The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 7
Page 81
“I knew you’d come up with something,” Mindy says, her voice proud and happy.
Dr. Hamilton is silent for a while. He knows what I’m thinking. And then: “Hiroto, thank you.”
I unhook the torch from its useless fuel tank and connect it to the tank on my back. I turn it on. The flame is bright, sharp, a blade of light. I marshal photons and atoms before me, transforming them into a web of strength and light.
The stars on the other side have been sealed away again. The mirrored surface of the sail is perfect.
“Correct your course,” I speak into the microphone. “It’s done.”
“Acknowledged,” Dr. Hamilton says. His voice is that of a sad man trying not to sound sad.
“You have to come back first,” Mindy says. “If we correct course now, you’ll have nowhere to tether yourself.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I whisper into the microphone. “I’m not coming back. There’s not enough fuel left.”
“We’ll come for you!”
“You can’t navigate the struts as quickly as I did,” I tell her, gently. “No one knows their pattern as well as I do. By the time you get here, I will have run out of air.”
I wait until she’s quiet again. “Let us not speak of sad things. I love you.”
Then I turn off the radio and push off into space so that they aren’t tempted to mount a useless rescue mission. And I fall down, far, far below the canopy of the sail.
I watch as the sail turns away, unveiling the stars in their full glory. The sun, so faint now, is only one star among many, neither rising nor setting. I am cast adrift among them, alone and also at one with them.
A kitten’s tongue tickles the inside of my heart.
“I play the next stone in the gap.
Dad plays as I thought he would, and my stones in the northeast corner are gone, cast adrift.
But my main group is safe. They may even flourish in the future.
“Maybe there are heroes in Go,” Bobby’s voice says.
Mindy called me a hero. But I was simply a man in the right place at the right time. Dr. Hamilton is also a hero because he designed the Hopeful. Mindy is also a hero because she kept me awake. My mother is also a hero because she was willing to give me up so that I could survive. My father is also a hero because he showed me the right thing to do.
We are defined by the places we hold in the web of others’ lives.
I pull my gaze back from the Go board until the stones fuse into larger patterns of shifting life and pulsing breath. “Individual stones are not heroes, but all the stones together are heroic.”
“It is a beautiful day for a walk, isn’t it?” Dad says.
And we walk together down the street, so that we can remember every passing blade of grass, every dewdrop, every fading ray of the dying sun, infinitely beautiful.
Copyright
Introduction, story notes and arrangement by Jonathan Strahan. © Copyright 2013 Jonathan Strahan.
"The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times” by Eleanor Arnason. © Copyright 2012 Eleanor Arnason. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jul-Aug 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Great-Grandmother in the Cellar” by Peter S. Beagle. © Copyright 2012 Avicenna Development Corporation. Originally published in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, published in the US by Random Childrens and in the UK & Commonwealth by Hot Key Books. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard. © Copyright 2012 Aliette de Bodard. Originally published in Clarkesworld, No. 69, June 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Troll Blood” by Peter Dickinson. © Copyright 2012 Peter Dickinson. Originally published in Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures (Small Beer Press). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Close Encounters” by Andy Duncan. © Copyright 2012 Andy Duncan. Originally published in The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (PS Publishing). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Blood Drive” by Jeffrey Ford. © Copyright 2012 Jeffrey Ford. Originally published in After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia (Hyperion). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Adventure Story” by Neil Gaiman. © Copyright 2012 Neil Gaiman. Originally published in McSweeney’s 40. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"The Grinnell Method” by Molly Gloss. © Copyright 2012 Molly Gloss. Originally published in Strange Horizons, September 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Beautiful Boys” by Theodora Goss. © Copyright 2012 Theodora Goss. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"The Easthound” by Nalo Hopkinson. © Copyright 2012 Nalo Hopkinson. Originally published in After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia (Hyperion). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson. © Copyright 2012 Kij Johnson. Originally published in Clarkesworld 71, August 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Bricks, Sticks, Straw” by Gwyneth Jones. © Copyright 2012 Gwyneth Jones. Originally published in Edge of Infinity (Solaris Books). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Goggles (c 1910)” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. © Copyright 2012 Caitlín R. Kiernan. Originally published in Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution (Tachyon Publications). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"The Education of a Witch” by Ellen Klages. © Copyright 2012 Ellen Klages. Originally published in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, published in the US by Random Childrens and in the UK & Commonwealth by Hot Key Books. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"The Color Least Used by Nature” by Ted Kosmatka. © Copyright 2012 Ted Kosmatka. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Significant Dust” by Margo Lanagan. © Copyright 2012 Margo Lanagan. Originally published in Cracklescape (Twelfth Planet Press). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Two Houses” by Kelly Link. © Copyright 2012 Kelly Link. Originally published in Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (William Morrow). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu. © Copyright 2012 Ken Liu. Originally published in The Future Is Japanese (Haikosoru). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden” by Paul McAuley. © Copyright 2012 Paul McAuley. Originally published in Edge of Infinity (Solaris Books). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Swift, Brutal Retaliation” by Meghan McCarron. © Copyright 2012 Meghan McCarron. Originally published in Tor.com, 4 January 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"About Fairies” by Pat Murphy. © Copyright 2012 Pat Murphy. Originally published in Tor.com, 9 May 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Nahiku West” by Linda Nagata. © Copyright 2012 Linda Nagata. Originally published in Analog: Science Fiction Science Fact, October 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Let Maps to Others” by K. J. Parker. © Copyright 2012 K. J. Parker. Originally published in Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls” by Rachel Pollack. © Copyright 2012 Rachel Pollack. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jul-Aug 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Katabasis” by Robert Reed. © Copyright 2012 Robert Reed. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov-Dec 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"What Did Tessimond Tell You?” by Adam Roberts. © Copyright 2012 Adam Roberts. Originally published in Solaris Rising 1.5 (Solaris Books). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"The Contrary Gardener” by Christo
pher Rowe. © Copyright 2012 Christopher Rowe. Originally published in Eclipse Online, October 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Joke in Four Panels” by Robert Shearman. © Copyright 2012 Robert Shearman. Originally published under the title “Madalyn Morgan,” One Hundred Stories, 29 January 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Domestic Magic” by Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem. © Copyright 2012 Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem. Originally published in Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric & Arcane (Solaris Books). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Reindeer Mountain” by Karin Tidbeck. © Copyright 2012 Karin Tidbeck. Originally published in Jagganath and Other Stories (Cheeky Frawg Books). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente. © Copyright 2012 Catherynne M. Valente. Originally published in Clarkesworld 71, August 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
"A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones” by Genevieve Valentine. © Copyright 2012 Genevieve Valentine. Originally published in Clarkesworld 73, October 2012. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
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