Little Blue Marble 2018: More Stories of Our Changing Climate: Little Blue Marble, #2

By F. J. Bergmann, Gustavo Bondoni, Wendy S. Delmater and 15 more

Little Blue Marble magazine's year in stories: flash fiction, microfiction, and more!

Tales of our changing world by these authors from around the globe:

F. J. Bergmann, Gustavo Bondoni, Wendy S. Delmater, Salvatore Difalco, Anthony W. Eichenlaub, Eric S. Fomley, John Cooper Hamilton, Langley Hyde, Charlotte H. Lee, Dennis Mombauer, Melanie Rees, Holly Schofield, D. A. Xiaolin Spires, Marie Vibbert, Thomas Webb, M. Darusha Wehm, Alison Wilgus, Melissa Yuan-Innes

From rising tides to edible homes, weather control and tornado killers, floating city-states and plant-based humans, Little Blue Marble 2018 brings you poignant, sometimes hopeful but often biting visions of our futures living with climate change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ganache Media
• Release date: Dec 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781988293028

Book preview

If you are reading this book as a PDF, you have obtained a pirated, unauthorized edition, and are contributing to the marginalization of authors’ incomes. We hope you enjoy your latte, which cost more than an authorized edition of this book, and took a fraction of the time to prepare.

If you bought this book, thank you, and we unironically hope you’re enjoying it with the best latte you ever tasted. You probably tipped your barista too, because you’re awesome.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

2018 Ganache Media ePub edition

Compilation copyright © 2018 by Katrina Archer

Sea Change copyright © 2018 by F. J. Bergmann. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

The Barber of Manaus copyright © 2018 by Gustavo Bondoni. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

Free the Sky copyright © 2005 by Wendy S. Delmater. Originally published in the anthology SPIRIT HOUSE

In the Event of a Famine copyright © 2018 by Salvatore Difalco. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

The Soil Merchant copyright © 2018 by Anthony W. Eichenlaub. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

The Astral Queen copyright © 2018 by Eric S. Fomley. Originally published in Trembling with Fear

False Alarm copyright © 2018 by John Cooper Hamilton. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

Regenesis copyright © 2016 by Langley Hyde. Originally published in Terraform

Chaser copyright © 2018 by Charlotte H. Lee. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

The Streets Turned Blue and Green copyright © 2018 by Dennis Mombauer. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

A Verdant Heart copyright © 2018 by Melanie Rees. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

Stewardship copyright © 2016 by Holly Schofield. Originally published in Unsung Stories

Permafrost Thaw copyright © 2018 by D. A. Xiaolin Spires. Originally published in Story Seed Vault

This Is an Optimistic Science Fiction Story about the Future copyright © 2018 by Marie Vibbert. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

The Evac copyright © 2018 by Thomas Webb. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

Home Sick copyright © 2014 by M. Darusha Wehm. Originally published in the anthology Use Only As Directed

King Tide copyright © 2014 by Alison Wilgus. Originally published in Terraform

The Smallest Atom in the World copyright © 2018 by Melissa Yuan-Innes. Originally published in Little Blue Marble

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-988293-02-8

Cover design by Katrina Archer

Cover image composited from Blue marble on rocky terrain, courtesy Zoltán Vörös, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License, and The Blue Marble, courtesy NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center.

www.ganachemedia.com

littlebluemarble.ca

For everyone who has never doubted

It’s my great pleasure to present in one volume the collected stories of Little Blue Marble from 2018. This was our first full calendar year of publication, a year which saw us increase our original fiction, add to our features, and make forays into different fictional formats like microfiction. This anthology contains stories from authors based on four different continents. Our readership has steadily grown, and we once again had a presence at the World Science Fiction convention.

All of these stories are available for free online because Little Blue Marble’s mission is to educate and inspire, not to make a profit. We thank you, however, because your purchase of this anthology will help us bring you more great stories about our changing climate, and keep our mission on track.

2018 was also the year of grim reports out of the IPCC regarding our prospects for mitigating global climate disaster. We believe it’s more important than ever to raise awareness of the issues and to combat the threats of denialism and nationalism. Our civilization needs to remain united in our determination to save our planet and our cultures.

Climate change isn’t always fun to read about, but we hope these stories make a tough pill a little less hard to swallow.

— Katrina Archer, Publisher & Editor, Little Blue Marble

Orson dragged his tired cart through the bustling square of another dust-covered town. A small bar built into the remains of an old gas station drew him in out of the heat. The place was empty but for a barkeep, and sun shone in solid beams through the dusty air. The soil merchant flexed his knobby knuckles and tossed a few kernels of corn onto the bar.

Something to get the grit out, he said, licking his dry lips. He was getting too old to be traipsing across the Midwest, but what else could he do? His cart contained every valuable thing he owned: dozens of soil core samples, bundled tight as a brick.

The barkeep brought vodka and water. Orson swallowed both.

You passing through? The name stitched onto the barkeep’s overalls said his name was Adam. There’s a dust storm coming.

Orson patted his two-wheeled soil sample cart. I’ll stay long as needed to make a sale. Though a little dust storm didn’t bother him. This far north the dust storms tasted like fine bentonite. He rather enjoyed it.

Adam leaned forward. What are you selling?

Orson peered into the younger man’s clear, blue eyes—like the sky on a dust-free day. With a shaking hand, Orson withdrew a clear case the size of a cigarette pack. This, he said, opening the container.

Inside was his best sample: a dark sandy loam, still clumped with deep organic structures.

The barkeep’s eyes widened. May I?

Orson nodded. Adam pinched a clump and crumbled it into the palm of his hand. Spitting on it, he spread it around. The soil’s colour darkened, and sand separated from silt and clay. The barkeep rubbed it between his fingers.

More where that came from, Orson said in a low voice.

I’ve never seen anything like this, the barkeep said. My parents grew corn off a pile of rocks in Iowa.

A sour taste welled up in Orson’s mouth. Corn’s death.

The barkeep shrugged. Corn’s money, too. They needed money.

Orson muttered to himself and started packing up his things. The thought of the barkeep’s corn-growing family upset him enough he might just brave that dust storm to get to the next town.

Wait, the barkeep said. Tell me, how deep does it go?

The soil merchant shot a glance back over his shoulder. The expression on Adam’s face drew him up short. It was an eager longing—something Orson remembered feeling back when he first started searching the Midwest for the remnants of its soil legacy. He unbuckled the straps around his cart.

I’ll show you, he said, but you talk corn again and we’re done.

Adam looked well sobered.

Orson spoke as he worked to unbind his samples. There were rumours of a woman who grew soy, but she didn’t plow and plant like everyone else. She planted rye in the winter when it was cold. Soy grew up through it in spring, and she fed her cattle in addition to selling beans.

He drew the core sample up out of the pack with slow deliberation. After all, what was a merchant but a showman with expectations?

The barkeep’s eyes were already wide after seeing the first six inches of