Sneak Peek—Stories from The Expanding Universe Anthology #4: ‘Messenger’ by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne & R.R. Virdi
There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with Craig's permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne & R.R.Virdi’s story, ‘Messenger’ . Here’s how it begins: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Am I a man dreaming that I am a machine, or a machine dreaming of being a man? We looked to our neighbors in times of war to be our enemies. It was the wrong place to look. We should have turned our gaze upward, to the sky—to space. In our preoccupation with ourselves, we missed them—the others. Picture this, if you will. One moment, I was checking out of three years of reserve duty in the Indian Army, putting down my rifle and walking up the old beaten path to the house. My little one shrieked and bounded towards me. The wife, eight months pregnant, looked on fondly. The path was overgrown: it was my job to trim it, to keep the weeds from...