Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 210: Clarkesworld Magazine, #210

By Neil Clarke, Fiona Jones, D.A. Xiaolin Spires and 5 more

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction, articles, interviews and art. Our March 2024 issue (#210) contains:

• Original fiction by Fiona Jones ("Hello! Hello! Hello!"), Ben Berman Ghan ("Phosphorescence"), D.A. Xiaolin Spires ("Nine Beauties and the Entangled Threads"), Alaya Dawn Johnson ("A Brief Oral History of the El Zopilote Dock"),  Qi Ran ("One Flew Over the Songhua River"), Z. K. Abraham ("Her Body, The Ship"), Malena Salazar Maciá ("Geminoid"), F.E. Choe ("Swarm X1048 - Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, "6"").
• Non-fiction includes an article by Samantha Hind, interviews with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay and Izzy Wasserstein, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781642361605

Neil Clarke

Neil Clarke (neil-clarke.com) is the multi-award-winning editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and over a dozen anthologies. A eleven-time finalist and the 2022/2023 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form, he is also the three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director. In 2019, Clarke received the SFWA Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons

Book preview

Clarkesworld Magazine

Issue 210

Table of Contents

Hello! Hello! Hello!

by Fiona Jones

Phosphorescence

by Ben Berman Ghan

Nine Beauties and the Entangled Threads

by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

A Brief Oral History of the El Zopilote Dock

by Alaya Dawn Johnson

One Flew Over the Songhua River

by Qi Ran

Her Body, The Ship

by Z. K. Abraham

Geminoid

by Malena Salazar Maciá

Swarm X1048 - Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, 6

by F.E. Choe

In a Better Place: Virtual Reality Farming and Science Fiction

by Samantha Hind

Globalized Literary Space: A Conversation with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

by Arley Sorg

Cultivating Communities: A Conversation with Izzy Wasserstein

by Arley Sorg

Editor’s Desk: The Best from 2023

by Neil Clarke

ANCESTOR

Art by Marco Zagara

*

© Clarkesworld Magazine, 2024

www.clarkesworldmagazine.com

Hello! Hello! Hello!

Fiona Jones

I express greetings and most joyful salutations!

I do not mean to interrupt you if you wish to be without company. It is only that I noticed you have been drifting alone for six flares of star-home-past-great-star-birthplace, and that is many flares! Your movement has been aimless, and I express concern!

If you are in non-thought, you should be within a star-home, so that the warmth may rejuvenate you and you may be together with your kindred.

You are uncommunicative. Are you in non-thought? Please awaken to thought so we may communicate! Ah, but that is not polite. I express regret. If you wish to be in non-thought, I should not pester you.

But even still! A star-home is the best place for non-thought! Should I move you to a star-home? I do not have permission. I will not! I will wait for you to return to thought, and then we may converse!

Oh, but—as I draw nearer to you—

I have felt the disturbance of your presence, your motion through the big empty allness. But you are—you are different. I extend my seeking-tendrils toward you, that I may brush against you and know you better, but you—have no seeking-tendrils! I pass mine over you and find you round, like the most perfect of star-homes, but you do not have a star-home’s energy. You have little energy at all! All of you is packed so closely together! You maintain the same shape, and I cannot easily pass through you.

You are different from me!

This is more difficult, then. If we are not the same, perhaps I am wrong. You are so still and uncommunicative that I assumed you were in non-thought, but perhaps that is not so. It must be difficult to express, in a form that does not change, without even any seeking-tendrils. I express puzzlement.

I will have to ponder this. Maybe I will converse with my kindred. You are unknown to me, but perhaps not to them!

Do not express concern! I will find a way for us to know each other. I express temporary-leaving-hope-of-return!

I express greetings and most joyful salutations!

You have moved from where I last attempted communication, but it was easy to find you again! There is nothing like you near star-home-past-great-star-birthplace. Your energy and shape-holding is unique.

I have asked my kindred if they have known anyone like you. They expressed puzzlement, and conveyed that they have not. So they had no advice to communicate with me! I express regret.

But you are all alone, and aloneness is a terrible thing! If I were to be alone without my kindred for so many flares, I would express regret forever until we were reunited. I do not wish you to be alone! So I will attempt to know you, and if you wish me to stop, you may communicate this with me in any manner you wish!

These are my seeking-tendrils. You have none, so perhaps you do not understand what I do. I use my seeking-tendrils to know my kindred and all the star-homes and the not-star-homes and the big empty allness through which we travel. I am knowing you now! Your energy remains so still, your shape so constant. Because of that, it is difficult to know you. But you are not held so closely together that I cannot know you more, if I reach and I spread myself thin—

I express surprise!

