As human beings venture out into the cosmos, it’s pretty certain they’re going to run into all sorts of unexpected threats to their health and well-being. It happened to explorers hundreds of years ago when European explorers arrived in the New World and were exposed to all sorts of new diseases… then they decided to return the favor by giving blankets infected with small pox to the people they met. Of course it’s also entirely possible that explorers out in space will run into problems that are a little more familiar.

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Did you know that in 2024 a person making the average salary in the United States can’t get qualified for the average priced home? It’s bad out there. So much so that many are giving up on the idea of owning a home all together. In this week’s story “Time Arbitrage” a couple is just about ready to give up themselves, when they learn about a company offering an unexpected solution to the problem.

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Back in the 1950’s when Stephen Arr wrote Chain of Command, it was pretty common to imagine the worst possible unintended consequences from the atomic age. This story does revolve around animals who are forever changed by atomic radiation, but at the end of the day the message of this story is that the chain of command is the same for everyone, even radioactive mutant mice.

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Have you ever taken the time to read the Terms of Service before you click “Accept?” Of course not. No one does. It’s basically become a meme at this point. In this week's story, An Elephant For the Prinkip by L. J. Stecher, we learn it’s probably a good idea to at least skim the fine print of any contract before you actually sign on the dotted line.

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Pop culture over the past twenty years or so is riddled with stories about pioneering scientists visiting new worlds. In the 1990’s there was Sliders, there was also Stargate SG-1 with a different planet every week. In this week’s story "Dimension of the Lost," three scientists visit three different dimensions. Two of them have life-changing experiences, while the third ends up solving a mystery that has haunted humanity for generations.

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