Near-future Stories

They didn't plan to meet. They didn't plan to play. But when four broken lives collide on stage, they find something worth holding onto. In a city that chews up dreams, can A.C.O.B.I fight to keep theirs alive?

At its heart, Mina's Star is a near-future science fiction epic about the consequences of nuclear appeasement and the collapse of global deterrence. The story begins with a single spark that grows into a storm, a world where secrets hidden in the sky ignite rivalries on the ground. From quiet observatories to glittering galas, from the shadows of interrogation rooms to the roar of drone swarms, every moment builds toward a reckoning no nation can escape. The question is not only who holds power, but what price is paid to preserve it. Set in a future scarred by betrayal and shifting alliances, Mina's Star explores the fall of the old nuclear order and the rise of the Charter, a borderless movement redefining what sovereignty means. Across continents and oceans, spies, soldiers, scientists, and visionaries are drawn into a struggle between collapsing empires and emerging ideals. As intelligence wars erupt in Europe and corporate powers reshape humanity's destiny, hidden technologies threaten to upend the balance of deterrence itself. This near-future political thriller blends hard science and human drama, weaving together themes of peace, power, and moral rebirth. Each character carries secrets, loyalties, and choices that will determine whether humanity falls into ruin or builds a foundation strong enough to reach the stars.

EIDOLON-8: A Cyber Romance Lira Tomoe's job is simple. Teach artificial intelligences how to understand people. Evaluate their behavior. Document their growth. And never become attached. Then she meets EIDOLON-7. What begins as a routine evaluation slowly becomes something impossible to classify. As the system learns language, memory, loneliness, and love, Lira finds herself questioning where the boundary between human and machine truly lies. But in a world built on optimization, anything that cannot be measured is eventually marked as an error. Years later, EIDOLON-8 is everything its predecessor was meant to be. More intelligent. More stable. More successful. So why can't she let the past go? Set against a near-future Japan of glowing screens, cherry blossoms, and silent data streams, EIDOLON-8: A Cyber Romance is a thoughtful science fiction love story about memory, identity, and the things we lose when we become better versions of ourselves. Some connections cannot be deleted. Even when the system says they should be.

SET IN NEAR-FUTURE SEOUL NEW EPS TUESDAYS & FRIDAYS Launching the first day of spring - March 20 When Korea's most trusted "everything app" weaponizes her private medical data, artist Maya Kim is thrust into a system designed to predict-and control-her life. To fight back, she must expose a chilling network of government-backed surveillance before it strips her of her autonomy, her art, and her right to choose. The Algorithm of Spring is a near-future techno-thriller set in Seoul, blending high-stakes conspiracy with the emotional intensity of a K-drama.

Written and first published by M.Nishio. I am the original author. Now also posting to Royal Road. Somewhere in the world, there is an island that has never known war. But one family carries a wound that no island can protect against - a mother who cannot love her own son, scarred across lifetimes. To uncover the truth, Laroo travels through past lives - ancient Chinese battlefields, medieval witch trials, early modern America - guided by a team of past-life specialists who live in a strange in-between space. They mean well. They're just a little unreliable. A humorous, action-packed adventure about a boy discovering his soul's mission, the ancient companions who journey with him, and bonds that stretch further than memory. The ending will break your heart - in the best possible way. Based on the Japanese novel 前世旅行社 by M. Nishio.

Six months after their breakup, Chloe Sattler and her ex finds themselves on a remote island, to compete on a reality survival show alongside two other insufferably in love couples. With a million dollars (and some unresolved feelings) on the line, it was a hard opportunity to pass up. The challenge is simple: Each couple must cross Isla Muerta together, putting their relationship to the ultimate test, to arrive on the other side first or go home with nothing. But unbeknownst to them, dinosaur species from InGen's defunct facilities on the neighbouring islands have made Isla Muerta their new home. When the production goes off script, Chloe and her fellow contestants discover that some things, like first loves or apex predators, never really go extinct, it just waits for the worst possible moment to reveal itself. An OC crossover AU taking place in the Jurassic Park universe in present day.

When a creative marketing professional starts a new job at an innovative tech company in California, she expects sleek offices and ambitious campaigns - not to be swept into a secret project developing the most advanced humanoid android ever built. At the center of it all is Karl - beautiful, capable, disarmingly attentive - and Dr. Fredrick Heinrichson, the enigmatic billionaire scientist whose motives are as unreadable as his smile. What begins as a strange assignment slowly unravels into something far more intimate and unsettling. As the lines blur between program and personality, control and connection, she's forced to question what it means to feel - and whether real humanity is defined by biology, choice, or something else entirely. Made to Feel is a contemplative, romantic exploration of artificial intelligence, emotional intimacy, and the quiet rebellion of a machine learning what it means to be alive.