The center of you is different! Your particles are not bound so closely together! Your shape only holds so tightly on the very outside! I express interest, awe!

Oh!

Now that I am within, I can know—here is a place of energy! Energy, moving. A constant shape—a strange shape—but the energy flows within it, so much warmer than the big empty allness. It is moving away from the part of myself that is inside you. It is pressing itself against the part of you that is constant but still, your outer shell. It is emitting vibrations! I feel these vibrations against my seeking-tendrils. I express uncertainty.

Is this—you?

I express understanding! What I thought was you is not you—it is your star-home! Not a star, but something else, something without energy, that holds a constant shape. And this thing, with the energy coursing all through it, this is you! I express greetings and most joyful salutations!

You are not like me at all. You are warm, and though you move, you move within constraints. You move, but do not change. I can track your energy—are these your seeking-tendrils? Do you have only four, always? Oh—but these two have smaller seeking-tendrils! You are throwing them out before you! Do you wish to know me?

But when I move forward, you move back. I express confusion.

I realize that if this is indeed like a star-home for you, I have intruded upon you most suddenly. I express regret. You are aware of me now, so perhaps I will leave now, but return again? Your vibrations are very strong. I will have to prepare myself for this, next time.

I express temporary-leaving-hope-of-return, and I extract myself from your star-home, back to the big empty allness.

With effort, I slide myself into your not-star-home, and I express greetings and most joyful salutations!

I have consulted with my kindred again, and they expressed confusion. Even with more detail, they have never heard of anyone like you! They communicated that I should attempt to know you better, and I believed so as well, and I have returned so I may communicate with your true self rather than your not-star-home.

I extend my seeking-tendrils toward you. There are again vibrations. You throw your seeking-tendrils out! I express greetings! I reach toward you! I would like to know you! Why are you alone? I would like to help you to be not-alone! You move away from me, but your seeking-tendrils extend forward, toward me, so I follow! Where are you leading me?

You stop, pressing against the boundary of your not-star-home. Can you move through it? You seem too closely bound within yourself. Your vibrations increase in intensity. For what purpose? I only encounter vibrations within star-home; they do not exist in the big empty allness.

I brush my seeking-tendrils against yours. Yours are so strange, so solid, so short! I recoil, then reach again. Just because you are strange does not mean I do not wish to know you! I hope you do not have a wrong knowing of me. You are not reaching for me as much as I thought; you are keeping your seeking-tendrils very close to the rest of your form. Perhaps you do not understand how knowing is done? Or you have a different way of knowing? I can show you how I know, and you may copy me, if you wish!

Knowing you is difficult, as you are solid. But I spread myself thin, as I did to enter your not-star-home, and I weave myself between your particles, slowly, gently. I expect you to do the same to me, but you do not. Is it because you are solid? I will help you, then! I bring the rest of myself closer, surround you, so that you may know me as well.

This is different from knowing my kindred. In intertwining ourselves, we know each other’s very beings, our thoughts and our truest selves. I cannot find your thoughts. You are made up of many different energies. There is a place in you where the vibrations originate. There are so many, so continuous! You are moving your seeking-tendrils all around, all through me. I do not know if you are able to know me, but I will help you as best I can.

Wait! There—these feel like the truest you, like thoughts and being, but—so small. I do not understand. You are so small. And these thoughts that I know from you, I have never—this is not—it is as if the big empty allness is tearing me apart! It is as if I am torn from my star-home and devoured by something greater and more terrible than I! I do not understand! I express confusion! I express—I do not know what else I express. I do not know what this is. What is this? What is this?

Is this—me?

Am I the cause of this unnamable expression? This is—not pleasant. Not-pleasant! I am causing you not-pleasant! The knowing is causing you not-pleasant! You do not understand, and I do not understand!

I withdraw! I withdraw! I express regret!

The vibrations are so powerful. Now, I know you are making them. Is this how you express? Are you communicating? What are you communicating? It is not-pleasant. I have caused you to express not-pleasant, an expression I have never known before but that I do not like. Not-pleasant does not seem like the best descriptor, but it is the only one I have. It is the opposite of pleasant. But this is stronger than that. It is different. I do not like it at all, and I do not believe you like it.

You have folded your form in on yourself. Your form is shaking. Your energy is so much! You continue to produce vibrations. You fold your seeking-tendrils around yourself as I linger next to you. The vibrations are less, now, but they continue without stopping. You are rocking back and forth, back and forth.

You—did not understand, did you? You were not inviting me to know you. You were—wishing me to leave. And I did not understand, and I have caused you—this.

