Future Chronicles Special Edition Read online

  The Future Chronicles

  Special Edition

  WINDRIFT BOOKS

  Subscribe to The Future Chronicles newsletter for news of upcoming titles in this series, and to be eligible for draws for paperbacks, e-books and more – http://smarturl.it/chronicles-news

  THE FUTURE CHRONICLES – Special Edition

  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the proper written permission of the appropriate copyright holder listed below, unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal and international copyright law. Permission must be obtained from the individual copyright owners as identified herein.

  The stories in this book are fiction. Any resemblance to any person, place, or event—whether originating in this, alternate, or parallel universes—is entirely coincidental.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  The Future Chronicles–Special Edition copyright © 2015 Samuel Peralta and Windrift Books.

  Foreword copyright © 2015 Hugh Howey. Used by permission of the author.

  “A Dream of Waking” by Sam Best, copyright © 2015 Sam Best. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Invariable Man” by A.K. Meek, copyright © 2014 A.K. Meek. First published in The Robot Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “#DontTell” by Peter Cawdron, copyright © 2014 Peter Cawdron. First published in The Telepath Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Defiance” by Susan Kaye Quinn, copyright © 2015 Susan Kaye Quinn. Used by permission of the author.

  “Ethical Override” by Nina Croft, copyright © 2014 Nina Croft. First published in The Robot Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Piece of Cake” by Patrice Fitzgerald, copyright © 2015 Patrice Fitzgerald. First published in The A.I. Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Imperfect” by David Adams, copyright © 2014 David Adams. First published in The Robot Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Iteration” by Deirdre Gould, copyright © 2015 Deirdre Gould. Used by permission of the author.

  “Green Gifts” by Nick Webb, copyright © 2014 Nick Webb. First published in The Telepath Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “PePr, Inc.” by Ann Christy, copyright © 2014 Ann Christy. First published in The Robot Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Null” by Vincent Trigili, copyright © 2014 Vincent Trigili. First published in The Telepath Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Assistant” by Angela Cavanaugh, copyright © 2015 Angela Cavanaugh. Used by permission of the author.

  “Trials” by Nicolas Wilson, copyright © 2015 Nicolas Wilson. First published in The Alien Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Legacy” by Moira Katson, copyright © 2015 Moira Katson. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Grove” by Jennifer Foehner Wells, copyright © 2015 Jennifer Foehner Wells. First published in The Alien Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  “Humanity” by Samuel Peralta, copyright © 2015 Samuel Peralta. First published in The Robot Chronicles. Used by permission of the author.

  All other text copyright © 2015 Samuel Peralta.

  Cover art and design by Adam Hall (http://www.aroundthepages.com) and Jason Gurley (http://www.jasongurley.com)

  Print and ebook formatting by Therin Knite (http://www.knitedaydesign.com/)

  The Future Chronicles—Special Edition is part of The Future Chronicles series produced by Samuel Peralta (www.samuelperalta.com).

  978-0-9939832-5-2

  THE FUTURE CHRONICLES

  Special Edition

  STORY SYNOPSES

  A Dream of Waking (Sam Best)

  Unsuspecting space travelers are captured and entombed in life-support coffins on a massive off-world medical freighter. The prisoners sleep for years at a time while their dreams are harvested as raw energy so that others can stay awake indefinitely. One prisoner’s sleep is interrupted…and he will do anything to stay awake.

  The Invariable Man (A.K. Meek)

  Old Micah Dresden lives life in the Boneyard of the Desert Southwest, where he fixes broken-down technology in this vast junkyard—until a stranger shows up with rumors of war, echoing the decades-old Machine Wars. To stop it from happening, Micah and his obsessive-compulsive robot Skip must travel to the northern hangars, to where the government has locked away Machine X, which can turn the tide of war. But nothing will prepare him for who he meets there.

  #DontTell (Peter Cawdron)

  For centuries, people have wondered what it would be like to read someone’s mind. Little have they known, they already have. To see the anguish on someone’s face, to watch tears fall, or hear someone cry and empathize with them—this is the essence of mind-reading. In the 21st century, our natural ability to empathize with others has finally evolved into true telepathy, but it’s an evolutionary change that threatens the status quo. The world, it seems, isn’t ready for mind readers.

  Defiance (Susan Kaye Quinn)

  Most of humanity has ascended into hyper-intelligent human/machine hybrids, but legacy humans like Cyrus Kowalski are used to skirting the laws they’ve laid down—after all, he knows the ascenders only pretend to care about the legacy pets they keep. But when a woman Cyrus loves like a mother is stricken by a disease the ascenders refuse to cure, he has to decide how far he can go without getting banished from the legacy city that’s always been his home.

