Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 215

An average issue, with interesting stories by Alice Towey, Timothy Mudie and David McGillveray.

• "The Time Capsule" by Alice Towey: a girl discovers a space probe that fell from space, which is a time capsule from an earlier time with more technology than current times. But now, she has to keep its information from falling into the wrong hands before she has time to make use of the knowledge to make the current world a better place.

• "The Sort" by Thomas Ha: a father and his son, who appear to have an unusual way to communicate, travel through a town. But this is no ordinary town, set in a future where genetic manipulation have created that can delight people or bring out their hatred.

• "Molum, Molum, Molum the Scourge" by Rich Larson: in the future, an enhanced gladiator who is down and out is told of a store of drugs needed to quench the needs of his enhancements. As it turns out, he would need to do one final gladiatorial fight to get it.

• "Something Crossing Over, Something Coming Back" by Timothy Mudie: during a conflict between two countries, a scientist is sent to spy on the enemy by teleporting his consciousness into another person's body. During his spy mission, he has to act like the other person to fool others, including his wife. As the mission ends, he thinks over what he has done to affect the other person's life.

• "Canyon Dance" by Rajeev Prasad: in the future, man has colonized several worlds. To do so, they had to radically modify their body chemistries to cope with living in space and on other worlds. But one person still fights against his alcoholism, for he believes the fight is a part of his life. But he may have to reconsider when a move to another world may fail if he lets alcohol take over his life again.

• "The Deformed Saint and the Poison Wind" by David McGillveray: a space courier is ambushed by an enemy and has to escape to a planet. There, she discovers a native race of crab-like people that treats her as disabled due to her lack of limbs. She eventually discovers that the conflict she is a part of may have poisoned the natives with radiation sickness, but she may have a way to cure them.

• "Where My Love Still Lives" by Emily Taylor: in a future where 'builders' have taken over the surface of the Earth, what remains of humanity lives underground. Some people risk their lives to go to the surface in gliders to get food that can't be grown undergrown. The story follows one woman who returns to a cavern where her former lover lives. There, they return to an unavoidable topic: their love and his hope that she stops risking her life for food.

• "Three Circuits of the Monoceros Ring" by Marisca Pichette: a series of transcripts, some received corrupted, between three people travelling to distant parts of the universe, yet still hoping to meet again.