I express—regret. I express—

I have never known this. It is more than regret, but I only know regret. I can only—

I will go. I will not cause you more—this. I will communicate with my kindred. Perhaps they will know what to do. I express temporary-leaving. I express regret!

I slide into your not-star-home, and I express hesitant-greetings.

I communicated with my kindred, and they were not sure what action I should take. They conveyed that perhaps I could return to you and express regret again, so I have decided to try this. I do not know how to make amends.

In preparation, I spent a few flares in non-thought. Non-thought is rejuvenating. Non-thought is being embraced by the warmth and energy and strange pressure of star-home, all around and within me. And when I awoke, I arrived to a thought: I remembered that you are alone! I understand if you do not wish for my presence, after I have caused you to express non-pleasant, but no one should be alone! To be alone in the big empty allness is the worst thing I could ever think of. And you have been alone for many, many flares now.

So, even if you do not wish me there, surely there is someone? And to make amends, I can discover this someone, and convey you to it?

This is what I will do. I will be gentle and I will not move toward you. I will linger on the other side of your not-star-home, and I will do nothing, and I will not know you but I will learn what you are expressing, and then you can convey to me how I can help you be not-alone.

I stretch myself into your not-star-home. I find you, and I stay away from you. You seem to have less energy coursing through you. And your form is slightly smaller. Is that alright? But more energy courses through you as soon as you notice me. The vibrations begin. These vibrations must be how you express. They must mean that you do not want me here. That is alright! I will not stay longer than I must! But I wish to help you, to make amends, so for now, I linger, and express regret from this side of your not-star-home.

You likely do not know what I am expressing. You cannot understand my movement. I will express regret anyway.

After much vibrating, you stop, though you come no closer. Is this good? I do not know, so I continue to express regret.

You vibrate again. These vibrations are not as insistent. And they start and stop. They do not continue on and on as the last ones did. They are less forceful. This feels like a change in expression, but I do not know what.

So I stay where I am. And then, I express temporary-leaving, and I extract myself. If I still cause you to express not-pleasant, I do not wish to stay too long. I will return, and continue to express regret.

I return, I express greetings and regret. I leave. I do this several times. You still produce vibrations upon noticing me, but less, and shorter. And then you do not vibrate anymore. I hope this means I am no longer causing you not-pleasant. Perhaps you understand my regret? Every time I arrive, your form seems smaller, thinner. I do not know what this means. I express questioning-concern, from where I remain far from you.

And then, upon one of my visits, you approach me!

Only a little bit. Not close enough for one of your seeking-tendrils to grasp mine, though I could grasp yours if I reached. I do not. I express subdued-excitement as you stop a little closer to me. You hunch, gather all your seeking-tendrils toward yourself.

You vibrate. Short, not insistent. Then, you stop. This vibration seems different.

I do not understand this expressing. But I express joy because you are expressing!

You vibrate again. It seems to be the same vibration. You do it again. And again. You pause between each one, as if waiting for something from me. Would you like me to express? You do not understand my expressions, the stretch of my thought, the dance of my tendrils, my undulation, and my contortion. But I can attempt, unless—

Could I vibrate, as you do? You have been repeating the same vibration. I could make a vibration! I could copy you! I do so! I vibrate!

You jerk back, but then hold still. Very still, though there is much energy coursing through you. It is like when you were vibrating much and very insistently, but now you are not vibrating. Then, you repeat that same vibration again, more slowly.

I copy! I create vibrations! Mine are not quite the same as yours, but almost! I am very close! With every repetition, I become closer!

You clap your seeking-tendrils together. This, too, creates a vibration, but a much different one. I do not copy this one. You make the same vibrations, and I make those vibrations too, and we are making vibrations at each other, over and over again. Are you expressing? Are we expressing? I express excitement!

You indicate a part of your not-star-home with your seeking-tendril, and you vibrate. I vibrate! You indicate another part of your not-star-home, and you create a different vibration! I create this vibration! You are teaching me your expression! I do not understand why these parts of your not-star-home are different from each other, but I believe I understand your first vibration. It feels to me like a greeting!

I enjoy expressing the way you express. You do not come closer to me, but that is alright! We are expressing to each other! This is not knowing, but it is very good. It is not-alone.

I slip into your not-star-home, and I vibrate greetings!

I have communicated with my kindred. They agree that your repeated vibration must be a greeting! So I have decided to vibrate this greeting to you rather than my usual expression. I believe this vibration is my favorite of those you have taught me.

You do not respond. Have I vibrated incorrectly?

You do not move. You are in a position that I have never seen you take before. Your seeking-tendrils are askew, your form at a new angle. You are pressed against one of the