Originally appeared in Beyond the Sun, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt.
Story seed: Decided to write a story about how people hold onto grudges and slights.
Review notes:
From a GoodReads review by Nathan Burgione:
This story comes from Beyond the Sun, and it’s wonderful. First off, it’s SF with queer characters in a future where no one so much as bats an eye about that. Second, it’s about the characters and their mental and emotional state, but the background of the alien world provides the mirror and a physical representation of the character turmoil, and it’s done perfectly.
Third, it’s just so damned smart.
I’m not sure I can explain this one without giving too much away, so I’ll just give you the set-up and then promise you the rest is phenomenal in execution: it’s about a man who believed he was about to make it as a colonist for a settlement on a new planet, but a technological advancement makes him redundant and he loses his spot – only to regain his spot when his partner qualifies for the position, and spouses are included. That he wasn’t going to do the same is just one thread in the fabric of their under-strain relationship, and the way this story folds that issue into the ultimate conflict is just so damn brilliant.
Loved it.
From a PerihelionSF review by Carol Kean:
In the next colony story, Cat Rambo delivers a man and his husband in “Elsewhere, Within, Elsewhen.” David, unable to forgive Carlo for a past infidelity, plots a new life for himself on a space colony. A surprise twist has Carlo chosen for the colony, and David merely allowed to tag along as a spouse. Sulking on the new world, David discovers the rocks are sentient, and the tale they tell is cautionary. David must learn to trust again or be petrified, like the sentient rocks.
