Into the New Millennium: Trailblazing Tales From Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2000 - 2010

INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Trailblazing Tales from Analog Science Fiction
and Fact, 2000 - 2010

Edited by Stanley Schmidt

PENNY PUBLICATIONS, LLC

INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM:

Trailblazing Tales from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2000 — 2010

Penny Publications LLC

6 Prowitt Street

Norwalk, CT 06855

Collection copyright © 2011 by Penny Publications, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or digital publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN (10-digit): 1-59238-014-X

ISBN (13-digit): 978-1-59238-014-5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction
by Stanley Schmidt

OUTBOUND
by Brad R. Torgersen

THE UNIVERSE BENEATH OUR FEET
by Carl Frederick

QUAESTIONES SUPER CAELO ET MUNDO
by Michael F. Flynn

THE PURLOINED LABRADOODLE
by Barry B. Longyear

HIS HANDS PASSED LIKE CLOUDS
by Rajnar Vajra

SHEENA 5
by Stephen Baxter

TINY BERRIES
by Richard A. Lovett

SHED SKIN
by Robert J. Sawyer

FLY ME TO THE MOON
by Marianne J. Dyson

KYRIE ELEISON
by John G. Hemry

PUPA
by David D. Levine

FORGET ME NOT
by Amy Bechtel

THE NIGHT OF THE RFIDS
by Edward M. Lerner

ALPHABET ANGELS
by Ekaterina Sedia and David Bartell

BUT IT DOES MOVE
by Harry Turtledove

COLD WORDS
by Juliette Wade

CHAIN
by Stephen L. Burns

Into the New Millennium: Trailblazing Tales from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2000-2010

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint their copyrighted material. All first appeared in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
.

"Sheena 5" by Stephen Baxter, © 2000 by Stephen Baxter, reprinted by permission of Maggie Noach Literary Agency.

"Forget Me Not" by Amy Bechtel, © 2002 by Amy Bechtel, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Chain" by Stephen L. Burns, © 2009 by Stephen L. Burns, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Fly Me to the Moon" by Marianne J. Dyson, © 2010 by Marianne J. Dyson, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Quaestiones super caelo et mundo" by Michael F. Flynn, © 2007 by Michael F. Flynn, reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Universe Beneath Our Feet" by Carl Frederick, © 2009 by Carl Frederick, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Kyrie Eleison" by John G. Hemry, © 2006 by John G. Hemry, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Night of the RFIDs" by Edward M. Lerner, © 2008 by Edward M. Lerner, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Pupa" by David D. Levine, © 2010 by David D. Levine, reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Purloined Labradoodle" by Barry B. Longyear, © 2007 by Barry B. Longyear, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Tiny Berries" by Richard A. Lovett, © 2003 by Richard A. Lovett, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Shed Skin" by Robert J. Sawyer, © 2003 by Robert J. Sawyer, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Alphabet Angels" by Ekaterina G. Sedia and David Bartell, © 2004 by Ekaterina G. Sedia and David Bartell, reprinted by permission of the authors.

"Outbound" by Brad R. Torgersen, © 2010 by Brad R. Torgersen, reprinted by permission of the author.

"But It Does Move" by Harry Turtledove, © 2009 by Harry Turtledove, reprinted by permission of the author.

"His Hands Passed Like Clouds" by Rajnar Vajra, © 2000 by Rajnar Vajra, reprinted by permission of the author.

"Cold Words" by Juliette Wade, © 2009 by Juliette Wade, reprinted by permission of the author.

INTRODUCTION

by

Stanley Schmidt

When I was growing up, the year 2000 sounded like the Far Future: the territory of science fiction. While many of us knew intellectually that we personally would eventually be living in it, and science fiction readers and writers knew that it was none too early to begin thinking about what problems and opportunities it might present, it still seemed comfortably far off, far enough that we could be pretty uninhibited about imagining what might happen then, and pretty sure that no matter what we imagined, we would be surprised.

And now we're here: more than a decade past 2000 and well into the new millennium, whenever you consider that to have begun.
¹
Many of the things that 20
^th
-century writers imagined, and thought themselves daring while doing so, have become commonplace, like television, routine high-speed air travel, close-up exploration of other worlds, and organ transplants. Others haven't happened at all: skeptics often ask, "Where is my flying car?" And some were almost universally missed by science-fictional imaginers, yet have become pervasive parts of our physical and cultural landscape—like the internet and the still-evolving system of electronic publication through which you're reading this.

