The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 3
Page 37
We sit in silence as we circle the planet once, then again. The second time the Mountain appears, I rest my fingers against my collar.
“May the Mother watch over us,” I say. “May we watch over the Mother.”
As my words echo to silence, I feel it. Maggie’s heartbeat, so faint at first that I think I am imagining it, but it quickly becomes stronger, until it is as steady and strong as I have always known it.
“She’s alive,” I say. “Maggie’s alive down there.”
Mallory’s eyes flicker as it searches the datastreams. “No visual sign of her anywhere.”
I press my finger to my lips. The encapsulated cells are cold, but they are beating. “She’s under the ice, but she’s still alive.” My own heart is pounding; I wonder if Maggie is conscious enough to feel it.
The red warnings come onto the board again, accompanied now by notifications that a military ship is emerging from greyspace.
“Seven years until the Mountain weeps,” Mallory says. “We’ll find a way to come back.”
We turn to leave orbit, the Mountain sliding from view. “You hear that Maggie? We’ll come back. When the Mountain weeps, we’ll be here, waiting. You can tell us everything you saw.”
Maggie’s heart skips, then returns to that smooth, strong beat. She knows. She can feel me. My heartbeat is a beacon that will guide her home.
I touch both of my hands to my collar. “May the Mother watch over you, Maggie. I love you.”
Mallory sends messages to the station and military ship, sets our course through greyspace back to Demeter. I lie back in my chair, close my eyes. In the darkness, I can see the path that we will take over the next seven years, a vast circle of space connected by stars. We will go back to Demeter, and then to Cleis Station. When we come back, it will be with our child by my side. A daughter. Maybe she will be dark like me. Maybe golden like Maggie. Maybe she will climb like us.
So many maybes—seven years filled with them. And one certainty, we will return, no matter what, everything circling back, leading us back to the Mountain, to Maggie.
Infinivox Anthologies
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #1
(audiobook)
Turing’s Apples – Stephen Baxter
Shoggoth’s in Bloom – Elizabeth Bear
Exhalation – Ted Chiang
The Dream of Reason – Jeffrey Ford
The Ray-Gun: A Love Story – James Alan Gardner
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss – Kij Johnson
The Art of Alchemy – Ted Kosmatka
The City of the Dead – Paul McAuley
Five Thrillers – Robert Reed
Fixing Hanover – Jeff VanderMeer
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #2
(audiobook / ebook)
Erosion – Ian Creasey
As Women Fight – Sara Genge
A Story, with Beans – Steven Gould
Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance – John Kessel
On the Human Plan – Jay Lake
Crimes and Glory – Paul McAuley
Mongoose – Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Before My Last Breath – Robert Reed
The Island – Peter Watts
This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe – Robert Charles Wilson
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #3
(audiobook / ebook)
Under the Moons of Venus – Damien Broderick
The Shipmaker – Aliette de Bodard
Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain – Yoon Ha Lee
Re-Crossing the Styx – Ian R. MacLeod
Eight Miles – Sean McMullen
Elegy for a Young Elk – Hannu Rajaniemi
Alone – Robert Reed
The Emperor of Mars – Allen M. Steele
A Letter from the Emperor – Steve Rasnic Tem
The Things – Peter Watts
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #4
(audiobook / ebook)
Dying Young – Peter M. Ball
Martian Heart – John Barnes
Canterbury Hollow – Chris Lawson
The Choice – Paul McAuley
After the Apocalypse – Maureen McHugh
Purple – Robert Reed
Laika’s Ghost – Karl Schroeder
Bit Rot – Charles Stross
For I Have Laid Me Down on The Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again – Michael Swanwick
At Play in the Fields – Steve Rasnic Tem
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #5
