Family Tree

By Vaughan Stanger

On a near-future Earth, a teacher who had lost everything that matters to her--her husband and her job--faces an agonising decision. Can she let go of the past and grasp the future that is being offered to her?

Family Tree is an intriguing and moving science fiction story that explores an alternate history scenario in which the Apollo moon-landing programme didn't end in 1972.

Family Tree is dedicated to teachers everywhere.

This story was originally published in Helix (2008).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vaughan Stanger
• Release date: Jan 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311738882

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

This story is dedicated to my teachers.

Family Tree arose from my anger at hearing that oft-repeated phrase: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

Rubbish! (The second part anyway.)

Were it not for the dedicated, talented, hard-working and inspirational teachers employed by my primary and secondary schools, I wouldn't have gone on to obtain an honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics at Leicester University (UK), never mind a PhD in X-ray Astronomy from the same university. This high quality education led to a successful career in aerospace and defence R&D, and, ultimately, motivated my desire to write science fiction.

Without those teachers, you wouldn't be reading this. I owe them a lot.

Although Family Tree employs tropes that might appear familiar from other stories I've written, e.g. those collected in my Alternate Apollos ebook, it ultimately points outwards, towards a new frontier. More than anything though, it is a story is about the importance of teachers. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Family Tree

Sarah Henderson groaned as yet another round of applause echoed around the courtyard. Any moment now she would have to respond to Principal Devlin's valediction, a prospect that made her bowels squirm like a snake prodded with a stick. A quarter-century of teaching history to disinterested students at Huntsville High had been a breeze in comparison, even this morning when she struggled to keep her emotions in check.

Don't spoil things by crying now, she told herself.

Desperate for some respite from the collective gaze of her colleagues and students, Sarah glanced up at the gnarled grey boughs of the courtyard's apple tree. Blossom like pink-tinged snowflakes smothered the outer branches. Even now, she found if difficult to accept that she would not be there to collect September's first fallers.

A cough from Principal Devlin interrupted her thoughts.

Sarah, would you like to say a few words?

She sucked in a deep breath, knowing full well that she had no choice.

What can I say? Time's up! She waited several seconds for the groans to subside before continuing. Obviously I shall miss the teaching. And I shall miss all of you. She turned around slowly, committing the scene to her memory. There were so pitifully few faces nowadays.

In truth, there was so much more she wanted to say but no one left to say it to. Her favourite students had graduated long ago, and most