Dark Matter Magazine‘s “symbiosis” themed issue 010 is out, with jaw-dropping standard edition and variant covers by Jeff Aphisit, as well as intriguing story artwork.
My scifi horror story, “Odd Colleagues,” about an insecure scientist and her encounter with an alien, debuts. The art accompanying my story gives “Invasion of the Body Snatcher” vibes!
A note about the artwork from Editor-in-Chief Rob Carroll:
The stories in this issue of Dark Matter all explore in one way or another the theme of symbiosis. So for the story art, we decided to have some fun and cocreate the images with an AI.* We used a third party AI to generate the base artworks and then fine-tuned the creations with our human hands via Photoshop and other digital art programs…[read more]
*It’s worth noting that this issue’s cover art and every image in this issue’s two art features are the creations of human artists, Jeff Aphisit and Sean Keeton. As far as we know, they are not sentient machines.
Excerpt:
ODD COLLEAGUES
By K.C. Grifant
I pressed forward into the small crowd, straining to be among the first to glimpse what rested beyond the closed door. About two dozen of us milled around, the crème de la crème of biologists, including the ever-irritating Gustavo.
Gustavo. I clenched my teeth at the sight of him. He was always publishing similar work to mine a few months after the fact, but in larger, more prestigious journals, and worse yet, he was always trying to cop a feel at conference happy hours.
Don’t let him rattle you. My gaze locked on the door again. You deserve to be here. I went through the mental checklist to rally myself. The youngest tenured professor at my university. Dozens of publications. Countless invitations to committees and talks. But somehow it never felt like enough, especially in a crowd like this.
The green light above flashed and, even though we were some of the most distinguished scientists in the world, we lined up like school children, whispering and fidgeting with our digital pads and styluses. We had all read the dossiers and watched the recordings, but that was nothing compared to a coveted invitation to see the Visitor in person.
While pushing past me, Gustavo brushed his hand against my butt.
“Can you give me some space, please?” I snapped. I tried not to breathe in his cheap, awful-smelling cologne.
Gustavo grinned.
You can read additional excerpts from all of the delightfully creepy stories in issue 10 here: https://darkmattermagazine.com/issues/issue-010/.
Digital copies and related swag are available here: https://darkmattermagazine.shop/collections/issue-010
Happy reading!
KC Grifant 
Fabulous excerpt and awesome artwork. Congratulations on the publication of “Odd Colleagues.” Dark Matter is a cool magazine.
Thank you Priscilla! Agreed, Dark Matter is a great mag!