Stars in Her Eyes

By Vaughan Stanger

Stars in Her Eyes is an exciting SF short story that presents an unusual First Contact scenario, in which an obsessive young woman tries to communicate with aliens through the medium of a consensus dream. Jerome Dalton must decide whether to help or hinder Lenora's project, which holds out the prospect of an astonishing breakthrough, but one obtained at a terrible cost.

First published in issue 17 of Postscripts (2008) and awarded an Honorable Mention by Gardner Dozois in his "Year's Best SF" anthology for that year, this first ebook edition of Stars in Her Eyes contains approximately 6100 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vaughan Stanger
• Release date: Jan 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311903716

Vaughan Stanger

Until recently, Vaughan Stanger worked as a research manager at a British engineering company. From 1997 to 2011, he wrote science fiction and fantasy stories in his spare time, effectively setting himself homework. The results of this head-scratching were published in Nature Futures, Interzone, Postscripts, Daily Science Fiction and Music for Another World, to name but a few. Translations of his stories have appeared in nine languages.In January 2012 Vaughan became a full-time writer. Currently he's busy writing an SF novel. The head-scratching has got worse if anything. There are also some new stories in the works, plus further e-book compilations of his previously published stories to come.

Book preview

Introduction

Staring in wonder at the night sky can be a terrific motivator for a science fiction story. Stars in Her Eyes arose from just such a moment. On the evening of my 43rd birthday, I was walking in the outskirts of Winthrop with a friend when we stopped to gaze up at the perfectly dark sky. The Milky Way looked resplendent, the Andromeda galaxy more distinct than I'd ever seen it before. I found it difficult to believe that the human race is alone in the universe. I felt a strong desire to write a story that exploited that sense of wonder.

However I find that viable SF stories, as opposed to vignettes, generally require two ideas to collide, intercepting each other from orthogonal directions. The second inspiration for Stars in Her Eyes arose from my fascination with just how much work is performed by our brains while we're asleep—and to what purpose that processing power might be put instead of ordinary dreaming.

I'm indebted to a number of people for their help with this story: firstly, the members of the One Step Beyond writing group, to which I belong; secondly, the participants of the Milford Conference held in Snowdonia in 2004; and finally, my good friend Liz Holliday, who helped me shrink this story to an acceptable length. I am, of course, also hugely grateful to Pete Crowther of PS Publishing, who originally published Stars in Her Eyes in Postscripts #17.

Stars in Her Eyes

Jerome Dalton gazed at an October night-sky made perfect by the absence of moonlight. Arching overhead, the Milky Way resembled a strip of gauze draped over black velvet. Having set up his CCD-equipped Celestron so that it tracked the Andromeda Galaxy, Jerome fully intended to indulge his passion for stargazing.

The sound of footfalls startled him. Before he could step aside, a thump in the back tumbled him to the ground. Winded, he stared up at his assailant, who was sliding a bulky pair of headphones off