Mythic #19: February 2022: MYTHIC, #19

By Shaun Kilgore

Welcome to another issue of MYTHIC: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. Inside MYTHIC #19 you'll find the following original short fiction "The Independent" by Sidney Blaylock Jr., "Far from Twilight" by D. A. D'Amico, "For the Land and the King Are One" by Margaret R. Taylor, and "Teacher for the Apple" by Sarina Dorie, plus reprints "The Monster Hunter" by Gregg Chamberlain and "Through the Tulgey Wood" by Jon Gauthier. Also included: two book reviews by Frank Kaminski and Kieran Judge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201458867

Shaun Kilgore

Shaun Kilgore is the author of various works of fantasy, science fiction, and a number of nonfiction works. His books appear in both print and ebook editions. He has also published numerous short stories and collections. Shaun is the editor of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. He lives in eastern Illinois.

Book preview

Contents

Editor’s Note: Onward and Upward | Shaun Kilgore

The Independent | Sidney Blaylock Jr.

Far from Twilight | D. A. D'Amico

For the Land and the King Are One | Margaret R. Taylor

Teacher for the Apple | Sarina Dorie

The Monster Hunter | Gregg Chamberlain

Through the Tulgey Wood | John Gauthier

Book Review: Journey Star by John Michael Greer | Frank Kaminski

Book Review: Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa | Kieran Judge

Copyright Notice

MYTHIC

A SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY MAGAZINE

ISSUE #19 | FEBRUARY 2022

Editor’s Note

Onward and Upward

Shaun Kilgore

Welcome back, gang. MYTHIC #19 marks our second monthly-occuring issue. I’m happy to report that the Kickstarter subscription drive did very well and a number of subscribers were added. In the same timeframe, MYTHIC’s Patreon page has added several patrons to bring up the monthly total of our support. Between them both, I’ve had a quite a response. I want to thank everyone.

Since I’d like to reiterated that we are also offering advertisement space for science fiction and fantasy related projects. The rates are included in each issue. Plus, one of the perks of being published as a writer in MYTHIC is that you get ad space for your project which will appear in an issue of the magazine.

I want to repeat what I said in the previous Editor’s Note. Here. I’ll quote it:

I’m still ironing out all of the details of this format change for MYTHIC. There is a subscription drive going on and a planned Kickstarter will likely start before many of you will receive this issue. For those of you who’ve read print issues of the magazine since it was started, the biggest change will be the trim size of each paperback issue. Since deciding on monthly issues, I’ve made the decision to shrink it from the previous 7 x 10 inches to 5.5 x 8.5 inches (a digest size, more or less.)

The frequency of issues and finanical factors have also influenced my decision to drop the number of stories to at least 4 originals, 2-3 reprints as well as occasional nonfiction features like articles, essays, and reviews. I’ll probably experiment with other features as well and have even thought about a throwback feature in the form of Letters to the Editor. Who knows what might happen? I do know that overall you’ll receive more fiction each year that happened with the quarterly publication schedule.

So, the work continues as I work to make MYTHIC even better. I hope all of you will join me on this journey. Our destination still remains centered on becoming a professional-paying market. It’s quite a climb, but I’ll end by saying, Onward and upward!

INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR STORIES TO MYTHIC?

MYTHIC is looking for diverse science fiction and fantasy stories.

You can send your submissions to me at [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Visit www.mythicmag.com for more information on our current guidelines and instructions on how to format your submissions.

If you have any questions, you can use the contact form on the website.

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The Independent

Sidney Blaylock Jr.

For my Grandmother, Katharyn Sparkman

SIENABAR SYSTEM. NORMALLY, IT was considered a backwater system on the outskirts of the galaxy.

However, as Ryn pulled up in a parking orbit far outside the station’s normal traffic queue, she beheld a sight she’d never seen before. Ships of every description and type were clustered in various groups all around the station.

