New Moons Under Which to Sleep

By Dawn Vogel

Unusual spacecraft, aliens among us, and finding new ways to survive. New Moons Under Which to Sleep is a collection of science-fiction short stories, flash fiction, and poetry exploring the future of life on Earth, in space, and on other planets and moons. Journey with characters young and old as they find their proper places in their universes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DefCon One Publishing
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005178031

Dawn Vogel

Dawn Vogel has been published as a short fiction author and an editor of both fiction and non-fiction. Her academic background is in history, so it’s not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times. By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, helps edit Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing. She lives in Seattle with her awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats.

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New Moons Under Which to Sleep

Dawn Vogel

Vodyanoi is copyright 2015.

Far from Home is copyright 2017.

Fixer-Upper, Earworm, and One-Tenth are copyright 2019.

Dakota Travis, Saurallero Extraordinaire, At What Cost?, Schrodinger's Tardigrades, Senchado in Microgravity, and Play with Us are copyright 2020.

All other stories are copyright 2021.

All rights reserved.

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

Table of Contents

Fixer-Upper

Earworm

Klaxons and Plums of Gold

Dakota Travis, Saurallero Extraordinaire

At What Cost?

The Fo(u)rth

Orbit 41

Schrodinger's Tardigrades

Vodyanoi

Spliced

Senchado in Microgravity

Play with Us

Far from Home

One-Tenth

Golden Migration (In Four Parts)

About the Author

Fixer-Upper

Kiran's favorite place was her apartment, laying on her bed with her eyes shut, imagining that she was in a space capsule instead of the long, narrow room. The walls were thick enough to drown out most of the sound from the complex, except when someone climbed the ladder to her floor and knocked on her door.

What? she snarled, annoyed to have her daydream interrupted.

It's Shyama, her youngest sister replied. Mam needs us.

For what?

She didn't say, but she said to collect you and Jyoti.

Kiran sighed. Alright, I'll be right down. She rose from her mattress, ran a hand through her disheveled short hair, which served only to make it more of a mess, and located her shoes. She checked the tread on one sole as she donned the other one. The repurposed strips of bicycle tire she used to keep her thin-soled shoes from slipping on the ladder rungs were wearing down. She'd need to trade for new ones soon, if there were any more tire treads to be had. It was either that or climb the ladder barefoot, but Mam hated it when she did that, saying it was uncivilized.

As if living in an apartment complex constructed out of repurposed shipping containers was civilized. Mam hated almost everything that Kiran did, when it came down to it.

Jyoti already stood outside of Mam's apartment, hands on her hips, long braid swaying as she shook her head at Kiran. Slowpoke, she muttered when Kiran was near enough to hear her.

Before Kiran could respond, Mam opened her door. Shyama had slipped up beside her older sisters at some point when Kiran wasn't paying attention. Shyama was small and lithe, always surprising people by suddenly being in their presence.

Stepping onto her porch, Mam said, Lina passed away in her sleep last night. The boys took her body down to the Burning River first thing this morning. I need to get her apartment cleaned out and leased today.

So fast? Kiran asked. Normally they would wait a few days, out of respect for the recently deceased.

Today, Mam repeated. She's got no family coming to collect her things, and we can't afford keeping vacancies. We already got too many mouths living here.

Kiran nodded, already thinking about the various people she knew who might want, and be able to afford, one of the apartments here. Living in a private space was expensive enough that few could afford it. If her mother hadn't been the owner of these apartments, Kiran would be living in one of the Undercity communities, pressed in amongst hundreds of bodies in a shared space. Though Mam didn't come out and say it, Kiran and her sisters were among those too many mouths living in the complex, though they earned their keep by running errands, cleaning, and cooking. Mam needed paying renters, ones who had actual tradable goods or foodstuffs, if she was to keep providing the meals portion of the lease terms.

Kiran's mind wandered away from the practicalities of a new tenant. She'd be unlikely to poach any tenants from other complexes. If there'd been any disruptions that had forced someone out, she'd already know about it. She'd have to go to the Undercity to see if there was anyone there who'd come into means recently, who wanted out of the communal living and into a place of their own. And if she was going to the Undercity, she might get a chance to check in with the recruiter for Anveshan. But she'd have to move quickly.

Ground floor, Mam said. Find someone who needs it.

With a sigh, Kiran reevaluated the names she'd already picked out as possibilities. Finding someone who needed an accessible apartment was far harder than finding someone who needed just any old apartment. This meant less time to do what she liked in the Undercity.

Jyoti, you go with Kiran. Take the wagon with anything you think you can trade out of Lina's apartment. We need about 60 meters of copper pipe and more ceramic bowls.

Kiran's head jerked up. With Jyoti in tow, it nearly guaranteed that any hopes she had of speaking with the recruiter today would be shot. I don't want to bring her and that slow wagon with me!

Mam raised one eyebrow in response. Well, you're going to. And you're going to stick together. She looked between her eldest and middle daughter. I don't want to hear from either of you that the other one went off to do their own thing. You go to the Undercity, you trade Lina's stuff, you find me a tenant, you come back. Today.

Kiran gritted her teeth. She was tired of being Mam's errand girl, which was the whole point of talking to the recruiter. The only way out from under Mam's thumb was to leave the planet, and Anveshan was the only means to that end.

Of course, Mam, Jyoti said, her voice pleasant and measured, the polar opposite of how Kiran felt.

Kiran could only nod at Mam, knowing any words she uttered would betray her.

~

When the bombs fell, they leveled the buildings and left few survivors. Then the rubble pushed half the city into the bay, and there were even fewer left alive. No one could quite explain how the stacks of storage containers had remained standing, nor how the tunnels that honeycombed the city had not collapsed. But those became the places where people lived.

Those who had the means to hold a swath of the storage containers converted them into apartment complexes, with private spaces for individuals or families, but communal dining areas and bathrooms, since using the storage containers for much more than sleeping quarters had proved disastrous. People who did not get a piece of the housing pie could rent for exorbitant barter expectations from their landlords. If they could not manage that, they wound up in the Undercity, where no one held on to much of anything for long.

Kiran knew that she and her family had been lucky. Her uncles and cousins made up Mam's security force, and Mam ran a tight ship. Tenants paid their rent on time, or they left. In return, Mam and her family kept the renters fed, clean, and safe from the roving bands that made neither a complex nor the Undercity their home.

Anveshan was an anomaly, a conglomerate of scientists who had banded together in the hopes of getting the human race to escape the dying Earth for some other planet. Kiran suspected they intended to colonize Mars. She was ready to sign on. She didn't have much in the way of technical know-how, but she'd let them shoot her into space at the earliest opportunity. Anything to get off this