“Shades of Journeys, Past and to Come” • by Jenna Hanchey

 

They aren’t ghosts, exactly, the figures that appear on your journey to Proxima B. They coalesce, drawing further into focus as you approach the speed of light. Time condenses, theirs overlapping with yours.

Just as they solidify, the ship slows. You reach out to touch one, but he fades. Hiding back in the pocket of time where he belongs.

Your wife shudders at the story. You are enthralled.

When the call comes for new crew members, you immediately join.

You’ll miss your wife, but you know you’ll see her again.

Haze sketching her form as your ship leaps across the stars.

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Jenna Hanchey has been called a “badass fairy” and she attempts to live up to the title. A professor of critical/cultural studies at Arizona State University, her research looks at how speculative fiction can imagine decolonization and bring it into being. Her own writing tries to support this project of creating better futures for us all. Her stories have appeared in Nature, Daily Science Fiction, Little Blue Marble, and of course, Stupefying Stories, among other venues. You can follow her adventures on Twitter @jennahanchey or at www.jennahanchey.com.