Forever Magazine Issue 44 by Alec Nevala-Lee

Author:Alec Nevala-Lee [Nevala-Lee, Alec]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, novelette, novella, science fiction, science fiction magazine, short fiction, short story
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2018-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Originally published in Analog Science Fiction, January-February 2017.

Ruins

Eleanor Arnason

Of course, the story began in a low dive in Venusport, in the slums up on the hillside above the harbor. The proper town was below them: grid streets with streetlights, solid, handsome concrete houses, and apartment blocks. The people in the apartments—middle class and working folks with steady jobs—had their furniture volume-printed in one of the city’s big plants. The rich folks in their houses patronized custom printing shops, where they could get any kind of furniture in any style.

The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

God printed out the both of them

And ordered their estate

Not that it mattered up on the hill. The people here scraped by without regular jobs that could be relied on. There were always layoffs, when construction was cut back or the equipment from Earth did not arrive. If there were God-given rules for their lives, they didn’t know them.

The bar Ash was in had beat-up, previously owned chairs and tables. A dehumidifier-heating unit glowed against one wall, because it was winter, and the usual winter rains fell heavily outside. It wasn’t cold that was a problem. No place on Venus was really cold, except the tops of a few tall mountains. But the damp could get in your bones.

Ash sat in a corner, her back against a wall. On the table in front of her was a glass of beer and a tablet. She was playing solitaire on the tablet. The game occupied her mind just enough to keep out old memories, but left her with attention for the bar. It could be dangerous on payday nights, when people were flush and drunk, or after big layoffs, when people were angry and spending their last money. Tonight it was mostly empty.

The guy who walked in—there was always someone walking in at the start of a story—did not belong. He was short and neatly dressed, with a fancy vest full of pockets; and his head was shaved, except for a few tufts of bright blue hair. It was the kind of haircut that required upkeep. Most people in Hillside didn’t bother.

He stopped at the bar and spoke to the bartender, who nodded toward Ash. The man bought a glass of wine, which was a mistake, as he would find when he tasted it, then walked over.

She had no chance of winning the current game and turned the tablet off.

“Hong Wu,” he said in introduction. “I’m an editor with National Geographic.”

“Yes?” She nodded toward the chair opposite. The man sat down, took a sip of his wine and made a face. “You are Ash Weatherman.”

“Yes.”

“We want to do a story about the megafauna on Venus, and we want to hire you.”

“The story’s been done,” Ash said.

“We think another look at the megafauna is worth it. We did a thousand stories about wild animals in Africa, until they were gone. People could never get enough of elephants and lions. They still can’t. Look at zoos.”

She

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