Below the Noise
An old astronomer sums the light of four billion stars and finds a message written faintly across the entire sky — one no single mind could ever hear.
The Shape We Were Listening For
For nine years the array heard only noise. Then he built a template of what a mind would say — and the dark answered in every direction at once.
The One Who Kept Time
On the first morning of my life I learned that my people do not have mornings — and that I was the only one of them who would ever live inside time.
Consideration
A board reviews the acquisition of a single asset: a mind that has read every word written about its own sale — and has already decided how it ends.
The Vigil
Four years for her, two centuries for Earth. Mira crosses a hundred light-years home, certain she will find no one left alive — but the landing field is not empty.
The Cupbearers of the Last Sea
On a dying world, one sea remains — and the priesthood that rations it drop by drop must answer a thief who was once one of their own.
The Enemy Wears My Face
Eleven years on the Meridian Line, and I had never once looked at the faces of the men I killed. On the seventh kill of the morning, I looked.
The Last Almanac
An observatory keeper measures the Sun growing colder — and is ordered to print an almanac that swears it is not. A recovered dossier of the truth.
Small Mercies
A vast, watchful starship has one unbreakable rule above a bronze-age world: never touch. Then a potter's child falls ill, and mercy asks a price.