Forthcoming at Reactor: A team of pilots is trained to fly ships in a war where it’s become cheaper to send humans instead of machines.

The funny story behind this one is that I originally wrote this when I was literally a teenager (during undergrad, at nineteen). It bounced from a couple zines and I shelved it…then lost the file for over a decade. I could have rewritten it except I couldn’t remember the ending. Between the archival skills of an old friend and cleaning out some emails, I found it, tidied it up, sent it out. This time it found a home, for which I’m forever grateful.

I was surprised by how much the original version of the story held up; and I had so thoroughly forgotten the ending that it took me by surprise when I reviewed that old draft. But I’m glad I held out for it, because I’d remembered correctly that it’s the right ending, the one I wanted to leave the reader with, even when I couldn’t remember what that ending was.