Coelacanths

The very distant future is full of human beings. Our species has never been so brilliant or strong or rich, and we live fascinating lives, and our population is enormous. But all of that success exists inside a universe that we can longer recognize as our own.

"Near the lip of the City, inside the emerald green ring of Park, waits a secret place where the moss and horsetail and tree-fern forest plunges into a deep crystalline pool of warm spring water. No public map tells of the pool, and no trail leads the casual walker near it. But the pool is exactly the sort of place that young boys always discover, and it is exactly the kind of treasure that remains unmentioned to parents or any other adult with suspicious or troublesome natures.

"Able Quotient likes to believe that he was first to stumble across this tiny corner of Creation. And if he isn't first, at least no one before him has ever truly seen the water's beauty, and nobody after him will appreciate the charms of this elegant, timeless place."

Robert Reed won a Hugo Award for his novella, "A Billion Eves."

Reed hopes to live long enough to reach the Singularity.


Genre: Science Fiction