Void Birds

by Chuck Boeheim

Lieutenant Yusmara is an unconventional starship pilot. She steers by rope and canvas, at least in metaphor. She’s at the helm of the Gemini as something pulls onto a parallel course. They are beyond the edge of Human space, and no Human ship has yet encountered intelligent aliens. The crew of the Gemini prepares for a historic encounter in which Yusmara is uniquely suited to play a role. They have no idea how strange it is going to be. A new short story from the author of The Starship and the Citadel.

38 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2019

About the author

Chuck Boeheim brings his career in science and technology to tales of science fiction and fantasy while leaning into the "sufficiently advanced technology" trope. He's prone to filling his notebook with celestial mechanics calculations and other research for accuracy before telling the human stories set against that background. (Don't worry, the math doesn't end up in the stories.) His debut novel Sellenria has appeared on the Amazon top Hard Science Fiction list, while Knots is an exploration of a magical world based on topology. His short story Charon recently appeared in the anthology "Of Gods and Globes III."

Chuck lives with his wife, Chidori, and two cats, Rumplethumpkin and Yomogi, on the edge of Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York. When not writing, he enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, and traveling the world. He's visited most places in the world with high-energy physics labs and is now busy filling in the gaps in between.

Reviews

[Chris The Story Reading Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant tale.

An interesting take on the First Contact scenario, where it occurs in interstellar space, far from Earth and it’s colonies.

[Pat Eroh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mysterious and exciting, maybe first contact or a blurb on a screen? What are they? An awesome short read that is well-written, engaging, and compelling. I really want more!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Colman Mannion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the plot of this book, but found the story too short for my liking. The main theme is of space exploration by some humans whose purpose is to find new planets which will be suitable for humankind. They come in contact (non physical) with aliens or do they ?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep space life

A simple and sweet little story of a first contact situation, and how things do and don’t go according to plan.