Ark of Light
By Victor LaValle, first published in Particulates
In the far future, a selfless woman helps a wary man flee from a destroyed Earth to the world beyond the solar system.
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Plot Summary
The Earth has been destroyed. Instead of choosing to inherit an annihilated world, a man chooses to flee for better lands outside of the solar system. To do so, he will have to travel using a mysterious technology named the Ark of Light, which he does not understand. As he prepares to leave, he is helped by a woman known as a Transmission Liaison. Although she is cold at first because the man did not read much of the safety manual and is unprepared, she warms up to him over time. In his last moments on Earth, he worries about her. If she does not escape soon, the vicious leaders of Earth will find her and make her pay for her crimes in helping refugees escape. Even he, from the outer reaches of the universe, will not be safe. She reassures him, telling him that she must help everyone else escape first. The traveler accepts his Transmission Liaison's explanation and approaches the Ark of Light, prepared to see the parts of the universe he's never seen before.
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