Celeste died. Celeste was killed. Mercilessly. Painlessly. Celeste, the creature conceived, created, and birthed in deepest space was murdered, slayed, terminated by her life support systems, never to be resuscitated. A spent cosmic macro-organism, sentenced to drift, to float,...

It was unusual for Izzy to find a midult lying by the hewn oak logs in the clearing at twilight. There were rabbits scarpering into the bushes. Foxes returning from raiding hens’ eggs on the allotments. Deer foraging. Izzy...