At the center of the darkened room lay a chair.
It had been waiting and traveling for a long time, inside the cocoon.
There had been a time when there was haste, when there was doubt; those were no more.
It was moving towards the point where it would all end and eventually begin again, with every step of the way…
With advancements in facial recognition and micro-expression analysis, a project went underway analyzing all the videos and images of the past centuries and tracking individuals throughout their lives.
The probe arrived at our system and reached an orbit around Earth.
- It’s a bit of a tricky situation, but we understand you can help us.
- It’s gonna be expensive.
- But can you do it?
- Technically, yes; legally speaking, I’m not so sure…
- I know this is your first day and some things might seem strange, but I expect nothing but professionalism from you.
- And you shall have it.
- Very well, then. First case… So, it’s conclusive?
Vladimir had been the only one bold enough to take the extra step.
Or, as the others felt, the only one mad enough.
They had all wanted to find some elixir of youth, some magical formula that would allow people to live virtually forever, and there had been…
Something was wrong.
He opened his eyes slowly and immediately sensed that something was wrong.
He couldn’t quite tell what it was.
Had something been moved in the living room? Something missing?
No one foresaw it.
As the spaceships approached, the whole population of the planet was rendered useless to defend itself.
The overwhelming technology and the exceedingly higher will to vanquish everything and everyone on the planet was a deadly combination…
Humanity received a message from a far away system.
The message wasn’t meant for everyone, and it was clearly sent by someone — or something — that had studied us. It was written in plain English and cyphered with the public keys of some of the most prominent scientific minds on…
These were the top 10 stories published by The Coin Man in 2016. You can also dive into monthly archives for 2016 by using the calendar at the top of this page.