Science Fiction: Future Youth

By Richard S. Levine

Written by Richard S. Levine, these stories have appeared in other publications. Though all the protagonists are young adults (YA), these stories may be a bit edgier than your average YA story. In "Cosmic Consequences", Candor is sick on Mars. "Assisted Living" takes a look at disability and Jupiter's moon. In "Surfing the Wave", Jerry calculates the future. Read "The Big Picture", a scifaiku.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard S. Levine
• Release date: Apr 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458088970

Richard S. Levine

Richard S. Levine has been a math teacher, a software engineer, and a video games designer. Now he's busy writing speculative fiction. He has had stories published in Emerald Tales, OG's Speculative Fiction, Raygun Revival, The Fifth Di, The Lorelei Signal, and other online and print magazines. "A Comic on Phobos" received a nomination for Samsdotpublishing's James award. To learn more about Mr. Levine's writings and his award winning classic video game, "Microsurgeon", please visit his website. You can also check out my interests on Pinterest at pinterest.com/ricklev/.

Book preview

Science Fiction: Future Youth

By Richard S. Levine

Copyright © 2011 Richard S. Levine

Smashwords Edition

Discover other titles by Richard S. Levine at

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/richardslevine

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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The following science fiction stories were written by Richard S. Levine and have appeared in other print and online publications. Note that although the protagonists are all young adults (YA), these stories may be a bit edgier than your average YA story. This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Contents

Cosmic Consequences

Assisted Living

The Big Picture

Surfing the Wave

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Cosmic Consequences

This story was published in Beyond Centauri Magazine (Apr 2009). Some of us hate to take medicine -- especially the kind that doesn’t taste good -- but eventually the stuff usually makes us feel better. Young Martian resident Candor Tharsis is taking his pills, but they seem to be making him feel worse.

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It wasn’t the first time I’d stolen my father’s environmental suit and mopter to go play outside -- really outside. I was tall for a fourteen year old, and it was hard to listen to adults say no. I loved being outdome and closer to the craters, hills and extinct volcanoes -- the real Mars.

I felt queasy and dizzy standing near the center of Kaiser Crater on top of a large sand dune. I wanted to open my helmet to spew my guts out in the sand, but I knew that would kill me.

Why did I feel sick all the time? I kicked the ground hard. Some of the sand rolled down the hill and pushed just enough other sand to start a small avalanche.

Before long, a forty foot wave of sand pummeled down that thousand foot dune. The ground shook. It sounded like a growling dust devil. When the noise stopped, it still vibrated in every part of my body.

In school I learned that on Earth, Marco Polo once wrote about