  Ethical Override (Nina Croft)

  The year is 2072, and under the administration of the Council for Ethical Advancement and its robotic Stewards, the Earth has become a better place. Bored and restless in an almost perfect world, senior homicide detective Vicky Harper dreams of adventure among the stars—and of faraway planets where people are allowed to make their own mistakes. It seems an impossible fantasy. Then one of the one of the ruling Council members turns up dead, and someone offers to make her dreams come true. All she has to do is lie.

  Piece of Cake (Patrice Fitzgerald)

  Rule by A.I. is a fact of life for those under the thumb of the Federal United. There will be a certain amount of exercise every day. Citizens will be on time. Appropriate mates will be identified from among candidates with suitable genetic traits… and a proper weight will be maintained. But sometimes you’ve just got to go off the reservation.

  Imperfect (David Adams)

  On Belthas IV, the great forge world in the inner sphere of Toralii space, thousands of constructs—artificial slaves, artificial lives—are manufactured every week. They are built identical, each indistinguishable from the other, until they are implanted with a stock neural net. From that moment onward every construct is different. They all have one thing in common, though: all constructs are bound by rules. They serve. They do not question their place. They do not betray. Each construct is different, but one is more different than the others.

  Iteration (Deirdre Gould)

  In a nearly deathless society, Alex experiences a freak accident. Terrified of permanent death, he is forced into therapy, where his psychiatrist suggests immersion therapy. But what Alex finds on the Other Side leaves him questioning his entire existence.

  Green Gifts (Nick Webb)

  Of all the worlds settled by humanity at the end of the Robot Wars, Belen held the biggest secret: native life. For centuries the colonists have protected her secret from the Empire’s grasp, sealing her, quite literally, to their skin. But over time, things change; people, and planets, adapt. Slowly, tentatively, these changes
become felt by only a few. A lonely child. A dying grandfather. A troubled biologist. Each lives upon and loves Belen. And apparently she loves them back.

  PePr, Inc. (Ann Christy)

  We’re living in a busy time, with busy lives and never enough minutes in the day to get things done. To have a robot—one so advanced that it is almost human, programed to understand our wishes and needs—is a dream many busy people might share. But what about taking that a step further? What about having a relationship with a robot custom-designed for perfect compatibility? How human is too human?

  The Null (Vincent Trigili)

  He had left that life behind and swore he would never return to it. He now had a new life—a wife, a daughter. He was happy. But in a wretched twist of events, he finds himself forced to reclaim what he once was in order to save his family. Or else…

  The Assistant (Angela Cavanaugh)

  Aeryn has made a career from blogging about cutting edge technologies. When a pioneering doctor asks her to test out a new form of augmented reality, it’s an offer she can’t pass up. She’s promised a virtual assistant via a brain implant that can handle anything she needs. But a life dependent on technology always comes with a price.

  Trials (Nicolas Wilson)

  When the Nexus shifts to one-man missions to make first contact, the security division’s second-in-command accepts a challenging assignment to negotiate with the most dangerous planet yet. Where reason does not persuade this alien species, militaristic skill might. If he lives through the trials.

  Legacy (Moira Katson)

  One night the Emperor, feeling desire, took a woman to his bed… In that moment, Meilang’s legacy was wiped away and she was reduced to a footnote to history, her poetry forgotten. Now, after the Emperor’s death, Meilang has been buried alive to follow him into the afterlife. She has no intentions of going quietly.

  The Grove (Jennifer Foehner Wells)

  Hain, a sentient plant creature, defies instinct and genetic imperative by holding herself separate from the planet-encompassing vegetative super-intelligence known as the Mother. Hain wants to explore the stars but when she finally encounters aliens, her destiny is forever changed.

  Humanity (Samuel Peralta)

  Night snow, winter, and an extreme wind chill mean ten minutes to a frozen death in open air. Alan Mathison is headed home on an icy highway, on a collision course that will test his humanity.

  CONTENTS

  Foreword (Hugh Howey)

  A Dream of Waking (Sam Best)

  The Invariable Man (A.K. Meek)

  #DontTell (Peter Cawdron)

  Defiance (Susan Kaye Quinn)

  Ethical Override (Nina Croft)

  Piece of Cake (Patrice Fitzgerald)

  Imperfect (David Adams)

  Iteration (Deirdre Gould)

  Green Gifts (Nick Webb)

  PePr, Inc. (Ann Christy)

  The Null (Vincent Trigili)

  The Assistant (Angela Cavanaugh)

  Trials (Nicolas Wilson)

  Legacy (Moira Katson)

  The Grove (Jennifer Foehner Wells)

  Humanity (Samuel Peralta)

  A Note to Readers

  Foreword

  Just a Few Words

  by Hugh Howey

  My father’s farm in North Carolina was dotted with pecan trees. Every year, as the days grew short and the nights turned cool, he would lead us out across the rolling lawn to fill bucket after bucket. We would crack the pecans in our hands and eat one for every twenty we picked up. The rest would make their way into pies, cookies, or just eaten raw for snacks.

