How to Think Inside the Box: WOW Stories

By Michèle Laframboise

Loongunis require constant environmental changes in order to thrive, while the strange-haired Earthmen visiting their traveling Box hate the unstability. When a sabotage impairs the shift engines of the Box, the enforced immobility might drive all Loongunis towards madness and death…unless their translator can work out a solution!
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Science fiction adventure at its best, told by multiple award-winning author Michèle Laframboise.

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"The author does a good job narrating from the point of view of an alien who thinks in very different ways from a human."    -- Tangent Online

"I enjoyed this one. "   -- Featured futures
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Echofictions
• Release date: Dec 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781988339368

Michèle Laframboise

A science-fiction lover since childhood, Michèle Laframboise has written 17 novels and more than 30 short-stories, in French and English. Her short-stories have been published in Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts and a few other anthologies.  Some of her works were translated in Italian, German and Russian. Michèle is also a comic enthusiast who drew a dozen of graphic novels. As a science-fiction writer, she endeavors to find creative solutions to the many challenges that lay before us. / Michèle Laframboise est une ex-scientifique devenue auteure de science-fiction. Elle a publié 17 romans et une trentaine de nouvelles, récoltant plusieurs distinctions et prix littéraires. Ses nouvelles ont été publiées dans les revues Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts et d’autres anthologies. Elle a été traduite en italien, en allemand et en russe. Dessinatrice enthousiaste, elle a aussi publié une douzaine de BD. Sa science fiction cherche toujours des solutions créatives aux défis qui nous attendent

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Michèle Laframboise

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With a thought for Ernő Rubik

THE VISITOR BENT OVER THE WINDOW, his shoulders slumped. He lifted his right arm, creating new creases on his cloth. His short yellow hair lay flat, lifeless. I couldn’t distinguish any individual strand.

This damn box’s driving me crazy!

The Human’s joyless laugh echoed like a myriad of ice cracks. My ears retracted at this repulsive sound. (It’s considered inappropriate to do so in polite conversation, but he wasn’t facing me.)

You’ll get used to it, his companion said.

He was older, clad in dark gray with silver buttons aligned on the front. His raspy voice held no music. His hair condition was even worse than his fellow visitor: a crown of fine brown strands hanging from a dome of pale leather.

I couldn’t fathom what made them so distressed. The Humans had seemed happy enough coming on board.

The first three cycles had shattered their good dispositions.

As their flat hair made it difficult to read their emotions,I relied on their mobile mouth and sunken eyes. After a few cycles, I had gained enough experience to associate certain patterns of face cracks with their corresponding emotions.

Even if they turned their back to me, like now, the salty tang of their fear glands almost upset my stomach.

They hated the Box. They even had a nickname for it.

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A LOONGUNI TRAVELING BOX could safely carry thousands of passengers motivated by commerce and curiosity. Our section was a smaller box inside the big one. The color code of the walls, a soft blue, indicated pressure and oxygen levels compatible with most of our passengers.

We thought that our first delegates from the Human Alliance would find it familiar, since their world’s sky was a similar hue.

They had stopped on the threshold for an uncomfortable time, absorbing the maze of stairways and ramps and platforms linking our unit’s walls and center.

Loongunis