Fade Away and Radiate Read Online Free PDF Page B

hand and quietly pulled her
forward through the little Eden she had cultivated. And she only
paused to pull the Bowman eco-drive out of the ground. To take it
with them, to grow a new world.
    And they came to the perimeter, behind
the research hut, where Billy had moved through the barrier between
her fledgling paradise and the ice.
    “ I don’t have a cold weather
suit for you,” Billy said. “You can’t go out there yet.”
    They stared beyond the clear barrier
between Annie’s warm, unfurling garden and the frozen hell howling
outside. Dimly, she could see the landing pod Billy had used to
come down to her. It was already half-buried in the swirling snow
and clouded ice of the native world.
    And then she saw it. The rebel ship
breaking through the ice planet’s orbit, hovering over the frozen
surface. She read the words painted crudely on the battered
hull:
    The Sullivan.
    A warm cascade of light shot from the
belly of the ship to Billy’s landing pod, then travelled along the
ice to the permeable plexisurface of the geodome, seeking
Billy.
    His soul.
    The light poured through the clear
membrane, warming her like the sun of her childhood. Annie put her
hands up against the plexi, feeling the cool membrane yielding to
the pressure of her fingertips.
    And then right before Annie walked
through into the protective light of the Sullivan’s waybeam, Violet
rose up from underfoot. Beating her wings into the ground, like a
homicidal mechanical hummingbird with a hypodermic needle for a
beak, stabbing Annie’s shoe again and again and again.
    Her poison vial, now empty.
    Billy looked down, then scraped Violet
off her foot with his boot, and stomped until the AI was no more
than a cluster of crushed gears.
    “ I bet the beacon inside the
AI still works,” Billy said. “We’re getting out of here, just in
time.”
    With that, they pressed through the
membrane and walked up the pathway of light and into the belly of
the ship that waited for them.
    And Annie looked back one last time, to
the garden she had grown, to the illusions of safety she was
leaving behind. The dome glowed in the morning sunlight, iridescent
as a soap bubble, the blasted frozen whiteness surrounding
it.
    Roberto wasn’t there.
    A huge weight suddenly rolled off her
shoulders, a burden she’d never realized she carried, until it was
released. After a long, barren season, she was ready. It was time
for Annie to let the grief move through her, radiate and fade away,
though not the love, never the love. She’d never forget him, would
love him always, but now she knew she was strong enough to carry
the loss forward into the future.
    Annie turned, kept walking into the
light. And Billy Murphy walked beside her.
    She’d never run away again.
    ###
     
    Author’s Note
     
    I originally wrote "Fade Away and
Radiate" for the short story collection The Mammoth Book of
Futuristic Romance. Those of you who've read my novel NETHERWOOD
will recognize some of the same elements and setting here, though
the events of this story happen before Talia's adventures in the
Forest with her outlaw. If you haven't read NETHERWOOD and you
liked this story, look for the novel to re-release late in
2013.
    As for the title, it is inspired by an
old Blondie song, and I think the mood of that song captures the
longing and cosmic regrets lurking in this tale of grief and
redemption.
    Here is a bonus story for your reading
enjoyment. “The Triumph of Arachne” first appeared in Penumbra
Magazine’s June 2012 issue. I had a ton of fun writing this one,
and it shares some themes with “Fade Away.” I hope that you enjoy
it! ~Michele
     
     
    The Triumph of
Arachne
     
    By Michele Lang
     
    Copyright 2012 Michele Lang
    Smashwords Edition
    this story first appeared in the June
2012 issue of Penumbra Magazine
     
    “ You are in terrible
danger,” said the spider.
    Clea startled and looked up from her
hologram matrix. The spider dangled in front of her, defying the
sterile