Fiction River: How to Save the World Read online

  Fiction River: How to Save the World

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

  Series Editors

  John Helfers

  Editor

  Copyright Information

  Fiction River: How to Save the World

  Copyright © 2013 by WMG Publishing

  Published by WMG Publishing

  Cover and Layout copyright © 2013 by WMG Publishing

  Cover design by Allyson Longueira/WMG Publishing

  Cover art copyright © 2013 by Rolffimages/Dreamstime

  Editing and other written material © copyright 2013 by John Helfers

  “Foreword: Journeys” Copyright © 2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “Introduction: Our World and Welcome to It” Copyright © 2013 by John Helfers

  “The Gathering” Copyright © 2013 by David Gerrold

  “Positive Message” Copyright © 2013 by William H. Keith

  “The Legend of Parker Clark and Lois Jane” Copyright © 2013 by Ron Collins

  “Your Name Here” Copyright © 2013 by Laura Resnick

  “Flight of Little Bird” Copyright © 2013 by Stephanie Writt

  “Staying Afloat” Copyright © 2013 by Angela Penrose

  “The Shape of a Name” Copyright © 2013 by Annie Reed

  “Neighborhoods” Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

  “Heaven Backwards” Copyright © 2013 by Lisa Silverthorne

  “Earth Day” Copyright © 2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “Deus Ex Machina” Copyright © 2013 by Travis Heermann

  Smashwords Edition

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Foreword: Journeys

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Introduction: Our World, and Welcome to It

  John Helfers

  The Gathering

  David Gerrold

  Positive Message

  William H. Keith

  The Legend of Parker Clark and Lois Jane

  Ron Collins

  Your Name Here

  Laura Resnick

  Flight of Little Bird

  Stephanie Writt

  Staying Afloat

  Angela Penrose

  The Shape of a Name

  Annie Reed

  Neighborhoods

  Dean Wesley Smith

  Heaven Backwards

  Lisa Silverthorne

  Earth Day

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Deus Ex Machina

  Travis Heermann

  Acknowledgements

  About the Editor

  Copyright Information

  Foreword

  Journeys

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Welcome to the second volume of Fiction River! We’re so pleased to share it with you.

  As Dean Wesley Smith and I planned Fiction River, we decided to make the series a journey. When you travel along a very long river, the scenery changes. Sometimes you float by a city; sometimes you pass a field. Sometimes you merge with another river; sometimes you expand into several branches.

  We chose our title on purpose. Dean and I write in as many genres as we can. We read a wide variety of genres as well. And we’ve been in this business long enough to know that our perspective isn’t the only valid one.

  With that in mind, we invited guest editors to Fiction River, people whose work we love. We have two in our first year. You hold John Helfers’ volume, How To Save The World, in your hands.

  We brought John on board because he’s a great writer and an innovative editor. He’s published numbers of anthologies, mostly through Tekno Books, where he worked for many years. He has very high standards for the fiction he chooses. John and I used to think we had similar tastes. Then, along with Dean and Denise Little, John and I co-taught a workshop for professional writers. John and I then realized that on certain kinds of fiction, our tastes diverge wildly.

  One thing Dean and I do at workshops: we ask participants to raise their hands at the end of the discussion to show if they would have bought the story in question. John got the same percentage of reader/buyers that I did; only we appealed to very different audiences. Not everyone who “bought” the stories I “bought” would “buy” John’s and vice versa.

  Dean and I remembered that as we set up Fiction River. We brought in John (and Kerrie L. Hughes in the fifth volume) to have a different voice in our anthology series. Every story here is top quality. A few are in a subgenre of science fiction that I always say I dislike. Yet when John sent those stories to me, I read and enjoyed them, surprising myself.

  That’s what we hope you experience if you subscribe to Fiction River. We hope that some genres, some editors, some writers, or some stories will open new reading worlds for you.

  Thanks for joining us on this journey. We hope you love Fiction River: How To Save The World as much as we do.

  —Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Lincoln City, Oregon

  April 14, 2013

  Introduction

  Our World, and Welcome to It

  John Helfers

  Welcome to How to Save the World, the second of what I hope will be many, many, many original fiction anthologies in the Fiction River line.

  It is a tremendous honor to have been asked, along with my spouse and fellow editor Kerrie Hughes (her urban paranormal anthology, Hex in the City, comes out later in 2013) to co-edit these volumes with Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. I won’t go into the story about how they returned to editing short fiction after a loooong absence (and if you haven’t read their Forward and Introduction explaining this in Unnatural Worlds, the first Fiction River anthology, then please go pick that one up to find out how all this came about). What I can tell you is that the short fiction universe is all the richer for their overdue (at least in my opinion), much anticipated, and very welcome return.