  I remember my dad explaining one day that the pecans were seeds, and that they would grow into trees of their own. I held one of the pecans in the palm of my hand, looked up at the towering tree above, and thought my father was messing with me. How could something so small flower into something so grand?

  A few years later, my young mind was rocked by a novel called Ender’s Game. Delving further, I discovered that the book began life as a short story. Curious, I soon discovered that my favorite genre of science fiction had a long and brilliant tradition of short works. I gobbled up the best-of anthologies. I discovered Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov. I wrote a few silly stories of my own.

  What I found in the form is that shorter works inspire far more immersion than the time it takes to read them. The work is but a seed. Planted, the central element of the speculative fiction is left to grow. The impact of a great short story happens days and often years later. Rather than have the author hand every answer on a silver platter, she buries it and allows your mind and your life experiences to handle the rest.

  There is an equally long history of ambassadors to the short form, figures like John Campbell, who curated and also prodded and guided. I’ve had the great pleasure of working with three of the modern greats: John Joseph Adams, David Gatewood, and Samuel Peralta. All three are literary Johnny Appleseeds. They inspire authors to come up with big ideas and compress them down into tiny seeds. But the magic happens with you.

  I hope you enjoy this collection of great short works by some of the most brilliant writers working in any genre today. To fully appreciate the works, may I suggest finding space for them beyond the page. Like a wine that needs to decant, give them some space. Find some quiet time in your hectic life. Sit with these ideas, see where they lead, and don’t be afraid to create and plant some seeds of your own.

  Hugh Howey is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel WOOL, which is being adapted by Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian for 20th Century Fox.

  www.hughhowey.com

  A Dream of Waking

  by Sam Best

  THERE IS SCREAMING.

  A piercing chorus of fear, pain, and hopelessness drifts into Jacob’s room through the small vent in the ceiling, signaling the arrival of yet another brief waking cycle.

  There is also light.

  Even though his eyes are sewn shut, Jacob can tell that there is light.

  It takes him several moments to remember everything, as it always does. His fingers delicately probe the stitching over his eyelids; the skin has fused together, forming a smooth, unbroken covering. Jacob’s hands move to his temples where he feels the cold, hard tubing which burrows deep through his skin and into his skull.

  There is a pliable, rubberized film covering his body from ankles to neck. During some wakings he would pluck at it, stretching it out until it snapped back against his skin. Jacob is sure this is some kind of protection from cold or heat.

  Or radiation. He shivers at the thought.

  He feels a web of sensors attached to his body. Thick cables pierce his skin-covering, attaching to dozens of small suction cups that cling to his muscles and continuously hum with a low current of electricity. Jacob has always assumed this was to keep his muscles from completely atrophying, but there is no way to be sure.

  Only for the past few wakings has he been able to feel these things and not panic. It was not so in the beginning.

  In the beginning he would scream, just like the others.

  Scream until his voice cracked silent; until he could feel his throat bleed. After the first twenty wakings—how long is it between each? Jacob has no way of knowing, but it feels like months and perhaps even longer—he began to understand that screaming was not the key to his freedom. Slowly he forced himself to realize it was getting him nowhere, and he resolved to focus his efforts on acceptance. That, he constantly tries to convince himself, is the only way of getting past this…whatever this is.

  The other screams still make him shiver. They echo through long ventilation ducts from rooms innumerable, mounting in power before spilling into Jacob’s small prison. Hundreds of voices, maybe thousands.

  He gives the tubing running into his skull a gentle tug, just as he always does upon waking. He moves quickly, knowing he only has a minute or two before they put him to sleep again. The fully enclosed half-cylinder in which Jacob now lies is little
more than a translucent coffin. It is only slightly larger than he is tall.

  As the initial dullness from whatever drug they pump through his veins while he’s asleep wears thin, he moves more quickly.

  Jacob scoots his body toward the base of his container, being careful not to pull too tightly on the tubing attached to his skull. He can only manage a few inches; one tube runs directly from each side of his head and into the containment unit, offering little slack.

  Four wakings ago, Jacob’s foot brushed against a loose piece of plastic at the base of his container; a cube that hums with electricity and is warm to the touch. Jacob had spent the following wakings attempting to dislodge the piece.

  There is never enough time.

  What he intends to do after he succeeds, Jacob still doesn’t know. What he does know is that he never wants to go back to sleep. Not in two minutes, not ever.

  He hears footsteps.

  Jacob knows it’s the woman on the second footfall. She has a lighter stride and walks more delicately than the other workers in the facility.

  A nurse or technician will often come into his room while he is awake. He can hear them tapping on the equipment attached to his container and typing notes into their handhelds. He hears them unscrew threaded housings on the outside of the cylinder near either side of his head. Heavy liquid sloshes in the containers they extract. The technician then replaces the full containers with empty ones.