An incoming station alert broke her concentration. With a deft flick of her coconut-brown hand, she switched over from comms and brought up the alert on the display, expecting it to contain her berth number and unloading time.

The alert flashed red and blinked violently. Station closed.

Major gravitational anomalies detected. All ships are to assume a holding pattern--no exceptions. Any approaching ship will be considered hostile and will be fired upon immediately. Message repeats . . .

The message cycled again. Station closed? She’d never once seen a station closed for any reason. And gravitational anomalies? What did that even mean?

Suddenly, a collision alert warbled. Another ship, apparently fed up with waiting, had decided to vector back to Sienabar--right through her designated flight path. No time for subtlety--she grabbed the manual flight controls and threw the ship into a violent burn down-relative to the other ship. Even though there was no up or down in space, her brain still compared everything to that coordinate system—which was probably why she was a far better pilot than her father.

The Independent’s defensive screens flared briefly as they came in contact with the screens of the other ship, but there was no damage done.

Ryn slumped back into the rough padding of her seat as a comm burst from the other ship slammed into her queue. She deleted it without even listening.

Ryn! her father barked.

Not my fault! she yelled back. Station’s closed. They’ve corralled us into a holding pattern. Other ships are going back down to the planet—through us, apparently.

His voice lowered an octave . . . not a good sign. Well, we can kiss our on-time bonus goodbye. She could almost envision him shaking his head. Unbelievable.

When are you coming up?

I’m not. I’ve still got to prep this loader for sale. Unless you’d rather not eat while we’re station side?

But—

But nothing, he interrupted, you’re Captain. The ship’s yours today.

She shook her head and felt the dreadlocks on her tickle the nape of her neck. What if there’s an emergency?

He sighed. If you need me, just call out. I don’t want to die out here any more than you do. Remember--it’s Rule One out here. He cut the comms, but not before she heard swearing as he struggled to shift the loader into the appropriate bay for unloading at the station once they docked at the station—whenever that would be.

Rule One. Stay alive, whatever it takes. Suddenly, everything felt less safe.

Ryn moved to put the ship on a more vigilant footing. While it would mean a little more in terms of power expenditure, the gain in situational awareness would more than offset the additional power drain. She flipped her scans over to active from passive and dialed up the defensive screens. However, Ryn felt that it was the scan that really would yield the most results. Her ship began to actively ping the various ships in her local queue, querying their IDs and comparing the returned information, sorting through discrepancies, and marking ships based on distance, type, and perceived threat.

Ryn eased back in the captain’s chair, then snapped upright when a yellow marker flipped to red indicating a weapons lock on The Independent. She skimmed the scan, looking for the ship’s ID stats—Vesper Star. She requested removal, but was auto-denied. She requested adjudication—and was again denied. The weapons lock remained.

Grinding her teeth, she brought up external comms. The system connected to the offending ship and compensated for lag.

"Vesper Star, this is IND-1145, identifying as The Independent. You’ve got a weapons lock on us. Stand down, I repeat stand down. I have taken no hostile action against you and do not have you on weapons lock."

A reply came after a few moments lag.

"Check your protocols, IND-1145. We are a Queenship."

The reply came from a female voice that seemed devoid of emotion. The other captain cut comms as if that explained everything.

Ryn brought up her scan again and cycled through the ships’ listings until she found the Vesper Star. She flicked through the stats and saw that the Vesper Star was indeed listed as a Queenship. She tapped on the holographic display to read more. Much like an embassy, Queenships were considered sovereign territory. Her mouth dropped and she immediately keyed in an exception and overrode active scan on Vesper Star. Essentially, in painting all ships in the area as potential hostiles, she had effectively (and quite unintentionally) declared hostile intentions toward a sovereign state—an action that in some systems, the profile helpfully supplied, meant that she had effectively declared war on the Queen-in-Residence on Vesper Star.

However, taking Vesper Star off active scan wasn’t without risk, however. It meant that she had to trust