Issue 30: 2nd Quarter 2009

"Whoever battles monsters should take care not to become a monster too, for if you stare long enough into the Abyss, the Abyss stares also into you."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, chapter 4, no. 146

Announcements

Editorial

Fix, Do Not Eliminate, the Semiprozine Hugo
by Wendy S. Delmater, Editor-In-Chief

Short Fiction

The Midnight Girls
by Lisa A. Koosis

     "As artists, we do not just see and translate the world around us visually." He walked down one aisle and up the other, moving between desks. "We engage all of our senses. We feel the world around us. Taste becomes color. Sound becomes lines or angles, maybe curves. Touch, emotion becomes the play of dark and light on the page."

     He tapped the desk of a student with two fingers. "Draw for me, Mr. Tremblay, the keen of a seagull. And you, Ms. Royce, the taste of an overripe banana."

     When he moved toward me, I averted my gaze. He remained silent for heartbeat after heartbeat. Finally I looked up and met his eyes. The intimacy of the moment took my breath.

     "And you, Lily," he said, "paint for me loneliness."

No Cord Or Cable
by Bud Sparhawk

     "Sergio swore he would overcome his affliction. He tried - oh, how he tried! Doctor Zg tried to steady his mind with exercises for months and ..."

     "Doctor Zg?" I didn't recognize the name.

     Mother shrugged, momentarily distracted by the question. "Doctor Zg's a Capellan who was abandoned by explorers. Your father decided to take care of it."

     "He adopted an alien? That doesn't sound like something father would do."

     "Perhaps. But Zg has a certain . . . influence." She fiddled with a bit of lace. "Maybe that's why Sergio thought the alien could help and, for a while, he - we - thought the exercises were succeeding" She looked away as if the answer might be written on the wall. "It was horrible, what he did, Hal. Sergio stood there, staring at me and ..." she stopped, as if she were struggling to recall something else, but could not bring it to mind.

     "What?" I asked.

     Mother shook herself. "He said the alien was your brother. He called that thing his son."

Dancing For The Monsoon
by Aliette de Bodard

     "Just tell me," Nanpeng said stubbornly. "Do you believe in what you're doing?"

     "Do I believe?" Khean said. "In a Dance that will suck the joy out of me, in movements that will drain me until my body no longer answers to my commands? Who'd be insane enough to believe that, kru?"

In The Middle Of Nowhere With Company
by Ruth Nestvold

     "Of course, we always have birds of sorrow," the driver continued, nodding sagely. "But there are more than usual."

     Jordyn felt her throat close at the woman's superstitious comments. If there were such a thing as birds of sorrow, she had surely brought them with her. Losing them wasn't quite as easy as running away to just south of the Arctic Circle.

Flash Fiction

Deep Moves
by William Highsmith

     From: postmaster:::serverfarm:gov (4/13/2080)
     Subject: Returned mail

     The following NASAtext Spacecom message had delivery problems:
     DeepSpaceContact
     Permanent Failure: user_unknown.

     Argghhh!!!!

Poetry

Bumbershoot
by Howard V. Hendrix

Across The Grimpen Sedge
by Paul Christian Stevens

Music Smooth As Fog
by Marge Simon

Awards

Colophon and Affiliations