(audiobook / ebook)
Invisible Men – Christopher Barzak
Close Encounters – Andy Duncan
Bricks, Sticks, Straw – Gwyneth Jones
Arbeitskraft – Nick Mamatas
The Man – Paul McAuley
Nahiku West – Linda Nagata
Tyche and the Ants – Hannu Rajaniemi
Katabasis – Robert Reed
The Contrary Gardener – Christopher Rowe
Scout – Bud Sparhawk
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #6
(audiobook / ebook)
Zero for Conduct – Greg Egan
Exit, Interrupted – C. W. Johnson
Pathways – Nancy Kress
Entangled – Ian R. MacLeod
The Irish Astronaut – Val Nolan
Among Us – Robert Reed
A Map of Mercury – Alastair Reynolds
Martian Blood – Allen M. Steele
The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin – Michael Swanwick
The Best We Can – Carrie Vaughn
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #7
(audiobook / ebook)
Marielena – Nina Allan
Covenant – Elizabeth Bear
The Magician and LaPlace’s Demon – Tom Crosshill
Sadness – Timons Esaias
Amicae Aeternum – Ellen Klages
Red Lights, and Rain – Gareth L. Powell
The Sarcophagus – Robert Reed
In Babelsberg – Alastair Reynolds
Passage of Earth – Michael Swanwick
The Colonel – Peter Watts
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #8
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
My Last Bringback – John Barnes
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss – David Brin
Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight – Aliette de Bodard
Damage – David Levine
Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan – Ian McDonald
The Audience – Sean McMullen
Empty – Robert Reed
A Murmuration – Alastair Reynolds
Two-Year Man – Kelly Robson
Today I Am Paul – Martin L. Shoemaker
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #9
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
The Art of Space Travel – Nina Allan
They Have All One Breath – Karl Bunker
Patience Lake – Matthew Claxton
Touring with the Alien – Carolyn Ives Gilman
My Generations Shall Praise – Samantha Henderson
Elves of Antarctica – Paul McAuley
Red in Tooth and Cog – Cat Rambo
Parables of Infinity – Robert Reed
Prodigal – Gord Sellar
Terminal – Lavie Tidhar
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #10
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
My English Name – R. S. Benedict
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance – Tobias S. Buckell
The Moon is Not a Battlefield – Indrapramit Das
Dear Sarah – Nancy Kress
An Evening with Severyn Grimes – Rich Larson
The Chameleon’s Gloves – Yoon Ha Lee
The Martian Obelisk – Linda Nagata
A Series o
f Steaks – Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The Residue of Fire – Robert Reed
Night Passage – Alastair Reynolds
The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
Vortex – Gregory Benford
RedKing – Craig DeLancey
Number Nine Moon – Alex Irvine
Of the Beast in the Belly – C. W. Johnson
The Seventh Gamer – Gwyneth Jones
Chasing Ivory – Ted Kosmatka
Fieldwork – Shariann Lewitt
Seven Birthdays – Ken Liu
The Visitor from Taured – Ian R. MacLeod
Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was – Paul McAuley
Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee – Alastair Reynolds
The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 2
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
Shadows of Eternity – Gregory Benford
The Chatter of Monkeys – Bond Elam
Acadie – Dave Hutchinson
Canoe – Nancy Kress
The Use of Things – Ramez Naam
The Proving Ground – Alec Nevala-Lee
Holdfast – Alastair Reynolds
Vanguard 2.0 – Carter Scholz
ZeroS – Peter Watts
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #1
(audiobook / ebook)
Return to Titan – Stephen Baxter
The Sultan of the Clouds – Geoffrey A. Landis
Seven Cities of Gold – David Moles
Jackie’s-Boy – Steven Popkes
A History of Terraforming – Robert Reed
Troika – Alastair Reynolds
Several Items of Interest – Rick Wilber
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #2
(audiobook / ebook)
The Ice Owl – Carolyn Ives Gilman
The Man Who Bridged the Mist – Kij Johnson