  But enough about my editorial co-conspirators…or perhaps that should be benevolent overlords. After all, you’re probably reading this to find out more about the anthology you’ve (ideally) already purchased, or perhaps are perusing online. Well, then…

  When given the opportunity to create an original anthology that would not only be published, but would also be used for the anthology workshop taught every March by Kris and Dean at the WMG headquarters in Lincoln City, I knew I wanted to edit a volume with a more focused theme, rather than a more general collection of fantasy or science fiction stories. Given the events of the past few years, with the numerous conflicts, problems, and issues facing the world today, it seemed like a good idea to try and crowdsource some ideas on how humanity might tackle items that, if not solved soon, could continue to get worse and worse until they ended up destroying the world. For real.

  My proposal for this book was simple: stories that proposed a solution to a current social, economic, philosophical, or survival issue in the world today, or in the future (near or far, it didn’t matter to me).

  But I also wasn’t going to make it easy. I wanted potentially real solutions to the problems facing our world today. Although I love science fiction as much as any fan, I didn’t want stories that gave humanity an easy way out.

  The few ground rules were simple:

  First, any solution should be a real solution, not a “the-planet-is-destroyed-so-humans-can-start-over” sort of thing. While I’m a big fan of post-apocalyptic stor
ies, I didn’t want things to progress to that point. Also, any proposed solution shouldn’t make things worse. In other words, no, “introduce one predator to eradicate a biological problem, then another predator to remove the first one, ad infinitum,” kind of stories. They had to be potentially feasible solutions that solve relatively common problems.

  Second, the solutions had to come from humans, not weird alien technology or time travelers bringing back advanced technology, or anything else too far out. Not only are we the most innovative thinking mammals on the planet, we’ve also created just about all of the problems here, so we should be the ones coming up with the solutions.

  Third, there could be no reclusive billionaires bankrolling these concepts. Small companies or non-governmental agencies were acceptable. It’s incredible what people around the world can come up with—amazing things are being done right now, without the benefit of unlimited cash or multi-national corporations backing them. I wanted stories celebrating the small group of people—or a single person—working to make our planet a better place.

  Along with the folks at the workshop, I also invited several other authors to give me a story on this theme. And I’m pleased to say that no one disappointed. In fact, it was very difficult to winnow down the workshop entries to create the volume that you’re reading right now. But I managed, and this book is the result.

  The stories contained in this anthology are as diverse as I could have expected, ranging from tomorrow to the far future, with many somewhere in between. There are idea stories and problem-solving stories, but all of the authors tackled my general theme in interesting, surprising, and often unexpected ways.

  Noted science fiction writer David Gerrold’s (yes, that David Gerrold) story is a prime example of the last category. While adhering to my rules, he cleverly examined one of the most troubling issues with solving many of the world’s most pressing problems—that there isn’t enough profit in it for the people who could truly make a difference to get involved.

  SF, military, and thriller (and recent New York Times bestseller) author William H. Keith gave me a story that was almost the opposite—how a small company struggling to survive in the shadow of giant conglomerates can both do good for the planet and turn a buck or two. He also tells, in chilling detail, of the risks that sort of venture can bring with it, too.

  Well-known novelist and short story writer Laura Resnick turned the standard perception of governmental bureaucracy on its ear by illustrating a future where every person has to pass a very particular set of tests in order to do what has long been considered a fundamental human right for hundreds of thousands of years.

  Others took a smaller-scale, but no less effective approach. Ron Collins and Angela Penrose both tackle problems ripped from the headlines of tomorrow, and proposed solutions that could very well be in development right now. Annie Reed and Stephanie Writt look at how one person could make all the difference, for a city, a region—or the world.

  Some authors took a longer view of what might happen to our planet before humanity comes to its senses. Lisa Silverthorne gives us a world brought to the brink of complete destruction, and tells of the narrow-minded people that will cling to their beliefs until the last person is gone from Earth’s surface. Travis Heermann asks a question that’s being discussed more and more each passing day—what would happen if we create a true artificial intelligence, and it set about trying to solve the world’s problems? The answer probably isn’t what you think it might be.

  Lastly, of course, this anthology wouldn’t be complete without stories from Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. Kris’s tale is a short, sharp shocker about what one person—one genius—might think he has to do to save the world, and the steps he’s willing to take to do it. Dean’s story tackles a problem faced by millions of people every night around the planet—where can they lay their heads to sleep without worrying about awakening in one piece the next morning? His proposed answer may be the housing of the future.

  Eleven wonderful, speculative stories, brought to you by some of the finest authors writing today, about our world, its problems, and what we may be able to do to stop them before it’s too late. I hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed editing them.

