This week, Futures is delighted to welcome back Jeff Hecht, with his story A slice of time. Jeff is no stranger to Futures, having penned some ten stories for us, including discussion of quantum entanglement and the speed of dark energy. You can keep a check on Jeff’s activities at his website or by by following him on Twitter. Here he talks about what inspired his latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing A slice of time

The starting point for A slice of time was the title. I wondered who might want a slice of time, why they might want it, and what it might mean to them. I thought of someone among the richest and most powerful people in the world, but somehow lacking something.

That led me to think of Howard Hughes, the mid-twentieth-century billionaire who at his peak was among the richest and most powerful people in the United States. The wealthy heir of a successful businessman, Hughes came to the public eye young, as a film producer, a pilot and as an industrialist. But in his later years he became increasingly eccentric, and wielded his power from behind the scenes. He owned the Hughes Research Laboratory, famed for making the first laser. Yet when I interviewed people who had worked on the laser project, they said no one at the lab ever saw Hughes; he was almost an urban legend. By then, Hughes had become a sick old man, addicted to painkillers and cut off from the outside world by powerful aides who pulled the strings of power in his stead until he died.

What would happen if medicine could keep such wealthy oligarchs alive almost forever? How would the oligarchs react, and the people around them? And what would the rest of us want? Those ideas led me to write A slice of time.

Read more Futures stories by Jeff

Directed energy | Operation Tesla | Quantum entanglements | The Neanderthal correlation | Clear proof | Event horizon | Waiting for Chronomatic | The speed of dark energy | The Internet of **** things | When last I saw the stars

In this week’s Futures story, The parasite and the widow, Jeremy Gottwig allows us to eavesdrop on a very unusual conversation. A former NASA librarian and programmer, Jeremy can be found at his website or on Twitter. Here he talks about the thoughts behind his latest tale — as ever it pays to read the story first.

Writing The parasite and the widow

I think we can all agree that first contact would change the world. Politicians and pundits would find themselves debating intergalactic laws and fussing over alien influences. Space programmes would have new purpose and urgency. Power centres like Geneva, DC and Beijing would be crazy with activity.

All that said, I suspect change would be slow and incremental for those outside the major cities. The initial excitement would fade, and familiar routines would return.

I grew up in rural Montana. When I write books and short stories, I like to follow characters from Smalltown, USA. In The parasite and the widow, Shelii is one such character. I imagine that she’s from a large family in rural Nebraska, but she could be from anywhere. As a teenager, she desired to understand more about herself and her universe, while everyone around her continued to focus on local concerns. She came to consider herself an anomaly. When the opportunity came, she left Earth and became an intergalactic citizen.

In this story, she has come full circle. She has experienced a rich life and is on her way back home to finish out her days.

The parasite has spent its short life in search of a host. I suppose one could say that it has never really had the opportunity to live, but it is on its way home to die.

I see this story as a marriage proposal. Had circumstances been different; had Shelii not been so recently widowed, I suspect she may have given the parasite’s proposal serious consideration. She is open to unusual arrangements and experiences, but she is in mourning and has not yet let go of the past.

But she is tempted. I suspect she’ll spend the next hour or two wondering if she made a mistake.

Futures is delighted to welcome Karlo Yeager Rodríguez as the author of this week’s story: Choices, in sequential order. Originally from Puerto Rico, Karlo now lives in Baltimore and you can follow his activities via his website or by following him on Twitter. Here, he very kindly discusses some of the ideas behind his latest tale — as ever it pays to read the story first.

Writing Choices, in sequential order

The seed for Choices, in sequential order started with an odd phone call.

I was helping a student get herself enrolled in the online school where I worked at the time. We had been discussing her next steps in the process before admission when mid-sentence, she started sobbing. Worried I had said something upsetting, I asked if she was okay.

I’m fine, she wailed. This is when she told me she was eight months pregnant, and she was prone to crying for no reason. I finished helping her, and after I hung up I was struck by how strange it must be to be aware of what’s happening to you on an intellectual level, but still be unable to control it.

The idea rattled around in my back-brain until it collided with another idea.

When I learned about dichotomous keys, I wanted to use one as a way of creating tension in a story. I imagined a dichotomous key that included the exoplanets’ flora and fauna as we explored them. Who would be a perfect candidate for xenobiologist, given the time spent travelling? It would have to be someone who wanted to escape their life on Earth, someone who had made less-than-optimal choices in their life.

I still wonder: did the xenobiologist think it had been all worth it, or if it’s his delirium talking?