The solar surface boiled and roiled, dazzling between deep dark caverns and black pits. Tusker was immersed. Flares shot out to tangle round him in his pod, synthesised from a live feed from the Helios observatory mid-way between sun and earth. Excitedly he threw himself down into a sun spot, a vacancy that penetrated deep through the layers of the sun’s plasma convection zone. Flux ropes, twisted by extreme magnetism, tensed, broke then reformed around him. This was a ride h

Harriet tried to raise her eyes above the lower margin of the observation window. The flight had been bad enough. She had suffered nausea, the extreme travel sickness that afflicted most astronauts when first exposed to weightlessness. Gravity, it turns out, is essential for balance, and not knowing which way is up sends alarm-inducing messages all around the cerebral cortex. Joint proprioception is disabled, and the semi-circular canals are sent into a spin. That was easing

The docking mechanism on the side of the orbiting lunar gateway grew from a needle prick to the size of a circular toothed orifice, a shark’s round mouth, as the vehicle made its stately, inexorable progress from the Earth. Harriet watched the viewing screen intently, the next step on their journey to Antilunar-1, known as AL-1, the research station not far from the lunar south pole but hidden from earth view on the far side of the moon. ‘Alignment secure,’ the autonomous do

Harriet moved her hand along the upper abdomen, palpating gently. The little carapace kid squirmed under her touch, as the edge of the proto-chitin layer which was forming between fascia and dermis rolled beneath her fingers. ‘Does that hurt?’ ‘No,’ said Sol bravely. ‘Just tickles a bit.’ His eyes betrayed some of the fear he must have been feeling. Harriet continued, silently defining with her fingers the shape that was to develop. Like a gladiator's breastplate, ready to

Francois’s image cut in and out on the wall then settled. The connection wasn’t brilliant with the wind gusting outside. Harriet had her...

The papery skin of her lifeless sunken cheeks was exposed in the cold light of the white tiled cubicle. No blemish was left unregistered....

A tsunami of complex organic molecules swirled in with an inbreath, spiralling under and above turbinates, locking on to receptors in...

Members of Tusker’s entourage preceded him. People guessed it was a polycule, the intimacy within the group not hidden. ‘You just need to...

No one knew where the fleas came from. Correction: no one knew for certain where the fleas came from. Some said it was a foreign power....

The hand came down towards Harriet, getting bigger as it approached. She had presented her invitation from Claudia to “come and explore”....

Babu shivered inside his tent. The wind was flapping the side wall but at least it had stopped raining. A branch was moving about,...

Harriet's story continues... the next two chapters of 2069... 3 The band were three songs into their set. The front man was strutting the...

2069, a dystopian future fiction novel, is my next project. Harriet, a young female doctor navigates the ethical challenges of a world...