Elizabeth Bear - Future Visions - Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft

Blue Delliquanti is an artist, comic writer, and illustrator based in Minneapolis. Since 2012, Delliquanti has been regularly publishing the webcomic O Human Star , a science fiction story about a roboticist who returns to life as an android after his mysterious death sixteen years before. Acclaimed for its complex examination of identity and relationships, O Human Star won the 2012 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant. In addition to her self-published work, Delliquanti has contributed to several anthologies, including Smut Peddler and Womanthology , and she’s collaborated with David Axe, Kevin Knodell, and Nathan Schreiber on nonfiction comics.

Michele Rosenthal is an accomplished Brooklyn-based illustrator and graphic designer. The Sonic Man Machine , a Risograph fan comic illustrated by Rosenthal and written by her brother Mike, features 1970s electronica band Kraftwerk going on a surreal, hot-pink adventure. She recently published her first children’s ebook, The Trouble with Falling Asleep , a bedtime story for kids with active imaginations. Rosenthal’s illustrations have been featured in numerous print publications and online at Funny or Die and POPSUGAR. Her film blog, Criterion Affection, chronicles (often through illustration) her effort to watch every single film in the Criterion Collection, and she also runs Queer Portraits in History, a blog profiling historical LGBTQ figures.

“Order in the court! All rise!” Emily Chiu and the two hundred other people in the wood-paneled room got to their feet. She was a witness, but most of the others had donated five thousand dollars apiece for their seats. Countless millions were also watching the streaming coverage online.

Richard Weisman—portly, with thundercloud-gray hair—entered through a side doorway and strode to the bench. Although the opposing counsels on this Saturday afternoon weren’t actual lawyers—one was an astronomer; the other, a historian—Weisman was a real judge, donating his time, just as the city had donated the use of the courtroom.

The US and California flags that normally stood behind the bench were in their usual places. Emily had pointed out to the reporter sitting next to her that the California one, depicting a big bear, was particularly apt, since today’s proceedings revolved around 47 Ursae Majoris, but she didn’t think the guy got the joke.

Even more appropriate, though, was the third flag that had been added to the right of the other two. Since it was hanging limply, the people present couldn’t make out what it depicted, but Emily had seen the same design flapping in the breeze out front of the Interstellar Communications Society headquarters. Until her first visit there, two years ago now, she’d had no idea there was such a thing as an official flag of Earth, but this was indeed it. In the center was a blue circle, representing the home planet; in back of it, dominating the left side, was a portion of a much larger yellow circle, representing the sun. A smaller white circle to the right stood for the moon.

As Judge Weisman sat down, everyone in the courtroom did the same. “All right,” he said. “We heard opening arguments before lunch. Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Dr. Plaxton, you may call your first witness.”

Hannah Plaxton, a compact woman with dark hair and a birdlike way of moving, was the aforementioned astronomer; in today’s proceedings, being televised worldwide, she was representing the side not just in favor of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but those advocating active SETI, the deliberate sending out of signals. “Thank you, Your Honor. We call Ursula.”

Emily felt her eyebrows go up, and she could hear a murmur wash across the room. It seemed just about everybody, including the court staff, had expected various human experts to be summoned to the stand first; Emily herself was here to testify about the work her team had done to make all this possible.