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FUTURES SCIENCE FICTION HOUSTON, HOUSTON, DO YOU READ JAMES TIPTREE? A way to pass the time. BY RACHAEL K. JONES to be the man of every­one’s dreams.” Hugh’s belly laugh sent feedback squeal- fter two hours of work, Daria ing over the line. “Hey, we didn’t say we got the space station’s recycler could use anthologies! Good one, sis! back online without Hugh Except you should’ve used Gardner Athere to help her. If he had just Dozois. He invented this game. That JACEY BY ILLUSTRATION waited 10 minutes while she tried would be hilarious.” resetting power. If he had let her Daria let the ringing laughter wash double-check his gear before his over her, and did not allow herself to spacewalk, like he was supposed to flinch away from the sharp pain of the according to all the protocols. feedback. She wanted that sound burned If. If. If. into her synapses. He was humanity itself, Now her only brother was drifting laughing into the abyss as he hung sus- away from Station Mars One, a fragile pended in his ridiculous, wonderful, bubble- floating bubble in the void. He brought to wrap suit, holding back the cold and dark, mind the time Daria packed her gold- defeating the howling loneliness with the fish in the front seat for the drive to only weapon that ever worked. college. Glass bowl swathed in bub- “Hey, Daria? I’m getting tired,” said ble wrap swathed in a blanket, set in Hugh. Six hours unmoored now. “But a flimsy taped-up cardboard box. The you’ve only got two months until the thinnest sliver of shelter against a sud- relief crew gets here. That’s not so bad. den end. You’ll pass the time. You’ve got all those She pressed both palms into her eye- books.” balls until stars blossomed, and with great Her resolve broke. Daria groped for her effort, focused on her last obligation: to He snorted, a damaged spacewalk gear. Hugh had desta- keep him company until he died. sound like tumbling bilized its joints when he turned it into a The intercom crackled to life. “Your turn, pebbles over the radio. balloon for his birthday, but at least he Daria,” said Hugh. He sounded weary, but “You have the e-reader. No wouldn’t have to die alone. “I’ll come and in good spirits. Like they were still parked excuses. Just browse the index until get you. You’re not that far away. We can together with their e-readers in the control you see something good.” He paused. She make it work somehow.” room, passing the long, boring hours care- could hear him breathing, in and out, slow “No.” It was so final, so firm. Her brother taking the station until their six-month stint and rhythmic. “Not like I’d catch you doing was never one to give orders. “Can’t risk it. ended, and the relief shuttle arrived. it .” Someone has to be there to wake the relief “The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury,” “I’m not going to cheat, Hugh.” Daria crew from stasis when their shuttle arrives. she said after some thought. “Non-fiction. believed in following the rules, even if it Otherwise you’ll lose more than Mars’s An alien visits Earth to write the definitive didn’t matter much anymore. She tried to worst prankster.” intergalactic biography of the science-fiction speak, to tell another joke, but she looked “Two Sisters Gore Vidal,” she began. “It’s master.” Hugh had taught her to play this out the window and saw him out there in the about — about minotaurs —” game. You mashed up a novel title with its distance, his suit reflecting sunlight, and her “I love you, okay?” His voice was definitely author, then invented a short synopsis. voice hitched. fainter. From weakness or distance, she “Ha. Not bad.” He hummed to himself. “Hey,” Hugh said gently, or maybe it was couldn’t say. Out the window, his body was “How about … Harlan Ellison’s Watching just the radio signal dying. “Hey, I’m sorry, just a suggestion against the bright dome of Harlan Ellison? Comedy. Harlan’s new- Daria. Sorry about rushing the repair this Mars, a word on the tip of the tongue. est addiction is a reality TV series starring morning. About that prank I pulled with “Remake Connie Willis!” she shouted. himself.” your suit last month. Sorry about … well, “Feed Mira Grant! The Sky That Laps Jay Four unbroken hours of this, and Hugh all of it. If I’d followed protocol, you’d have Lake!” could still pull a laugh from her. “Lock In everything you need to rescue me, but now, Daria called out into the void for a long John Scalzi,” Daria shot back. “Crime. The because of me —” time, shouting for her other half like a title world’s best prison architects match wits She didn’t want him to say it, to make it missing its author, because without it, noth- with a Hugo-winning escape artist who slips real. “Best American Science Fiction and ing made any sense. ■ out of all restraints.” Fantasy John Joseph “Ha. Pretty good. But I said that one an NATURE.COM Adams. Erotica. A Rachael K. Jones is an author, editor and hour ago,” said Hugh. “Think of something Follow Futures: collection of science- secret android. Her fiction has appeared in different.” @NatureFutures fiction shorts starring dozens of magazines. She lives in Athens, “Sorry. I suck at this game.” go.nature.com/mtoodm a sexbot programmed Georgia, with her husband. 578 | NATURE | VOL 537 | 22 SEPTEMBER©2016 Ma c2016millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. .

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