  —John Helfers

  Green Bay, Wisconsin

  April 15, 2013

  Introduction to “The Gathering”

  David Gerrold is the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of “The Trouble With Tribbles” episode of Star Trek, The Man Who Folded Himself, When HARLIE Was One, Jumping Off The Planet, Voyage Of The Star Wolf, and The War Against The Chtorr series. His autobiographical story of “The Martian Child” was the basis of a 2007 film starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet.

  Each anthology I’ve done has brought its own set of issues with it. Some are smooth sailing, with the stories and the volume coming together as if preordained. Others have more, er, issues than usual.

  This particular volume had to be assembled on a very strict timeline to be ready for publication. That meant that finding authors to contribute could be challenging, as many of them have their writing schedules booked well in advance, which makes it very difficult to squeeze in a last minute project with a short deadline, like this one.

  I know David has a busy schedule, but when I sent him his invite, he responded within five minutes with a simple, “Count me in.” I was elated. I knew he’d give me a fantastic story that would most likely subvert the tropes of the genre. What I didn’t expect was for him to bend at least one of the rules I’d set up to the breaking point—and to do so brilliantly.

  Of course, he did not disappoint. I simply should have known better.

  The Gathering

  David Gerrold

  They were not the twelve richest humans on the planet, but they were twelve of the top twenty-five. The rest were some of the world’s smartest. Each of the billionaires had picked three, four, or five geniuses—problem solvers—to be part of The Gathering.

  The gathering was secret, of course.

  One arrived by bus, wearing Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and an improbable straw hat. Another drove up in a ‘97 Volkswagen van. A third arrived in a battered Winnebago. Two more in rental cars. And so on.

  The site was a shabby-looking motel, one of several along the main street of an evaporating small town. It offered a continental style breakfast, a heated pool, HBO, and free Wi-Fi, discounts for AAA members, and even a meeting hall. Inside, however, the accommodations were incongruously more comfortable than the motel’s outward appearance suggested.

  The unofficial session began Thursday night in the bar. After drinks had been served and the waiters had retreated, Gordon continued his explanation of an earlier point. “Marxism isn’t about hating the guy who has more money than you. Thinking of it that way, that’s a trap. It’s coming from the paradigm of ‘someone else wants to take my stuff away.’

  “No, Marxism is—well, it was—a misguided attempt to create economic justice. As a design principle—’from each according to his ability, to each according to his need’—it’s mechanically sound. But in practice, it can’t work because you’re dealing with human beings, not machines. Marxism leaves out human nature—in specific, greed. And that’s the real problem. Greed.”

  His listeners nodded. This wasn’t a new idea. In fact, it was one of the problems they intended to address. A large, dark man known simply as Elephant grunted softly in response. “Well, yes. But I think calling it greed or even selfishness is still a negative paradigm. There’s a cynical connotation in those words. We have plenty of evidence that well-informed and well-educated human beings will make responsible decisions, both individual and collectively.”

  “Ahh,” said Betty, an elegant, white-haired woman. “But we don’t have a population of well-educated and well-informed human beings, do we? We have nearly twelve billion frantically scrabbling, desperately hungry individuals. Some of them are informed, some of them are educat
ed—but….” She shrugged with an apologetic smile. “They all have different opinions about what’s even a fact. The rhinoceros is extinct because too many Asian men accepted it as a ‘fact’ that powdered rhinoceros horn will help a man get an erection. HIV still rages in Africa because too many African men accept it as a ‘fact’ that sex with a virgin will cure the disease. America is in its third decade of stunted growth because a majority of voters still accept it as a ‘fact’ that tax cuts for the rich are good for poor people.

  “It doesn’t matter what the evidence shows,” she said to Elephant. “If it contradicts what someone wants to believe, they’ll discard it. Who was it—Mark Twain?—who said ‘It’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’s been fooled’? There’s the problem. We have the solutions. We have books full of solutions. But if it means giving up our dearly held prejudices, we’d rather die.”

  “And that’s exactly where we’re headed,” remarked the youngest member of the group. With his explosion of unruly hair, his thick glasses, and his mismatched clothes, he was the archetypal geek, a billionaire of electronic opportunity. “We’re on the cusp of disaster. Climate disruption is creating worldwide famines. Famines cause the price of food to rise. Above a critical threshold, we get food riots. Governments get destabilized. It’s all part of the same process. Continuing climate shifts allow invasive species access into new habitats with unpredictable side effects, but one thing is certain—the possibilities of global pandemics increase exponentially. The combined destabilization of hunger and disease will produce massive floods of refugees crossing borders and destabilizing other areas as well. That’s going to result in violence. We project border wars on three continents, maybe four. And when that happens, that sets us even further behind—because nobody wins a war. The winners end up even more impoverished than the losers, because an economy restructured for militarism never recovers, never returns to a healthy investment in infrastructure, education, and services.”