Kiss Me Twice – Mary Robinette Kowal
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary – Ken Liu
The Ants of Flanders – Robert Reed
Angel of Europa – Allen M. Steele
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #3
(audiobook / ebook)
In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns – Elizabeth Bear
The Stars Do Not Lie – Jay Lake
The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future – Jay Lake
Sudden, Broken and Unexpected – Steven Popkes
Eater-of-Bone – Robert Reed
The Boolean Gate – Walter Jon Williams
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #4
(audiobook / ebook)
Earth I – Stephen Baxter
Success – Michael Blumlein
Feral Moon – Alexander Jablokov
The Weight of the Sunrise – Vylar Kaftan
One – Nancy Kress
Precious Mental – Robert Reed
Murder on the Aldrin Express – Martin L. Shoemaker
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #5
(audiobook / ebook)
The Man Who Sold the Moon – Cory Doctorow
The Regular – Ken Liu
Claudius Rex – John P. Murphy
Of All Possible Worlds – Jay O’Connell
Each in His Prison, Thinking of the Key – William Preston
The Last Log of the Lachrimosa – Alastair Reynolds
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #6
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls – Aliette de Bodard
The New Mother – Eugene Fischer
Inhuman Garbage – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Gypsy – Carter Scholz
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear – Bao Shu
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #7
(audiobook / ebook / paperback)
Wyatt Earp 2.0 – Wil McCarthy
The Charge and the Storm – An Owomoyela
Lazy Dog Out – Suzanne Palmer
The Iron Tactician – Alastair Reynolds
Einstein’s Shadow – Allen M. Steele
The Vanishing Kind – Lavie Tidhar
The Metal Demimonde – Nick Wolven
The Year’s Top Short SF Novels #8
(ebook / paperback)
The Martian Job – Jaine Fenn
The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse – Kathleen Ann Goonan
How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry – Alexander Jablokov
Proof of Concept – Gwyneth Jones
The Proving Ground – Alec Nevala-Lee
The Speed of Belief – Robert Reed
The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories – First Annual Collection
(ebook / paperback)
Cold Blue Sky – J. E. Bates
Okay, Glory – Elizabeth Bear
Air Gap – Eric Cline
When We Were Starless – Simone Heller
Grace’s Family – James Patrick Kelly
Meat and Salt and Sparks – Rich Larson
Quality Time – Ken Liu
The Blue Fairy’s Manifesto – Annalee Newitz
Different Seas – Alastair Reynolds
S’elfie – Justina Robson
Hard Mary – Sofia Samatar
The Buried Giant – Lavie Tidhar
mini-Masterpieces of Science Fiction
(audiobook)
Last Contact – Stephen Baxter
The Something-Dreaming Game – Elizabeth Bear
Grandma – Carol Emshwiller
Lambing Season – Molly Gloss
None So Blind – Joe Haldeman
Kin – Bruce McAllister
Gene Wars – Paul McAuley
Bright Red Star – Bud Sparhawk
Far as You Can Go – Greg van Eekhout
Timeless Time Travel Tales
(audiobook / ebook)
Things Undone – John Barnes
And Wild for to Hold – Nancy Kress
Home Time – Ian R. MacLeod
The Mists of Time – Tom Purdom
Against the Current – Robert Silverberg
The Observation Post – Allen M. Steele
Scherzo with Tyrannosaur – Michael Swanwick
Bespoke – Genevieve Valentine
Steampunk Specs
(audiobook / ebook)
Smoke City – Christopher Barzak
Dr. Lash Remembers – Jeffrey Ford
Machine Maid – Margo Lanagan
Arbeitskraft – Nick Mamatas
Ninety Thousand Horses – Sean McMullen
Tanglefoot (A Clockwork Century Story) – Cherie Priest
Clockwork Fairies – Cat Rambo
Edison’s Frankenstein – Chris Roberson
A Serpent in the Gears – Margaret Ronald
Zeppelin City – Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn
Starship Vectors
(audiobook)
Mayflower II – Stephen Baxter
Boojum – Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
The Political Officer – Charles Coleman Finlay
The Tomb Wife – Gwyneth Jones
Shiva in Shadow – Nancy Kress
The Remoras – Robert Reed
Aliens Rule
(audiobook)
Okanoggan Falls – Carolyn Ives Gilman