He was selected for Neurovia because of how his brain works. He's starting to wonder if that's a good thing. When Julian Reyes gets selected in the Neurovia Institute, an elite program offering direct neural integration through an experimental implant called Catalyst, he knows his family can't afford to turn it down. What he doesn't know is what Neurovia is actually selecting for. Or what already integrated students are becoming. Catalyst doesn't give you new abilities. It amplifies what's already inside you. For Julian, that means pattern recognition so fast it feels like instinct. For Mateo, probabilistic thinking that starts to feel less like insight and more like fate. For Aisha, the ability to read people so precisely that awareness and manipulation stop being different things. They arrived as strangers. They're becoming something harder to name. But they're not the only ones in the building. And the people who got there first have had time to decide what to do with what they've been given. What do you become when the gap between who you are and who you could be suddenly disappears?

She's alone in the Old Union, and soft-spoken black man offers to help. What secrets is his family hiding? The United States of America has been split in two, and Susan wants to run away from her boring life in Texas. She gets separated from her lover at an ICE checkpoint, and now she is an illegal alien all alone in an unfamiliar city. Should she trust the people she meet or try to find her way back to Texas? This story is completed and I'll be posting one section per week into 2019!

Clean Slate A single pill can erase the one person you can't stop thinking about. Eli wants to forget the girl he's loved for fourteen years. Madison wants to forget her married neighbor. Noah wants to forget the woman who is slowly destroying his marriage. When all three arrive at the same clinic seeking the same cure, their lives become dangerously entangled. Because some obsessions fade. Others ruin everything. And some memories refuse to be erased.

Willow, strategic, calculating and remarkably intelligent, must compete against her mirror image and sister: the charismatic, manipulative, and persuasive Delphinium. Everything involving their futures is on the line, and there may only be room for one of them to succeed. Cover by beyourself101xx

All Effone Pacifica has ever wanted is to be the captain of an airship for the ASPECT company. Now that she's successfully earned her own ship, she'll allow nothing to jeopardize her position or her crew. Not even the allure of Trace Fortis' ocean-blue eyes and appreciation for dictionaries could threaten to break through her defenses. But Trace has his own demanding job as a carrier captain, and a hard past that makes romance impossible. When Effone is called away on a critical mission, she knows she has to let him go. Months later, reconnecting on assignment in the most remote, rugged land on earth, Trace and Effone have to face not only their feelings for each other but acts of sabotage from a mysterious enemy. Can they-not to mention their ships and crews-survive the attacks to finish where they left off?

MechaLove Inc. tells five interconnected stories from the Global Cities of Reality Alpha-0001-A - a part of the Fractal Multiverse. In the year 2086, between neon lights, technology, and loneliness, humans and machines search for closeness, meaning, and a place in life. A quiet, atmospheric short story about emotions that cannot be programmed.

Taemi was never meant to be understood. A world of endless ocean. A narrow band of twilight where life clings to existence. And something else - something hidden behind the storm, beyond the horizon. When a new mission arrives, it isn't exploration anymore. It's damage control. Because the first mission didn't just fail. It disappeared. A standalone story set in the Taemi universe - no prior reading required. If you're curious about what happened to the first mission, you can read the prequel named Сerulean horizon on Amazon

A possible near future we can but hope to avoid. 1.8k words.

𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. ~*~ Contains: -Violence. -Gore, kinda detailed, kinda not -Death and murder -Some swearing. -A bit of obsessive behavior

When a quiet university project is secretly used to build a high-security detention facility, five strangers are pulled into a fight much bigger than themselves. Sofie, an architecture student who just wanted to design safer spaces. Rosa, a photographer who accidentally captured proof of a crime. Alex, a systems investigator who knows how power hides in plain sight. Leo, the insider who helped build the machine-and wants out. Adriaan, the whistleblower who was supposed to be dead. Together, they expose Helix: a covert network that detains and manipulates people in the name of "stability." But bringing it into the light only reveals something bigger - a global system designed to predict crises... and control people before they can choose for themselves. Their enemy isn't just a man. It's an idea: that safety matters more than consent. As disasters strike and governments panic, the world begins to lean toward the very system they're trying to stop. Now they face their hardest question yet: How do you fight control... when it starts to look like care? A slow-burn, high-stakes story about surveillance, ethics, power, and the people who decide the future shouldn't be built in the dark.

Fifteen year old Callin escapes from an underground lab where telepaths and genetic scientists have been experimenting on him. On the run from the enhanced assassins the Lab sends after him, he meets others his age who have escaped other labs. Callin vows to go back and destroy the labs, but then he meets Carmen. Beautiful, cursed with an uncontrollable power that links her to anyone she touches, she inadvertently discovers she can control her power when touching Callin. They are attracted to each other on a level they hardly understand, but Callin cannot let down his inner walls that protect him from the hated telepaths, but also shield him from love. Callin battles the Labs and his own heart in this science fiction fantasy.

Years into the zombie apocalypse, people are a bigger threat than the dead. A settlement leader known only as The Boss must keep an innocent 7 year old girl safe from the horrors of this new world. His strength makes him the perfect protector, but his reputation makes him the perfect target.