and Ramillies (1706) and countless other campaigns, Marlborough, whose political intrigues were almost as legendary as his military skill, never fought a battle he didn't win. Marlborough also bequeathed the world another great British military strategist and diplomat, his descendant, Winston S. Churchill.

It is a fact of history that when Neil Armstrong set Apollo 11 down on the moon he was running dangerously low on fuel. This Pushcart Prize-nominated story recounts an alternate history in which the lunar module crashed and man's journey to the moon ended not in triumph - but tragedy. A decade later, a pair of astronauts finally return to the moon. And what they'll find is something no one expects.

Elvis roams the interstates in a big white Cadillac. It has to be him. Flywheel-bus and commuter-zep riders see plumes of dust trailing like rocket exhaust behind something too fast and glittery for the naked eye. Squint though, and you might glimpse him behind the wheel, steering with one wrist, fiddling the radio dial, then reaching for that always frosty can of beer. “Thank you, honey,” he tells the blonde next to him as he steps on the accelerator.

His perfect life in its late autumn years, Bob Johnson is offered the chance of using a prototype technology to traverse gateways into alternate realities. A chance to change the course of history and possibly the nature of certain people. Bob seizes the opportunity to rescue his soul and get revenge on those who are trying ruin everything he cherishes. His reality will never be the same again.