Compelling Science Fiction Issue 6 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Compelling Science Fiction Ltd.
Published: 2017-04-01T02:27:41+00:00

After demonstrating the program’s function, Xogblor broke execution and awaited his teacher’s appraisal.

“Quite good, actually,” the great blob of gas said, internal spots of lightning flickering in approval. “Very creative use of fluids and solids to establish a fixed point for the attractor, and the tail recursion all wraps very nicely in closed form. Well done, indeed.”

© Marcus Holm 2017

Samaritan

By Karl K. Gallagher

There was nothing but basalt at the bottom of this hole. I climbed back up carefully. Ripping my pressure suit on an outcropping would be a quick way to die. Prospecting alone means no one to help patch.

Once I had my feet on something solid I scratched "NO ORE" by the opening. This area was picked clean by my father’s generation. Hopefully I can save the next generation some trouble. The lunar vacuum should leave the message visible to the next ten generations.

Not that I expect to contribute to those generations. The Elders sent me and Jeremiah out separately to stop the arguments over which of us Ruth should marry. When we get back they’ll have decided. And I’ll likely be traded to another settlement, just a failure who wasn’t chosen by any girl in his own generation. My best hope is to find an iron meteorite, or ice, or something else we need to survive, and demonstrate I’m the better catch.

Or that I’m lucky. I’ll settle for lucky.

The next hole I could find was close to the outer edge of the crater rim. I looped my safety line around an outcropping. Looking around for safety hazards was the last step before going down the hole. Bright lights caught my eye.

It was the Modern town, miles away across the lunar regolith. It blazed with lights of every color, wasting energy in vain excess. The Old Order settlement I grew up in had only a few white lights, just enough for someone working on the surface to find his way home. I should hate them for their sinful display but I couldn’t. I’d been camping on the surface for a week, surrounded by grey. The yellow and red and purple of the Moderns held my eye.

A descending spaceship was even more colorful. It fired jets of blue flame to brake to a landing. Flashing lights marked the nose of the ship.

Then all at once the ship’s rockets cut off and the Modern town went dark. Not wholly dark — a few red lights remained on its perimeter. I looked for the ship. Was it going to crash?

Maybe not. The ship fired its rockets again. Brighter flames than before. No, it was closer. It had overshot the town and was coming toward me. Fast. Too fast.

I grabbed the line and jumped into the hole. I pressed my helmet against the rock.

A crunch sounded faintly through the stone. Then some sharper sounds. Debris landing closer? Some dust flew over the hole. I brushed my faceplate clear.

When I climbed out I could see the wreck. It was just outside the crater rim, barely clear of Old Order territory.

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