Winter

By Rick Novy

Two stories in one volume.

Winter - When humans return to Earth after 20,000 years of time dilation, things are no longer as they were. Change was inevitable, but some things never change. Cities are in ruins. The Golden Gate Bridge is a mound of scrap metal. Hodges things he is going home. Yutiko, the winged alien, wishes he was going back home, for this is not the earth he expected to find.

The Adjoa Gambit - On occupied Earth, mankind inhabits the Antarctic Reservation for Indigenous Peoples. But the occupiers like to gamble, and the new family has lost their shelter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rick Novy
• Release date: Apr 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476040929

Rick Novy

Rick Novy makes his home in a suburb of that great metropolitan desert region of Arizona known as Phoenix. He grew up in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater with a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics (double major).He moved to California and lived in the Bay Area for a decade, during which he earned a masters of science in engineering at San Jose State University. In 1999 he moved to Arizona (it’s a wry heat).Rick spent 14 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry. He is currently adjunct faculty in the mathematics department at a local community college.Rick has more interests than he has time to devote. He is a fish keeper suffering from MTS (multiple tank syndrome). One tank features difficult to find purebred Endler’s Livebearers, a species he keeps because it is nearly extinct in the wild from habitat destruction and is being crossbred with guppies by shortsighted breeders and pet shops to the extent that uncrossed Endlers are nearly impossible to find.

Book preview

WINTER

Rick Novy

Copyright Rick Novy 2011-12, 2009, 2006

Smashwords Edition

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Winter originally appeared in 2009 as a trade paperback of the same name, published by Sam’s Dot Publishing.

The Adjoa Gambit originally appeared in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, October 2006. It also appeared in 2009 as part of the trade paperback Winter, published by Sam’s Dot Publishing.

Table of Contents

Winter

Part 1 - Space

Part 2 - Land

Part 3 - Sea

Part 4 - Ancients

The Adjoa Gambit

About the Author

Winter

PART 1 – Space

An alien sun, and so far from home—Yutiko gazed upon the yellow disk in awe. Now I know how you humans must have felt as you arrived at Tau Ceti, he said.

Homesick? asked Barney Hodges, first officer of the Explorer.

Yutiko broke his gaze, turning to face Hodges. A little, but I'm a diplomat. It isn't the first time I've been away from home. Yutiko said it, but without conviction. He had never been away from home like this. He was approaching an alien world on an alien spacecraft, and there was no going back.

An historic trip, everyone said. He was the luckiest Vopret on Ganspag. Yutiko looked back to the alien sun, not feeling lucky in the least. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

Cheer up, Yutiko, Hodges said. Earth is much like Ganspag.

Yutiko turned his back on the view, no longer in the mood to look at the star. In many ways, perhaps, he said, but will you even know your own planet? How much time has passed for Earth while you were away?

Twenty thousand of our years, Hodges said, give or take a few.

The question really was rhetorical. Yutiko already knew the figure, as did everyone else aboard Explorer. Relativity is cruel that way, he said.

It was Hodges turn to brood now. Yutiko watched the human lower his head to a position that indicated regret. You are fortunate, Hodges said. You know that you are going to an alien world. I don't know what to expect. Twenty thousand years is a long time. It will be a different Earth than the one I left.

Yutiko raised and lowered his head in to imitate the human gesture of nodding. Gesture was an important aspect of human interpersonal communication, and of their language. They used their arms for gesture in much the same way Voprets used their wings. That much is certain, Hodges. Your own world will likely be alien to you.

The science behind the strange time effects in relativistic travel had been explained to Yutiko many times, but he didn't really understand the physics. Not that it much mattered. As a diplomat, the only important thing to recognize was that understanding the equations couldn't change the results. Twenty thousand years is a long time on any world. The time change was what it was.

It was a topic the humans avoided. What would man be like, they asked. Engineer Morrison already thought of himself as a primitive. Commander Lin wore a facade, but he, too, worried about his obsolescence in the face of a changed world. Would the crew still respect him? Even Hodges confided that he would almost prefer to stay in space. The world they left no longer existed, but that was no problem for Yutiko. This was not his world, but the home of his friends.

Friendship between the humans and Voprets was a bold new step. Communication between Earth and Ganspag was not possible in any other way, at least, it wasn't when they departed for Earth. Yutiko was a lucky Vopret to have this opportunity.

I'll be in my quarters. I don't feel well. Yutiko sauntered across the bridge to the corridor without looking back. Hodges said something, but Yutiko was done with communicating for now. Rest. Rest to soothe the mind, that's what he needed. What was it the humans said? The calm before the storm?

Yutiko entered the bridge with great anticipation. Hodges had said that the Earth and moon were visible as thin crescents, and that was a sight Yutiko just had to see. A binary planet.

As Yutiko entered the bridge, he ignored the humans as his eyes were riveted to the window. There they were. At the extreme upper left of the window, a thin crescent of blue and white clung to the right side of the darkened nighttime Earth. At the lower right of the window, the moon appeared as a silver sliver. His wings buzzed in excitement as they vibrated against his back.

A warm arm fell across his shoulders above the wings. He broke his gaze and turned his head to see Hodges peering out at the spectacle. Yutiko interpreted the action as another friendly human gesture.

That's really something, isn't it, Yutiko?

He tried to calm his wings, but he couldn't control that any more than the beagle Arfur, the pet that the humans brought on the voyage, could control wagging his tail. Spectacular, Yutiko said. I never considered the possibility of a binary planet, but there it is, just as you described.

Hodges moved his lips in the gesture known as a smile. It portrayed good spirits, and was normally an involuntary reaction. My description didn't do it justice, Hodges said.

Nevertheless, it is beautiful. He turned to face Hodges, who removed his hand from Yutiko's back. Have you made contact with your people?

Not yet, Hodges said. "We're broadcasting on all bands, but the