A man retrieves his hero from a starship’s virtual storage
before that hero can be arrested for murder. Two children fight over an alien
rocketship. A member of a crew sent to destroy a distant solar system learns
his mother has petitioned for his death. A young man resolves to marry the
intimate companion of the artificial Man in the Moon. At birth, a girl is
mentally interlaced with her sister Midge; and when she is thirteen, she
convinces Midge to save the implanted helper-sentience of a recently deceased
warrior. These, and three other stories.
Samples
END OF THE SIGH
That’s right. Timon is necro. Okay, okay, maybe my hack
wasn’t that hot. Timon’s soul is still in its Jar. So sue me. We were in sigh.
You try gasping a necroslur at point eight c.
THE GIRL WITH THE
NUCLEAR BOMB
She sent the spiders, six of them, no bigger than spiders
and looking exactly like spiders, even if stepped upon they would seem like
spiders, smearing like spiders, hair-thin legs in spider-smear…
THE ENDLESS BATTERIES
Lyta wants to steal my rocketship. Lyta knows that stealing
is wrong, but she doesn’t care. She just wants my ship and I won’t give it to
her. If she has to steal it, then she will. She wants it really bad.
LAMENT FOR A SISTER
It is time to reduce this planet. That is why we are here.
My being here has postponed the reduction. My annulment has not been approved;
they can’t let me be reduced. Were I reduced yet not to be annulled, that would
be merely killing me, and mere killing of humyns is uncongressional.
THE COURTSHIP OF JAY
AND ELUSIVEBETH
But anyhow, cause of what the Man in the Moon did to
cyberspace, eating it up and all, Old Jacks just really hate him and so they
hate jammies and since Ellucy is a jammie any Old Jack, even Case, would have
to call her Monster. But Ellie my heart is no monster: she’s lovely, you know,
and the Jacks got no right. Ellie may be nonhuman but she’s soft: she’s got a
girl’s body — her body, mine too, now, my wife: Nothing monsterish about my Elusivebeth.
TAINTED BY GRACE
He raised his head to watch the client’s window, seven
stories up. The client’s lamp was on. Above the eaves, Gideon saw the moon.
Within a few seconds Grace had clawed up the side of the building, not as a
young woman but as herself…
PROXIMA, WE HAVE A
PROBLEM
Failure of the entanglement drive left him on either side of
the Milky Way.
THE SPARE MIDGE
Within the Sling, as Midge and I settled into the baubleship
and waited for the snap, I stared out at the sparkling tension of the aether
and realized it was beautiful. I actually thought: It’s beautiful.And I felt something then that Midge did not. She longed to
escape, to get away, far away — and by the lace this filled me, too; but on my
own, to my own surprise, I felt also the promise of a far place.
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