Rebecca Among the Stars

Some first-contact stories begin with a vast silver ship descending through clouds while humanity stands around looking meaningful. This one begins with a maintenance worker hearing something impossible in the ductwork. Which, frankly, feels far more believable. In “Birdseed for the Gods,” we arrive aboard Harakeke Station , sealed above the storm-wracked gas giant Hinepōuri , where survival depends on filters, systems, pressure seals, routine checks, and everyone pretending the station is more reliable than it actually is. Then Matt Rourke hears something moving where nothing living should be. A bird. Not a metaphorical bird. Not a decorative bird. An actual, impossible, suspiciously meaningful bird in a service duct. Naturally, Matt feeds it. This is either a terrible idea or the beginning of civilisation behaving itself for once. Possibly both. Set against the immense storms of Hinepōuri, the story follows Matt and xenobiologist Eliana Vance as they try to und...

Some school trips begin with packed lunches, permission slips, and one child quietly smuggling something sticky in their pocket. This one begins in the Year of the Hot Breath , on a cracked school court, under a sun that has stopped being scenery and become a health hazard with excellent aim. In “Field Trip to Nowhere,” children line up in patched red protective suits while their teachers perform that ancient educational miracle: trying to make young humans listen, stay together, not lick anything, and survive the day. The world around them has changed. Heat is no longer background weather. It is a force. A pressure. A consequence. The sort of thing that turns every outing into a lesson before anyone opens their mouth. Set in a heat-brutal future where knowledge must be carried carefully through damaged conditions, the story follows Whaea Kiriwhetū , Matua Jaxomander , and a class of children on what should be a simple field trip. Naturally, it becomes much more than that. ...