I’d already written a complete draft of a novel, SPACESHIP DAYS, about a generational starship leaving Earth on a mission to seek out sanctuary in another solar system. That novel took place entirely on the ship, the Running Bear, but my imagination kept returning to the unexplored storylines that lay before and beyond that epic adventure. “From Chicxulub With Love” tells the tale of the moon-based team, lead by Sonia Nascimento, which makes possible the Running Bear’s escape from a devastasted Earth. The fact that she’s married to the Running Bear’s newly-minted captain infuses the drama with pathos and tragedy–not only are these characters losing their Earthly home, but also each other. The story twists from space-tech drama to existential elegy, and I’m grateful to Fusion Fragment for publishing it (in print) in Issue #18 in September, 2023.
Other chapters from SPACESHIP DAYS have appeared in Analog and Infinite Worlds, with another forthcoming in Fantasy & Science Fiction.