We have a wealth of new opportunities, from long life to instantaneous worldwide communication. And with them have come a host of new problems, some of which seem overwhelming when we first confront them—things like global warming and pollution, population pressures, and fundamental shifts in cultural underpinnings such as the concept of privacy. Yet the problems that have already been solved seemed just as weighty when they were new. Our species has a long history of facing problems, finding ways to deal with them, finding that the solutions created brand-new problems, finding ways to deal with those...

And so on.

______________________

¹
Let's not waste time arguing about whether that was 2000 or 2001; there's really no ambiguity, since a millennium is any thousand-year period, you can put its starting point wherever you like, as long as you specify and stay consistent. If you're talking about the first thousand years since the dividing point between BC and AD (or BCE and CE, if you want to argue about that, too), then the second millennium unequivocally ends at the end of 2000. If you're talking about "The 2000s," they just as unequivocally begin at the beginning of 2000. OK?

There's no reason to expect that to stop. But one of the best ways for dealing with the continuous progression of solving old problems and in the process creating new ones has always been science fiction. This is the literature that does not try to pretend things are and always will be as they always have been, but faces the fact of continuing change head-on and tries to imagine what problems we may face in the future—including unexpected consequences of our attempts to deal with old problems—and figure out what we might do to prevent or solve them.

Before
they become urgent real-life problems.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact
has for several decades been a leading practitioner of the art of imagining possible futures and how we might steer them in directions we like. One meaning of the "Analog" in our title is that every story is an analog simulation of a possible future, in which a writer and reader can together examine something that might happen and then imagine what might happen as a result—and how that would affect people's lives. Such thought experiments can be very helpful in preparing us to deal with the futures we actually get. They serve as a sort of "vaccine against future shock"—and they can (and should) be a lot of fun in the process.

The stories in this collection are a few samples of what
Analog
writers have been doing between 2000 and 2010, entertaining readers while leading into a wide range of possible futures. Some of those, like "Sheena 5," "Pupa," and "Cold Words," involve quite distant futures and thoroughly alien beings and minds; others, like "Tiny Berries" and "The Night of the RFIDs," reflect concerns that are much of here and now.

Of course, this collection's title will undoubtedly prove to be a bit of poetic license. These stories are indeed all of this millennium, but we would be kidding ourselves to imagine that they in any way represent the
whole
millennium. The decade just finished is the merest beginning of the new millennium, and the rest of it will undoubtedly bring far more change—and problems, and opportunities—than any of us can imagine.

But we'll keep trying, and our imaginings will keep changing as reality does. What won't change is that we'll have a lot of fun exploring the richly unfolding array of possibilities.

Brad R. Torgersen

I was eleven years old when the Earth burned.

I can still remember Papa running into the hotel room on the space station, screaming. What he said, exactly, I can't recall. But there was fear in his eyes when he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. He did the same with my little sister, Irenka, and then he was back out the door—both of us bouncing across his deltoids like sacks of potatoes.

Papa didn't stop for luggage, or any of our toys.

Not even my special chair.

I remember the curved corridor being filled with adults: screaming, fighting, and yelling.

One of them got in Papa's path, and Papa literally kicked the man out of the way.

Papa had never hurt another human being in his whole life.

Irenka, who was just four, kept calling for Mama. But Mama had been at a conference on the other side of the station, and we didn't see her anywhere.

I kept thinking about my chair. If whatever was happening was bad enough for Papa to forget my expensive new chair, then it was really,
really
bad.

When we got to the hatch of the ship, there were big people with guns and they wouldn't let Papa onboard.

Papa yelled at them. They yelled back.

I remember Papa slowly putting Irenka and me down on the deck and hugging us both very closely, his big hands stroking the backs of our heads while he spoke.

"Mirek, you're the oldest. You have to take care of Irenka. And Irenka, I want you to be good for your brother and do what he says. Because you both have to leave this place and I can't come with you."

The big people with guns moved aside and other people, wearing crew jumpers, came through the hatch and tried to take Irenka and me away from Papa.

Panic gripped me.

I wouldn't release him.