Charybdis by Joel Tagert | Art by Chris Austin

“Charybdis” spins and eddies in Birdy 131, November 2024, with art by Chris Austin. A resurrected assassin with a new neuroport finds that nothing is certain when AI superintelligences are involved.

Do you think killing someone’s easy for me? Up close like this?

No, not easy. Pleasurable.

That’s fucked up.

Charybdis said nothing more, this not being a question or anything that needed answering, and a sense Christian had lost the argument seeped into the ensuing silence. Charybdis, god of the deep, who sent whirlpools to swallow ships. Like a great white shark swimming over his shoulder.

Children of Ava by Joel Tagert

“Children of Ava” appears in Birdy 128, August 2024, with generative art by myself. Young Maya is on the run in the ruins of Salt Lake City–but her AI companion, Ava, has friends everywhere.

Her contact’s appearance was not reassuring. Black bug-eyed lenses stared above an industrial breathing mask, part of a single piece of gear that completely covered the head. It looked at once like a military relic and something homemade. Otherwise they wore a cowl of heavy textured fabric atop what she thought was a hazmat suit. The figure was small and slight, a teenager or very small woman, most likely. They spoke first.

Don’t you have a mask?

 Their voice was not so much muffled as synthetic, the timbre androgynous, tone a little flat in the common manner of AI assistants, emitted from tiny speakers on the sides of their breather. 

No.

The dust is full of poison. And you could get BCV, not to mention nanomites.

Thanks for the public health warning. I don’t know how to say this, but there are some guys following me, and—

We know. Come on.

Jumping The Shark by Joel Tagert | Art by Ryane Rose

“Jumping the Shark” sidles up and snaps its jaws shut in Birdy 127, July 2024, with art by Ryane Rose. Never thought a shark would be this goddamn chatty.

The gate’s stuck. But look, Jumping’s implant is fully functional. If he gets close to the gate, he’s going to get a nasty shock. Controlling the subject’s behavior is the whole point of the study. 

I know the point of the study, I’m just not comfortable with — oh Jesus.

What is it?

It’s here, the shark’s in the tank. I’m getting out. I’m—

(screaming)

Threshold Of The Wild Hunt by Joel Tagert | Art by Nick Flook

“Threshold of the Wild Hunt” appears in Birdy #125, May 2024, with art by @flooko. It’s a quick dip into the land of Faerie:

A horn sounded in the woods to the south and all heads turned toward it. Sunita saw the fae around her unconsciously quicken at the sound, twitching ears tufting with fur, faces lengthening, bodies hunching as though about to spring away on four legs. “The king’s horn,” Harald whispered.

The Okhotsk Trade by Joel Tagert | Art by Peter Kornowski

“The Okhotsk Trade” appears in the January 2024 issue of Birdy Magazine, with art by Peter Kornoswki. A crew of Russian traders discover the perils of taking what isn’t yours – especially when what isn’t yours also isn’t human:

The Zvezda Morey had cannon, guns, steel. The deep-dwellers had needle teeth, claws on their webbed hands and feet, and countless numbers. They were hatched by the thousands in the darkness, voracious in their legions, contained only by the availability of food and intolerance of the sun. They thrived by the volcanic vents, ecosystems untouched by light and unglimpsed by human eyes. Even shallow waters pained them, much less the open air; but the offense to their god could not go unanswered.