Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the participants. The stories will go online at TheScian.com within a few days.
First prize - "Stalker" by Shuchikar (author's penname)
Second prize - "On board the Ark" by Ankit Bhardwaj
Third prize - "Dropping Off" by Ramanand
I am pleased to say that all three stories have a darker theme than most of the earlier years' stories. This is good. We are moving beyond the initial awe-and-wonder phase of SF into more mature and adult themes. More on these later after I get them online. The work on the SF book is proceeding at a steady pace. As of now, we are on track to publish the book before the end of this year. Below is a draft illustration I received a few days back from the artist for one of the stories (A Story in Blue) that'll go in the book.