Dead-Starred Futures: 33 Tales of Dystopian Science Fiction

By Dawn Vogel

Visions of the future aren't always gleaming starships and utopias. Sometimes, things are a whole lot darker. Dead-Starred Futures collects thirty-three brief tales of dystopian sci-fi, ranging from poems and drabbles to microfiction and flash fiction. Enjoy and learn from these quick glimpses of where we might be heading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DefCon One Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215562802

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.

Book preview

Vantablack

They named the planet Vantablack, a crowdsourced reference to a twenty-first century artist feud. If our readings are correct, Vantablack defies everything we know about exoplanets. The atmospheric vapor suggests water, but the color says carbon. The initial probes confirmed it--blacker than anything we've ever seen before and surface water. Ocean-carbon planet. One in countless billion. We were ecstatic.

The follow-up probes stopped transmitting after entering Vantablack's atmosphere. Had the initial results not been so fascinating, we might have just moved on. But humans want to touch impossible things. We call it confirmation, but how much of it is ego? We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.

I didn't expect to be on the initial landing crew. They had to send someone from Astrobiology. Based on the way Dr. Moore approached me, I suspect they chose the most expendable.

There are four of us crammed into the landing shuttle. Astrogeology sent Suarez and Tanka, and Astrohydrology rounded out the team with Browning. All of us are quiet, even after we've passed the altitude where we lost the probes. Chalk it up to nervousness.

Or awe, as the planet's surface comes into view.

Suarez and Tanka's voices are low, but their excitement spills over. They're starting their notes now, on our approach, observing faint gradations in the color that I can't discern.

A shimmer catches Browning's eye, and she glues herself to another window to observe the improbable body of water. Soon she's making notations too.

All I can do is stare at the planet, looking for anything that might signal a lifeform the probes couldn't identify as such. I'm transfixed by the utter darkness, like staring into the void. It sucks me in, colors my mood to match.

Greeley! Browning's hand is on my shoulder. I don't know how she got behind me. I've drifted out of my seat, pressing the glass of my helmet against the windscreen of the shuttle. Suarez and Tanka both stare at me, dark eyes wide within their helmets.

I return to my seat and re-don the harnesses. Why did I release the restraints in the first place? What did I see?

Nothing. Nothing at all. Any life on this planet must be beneath the surface. If there's any here at all.

There's motion now, a ripple of the darkness and a flash of white, stark against the black. Organisms?

No. An eruption of diamonds.

Suarez and Tanka high-five. This planet is their dream come true.

Browning is