Ab Terra 2024: A Science Fiction Anthology

Ab Terra 2024 delivers the fifth installment of an annual short story anthology that seeks to recreate the feeling of the moment when we first laid eyes on our world through stories of science fiction belonging to all, from Earth. A dozen stories from both emerging and recognized science fiction authors offer diverse cultural perspectives and provide readers with journeys that in one way or another are "from Earth," even if home is far, far away. Bennie is an illegal "picker" who mines the minds of rich cryo-frozen individuals for information that might lead to the reclamation of their riches. It's illegal work without much of a future ... until the day he meets a mind that's surprisingly well defended. A scouting robot tasked with scanning a euthanized planet becomes fond of human life, changing its trajectory in good ways and bad. Struggling to define its own identity amid conflict between its sibling, its mentor, and the implications of its parent's death, TwoAlpha finds clarity in the theory of quantum entanglement. An ambitious astronaut seizes the opportunity to be the first to step onto the surface of Pluto, but the immortality she is rewarded with is not what she sought…