“Use English,” says my mother, Nkij. “Like your father used to. The traders hear one word of what they call ‘Indian talk’, they’ll cheat us extra bad.”I arrive after a half day’s paddle, following the route my father described to me in his dying days. The settlers call this the Public Square. A dust and […]
I came down to the disaster zone in a bubble-skiff, launched from a Responder-class galaxyship in high orbit. It skips and bumps on the turbulence. There are six of us, each wearing the flat white uniforms of United Galactic’s Crisis Response division.Outside the tempered window, the Nerian settlement Galapos burns. My synaesthograph’s goggles telegraph emotions […]
I might get a kitten. Maybe two. Wait, let me back up…It’s 100 degrees, and if I can just keep my garden alive and put this issue together, I’ll call the day a success. These days are so hard for me as a gardener. It’s right up there with the days I have to decide […]