A | Home | Contact Us | Subscription Rates | Current Issue | Links | Forum | Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Echea Read these Nebula-nomin This story first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 1998. ated stories Nominated for Best Novelette. From Asimov's Echea, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch I can close my eyes and she appears in my mind as she did the Fortune and moment I first saw her: tiny, fragile, with unnaturally pale skin and Misfortune, by slanted chocolate eyes. Her hair was white as the moon on a Lisa Goldstein cloudless evening. It seemed, that day, that her eyes were the only Izzy and the spot of color on her haggard little face. She was seven, but she looked Father of Terror, three. by Eliot Fintushel And she acted like nothing we had ever encountered before. Lethe, by Walter Jon Williams Or since. Standing Room Only, by Karen We had three children and a good life. We were not impulsive, but we Joy Fowler did feel as if we had something to give. Our home was large, and we Winter Fire, by had money; any child would benefit from that. Geoffrey A. Landis It seemed to be for the best. From Analog It all started with the brochures. We saw them first at an outdoor café near our home. We were having lunch when we glimpsed floating dots Aurora in Four of color, a fleeting child’s face. Both my husband and I touched them Voices, by only to have the displays open before us: Catherine Asaro The blank vista of the Moon, the Earth over the horizon like a giant blue and white ball, a looming presence, pristine and healthy and somehow guilt-ridden. The Moon itself looked barren, as it always had, until one focused. And then one saw the pockmarks, the shattered dome open to the stars. In the corner of the first brochure I opened, at the very Subscriptions edge of the reproduction, were blood-splotches. They were scattered on the craters and boulders, and had left fist-sized holes in the dust. I didn’t need to be told what had caused it. We saw the effects of high velocity rifles in low gravity every time we downloaded the news. If you enjoyed this sample and want The brochures began with the Moon, and ended with the faces of to read more, refugees: pallid, worn, defeated. The passenger shuttles to Earth had Asimov's Science pretty much stopped. At first, those who could pay came here, but by Fiction offers you the time we got our brochures, Earth passage had changed. Only another way to those with living relatives were able to return. Living relatives who were subscribe to our willing to acknowledge the relationship–and had official hard copy to print magazine. prove it. We have a secure server which will The rules were waived in the case of children, of orphans and of allow you to order underage war refuges. They were allowed to come to Earth if their a subscription bodies could tolerate it, if they were willing to be adopted, and if they online. There, you were willing to renounce any claims they had to Moon land. can order a subscription by They had to renounce the stars in order to have a home. providing us with your name, We picked her up in Sioux Falls, the nearest star shuttle stop and address and credit detention center to our home. The shuttle stop was a desolate place. It card information. was designed as an embarkation point for political prisoners and for star soldiers. It was built on the rolling prairie, a sprawling complex with Subscribe Now laser fences shimmering in the sunlight. Guards stood at every entrance, and several hovered above. We were led, by men with laser Copyright rifles, into the main compound, a building finished almost a century before, made of concrete and steel, functional, cold, and ancient. Its "Echea" by halls smelled musty. The concrete flaked, covering everything with a Kristine Kathryn fine gray dust. To contact us about editorial matters , send an email to Asimov's SF. Questions regarding subscriptions should be sent to our subscription address. If you find any Web site errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning, please send it to webmaster@asimovs.com. Copyright © 1998, 1999 Asimov's SF All Rights Reserved Worldwide