Story Details
Published on 2024-12-05
Categories Science Fiction Aliens
In his unusual First Contact story, Jack Morton crafts a tale of connection, loss, and quiet rebellion. Lily, a grandmother who once formed a bond with Earth's visiting alien rays, discovers a lone ray held captive in a research lab. Faced with its despair and isolation, Lily risks everything to free the creature and rekindle its hope of reuniting with its kind. Here we explore themes of empathy, the need for freedom, and the bittersweet memories of a world touched by wonder. This is a story that lingers, like the ache of 'seeing a rock so green, it hurts.'
Author Details
Jack Morton A Ray So Alone
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Jack Morton studied English and Writing at the University of Toronto. His stories can be read in Radon Journal, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Parsec Ink’s Triangulation, Vast Literary Press, and Woodward Review. He lives in Toulouse, France. STORY NOTES FOR "A RAY SO ALONE" The rays of A Ray So Alone presented themselves to me nearly fully formed, their appearance, their personality, and their voice when communicating. Lily and Will came about later as a response to the questions I had about ray culture and lifecycle, respectively. Lily has suffered loss, faced her own mortality, and fears forgetting and erasure. None of those concepts make any sense in ray culture. But she connects with their empathy and curiosity. I wish I lived with more empathy and less fear, more curiosity and fewer regrets, but that doesn’t mean the rays should be seen as aspirational. If someone invited me onto a fleet of self-sustaining drones built for interstellar travel with vast databanks capable of carrying my uploaded memories with them on an eternal quest of exploration, would I say yes? Give up the human individuality and attachment to one specific creature that give Lily her agency? I don’t know if I’d like to become a ray. I would love to meet them though.
A Ray So Alone, by Jack Morton
Author Details
Jack Morton A Ray So Alone
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Jack Morton studied English and Writing at the University of Toronto. His stories can be read in Radon Journal, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Parsec Ink’s Triangulation, Vast Literary Press, and Woodward Review. He lives in Toulouse, France. STORY NOTES FOR "A RAY SO ALONE" The rays of A Ray So Alone presented themselves to me nearly fully formed, their appearance, their personality, and their voice when communicating. Lily and Will came about later as a response to the questions I had about ray culture and lifecycle, respectively. Lily has suffered loss, faced her own mortality, and fears forgetting and erasure. None of those concepts make any sense in ray culture. But she connects with their empathy and curiosity. I wish I lived with more empathy and less fear, more curiosity and fewer regrets, but that doesn’t mean the rays should be seen as aspirational. If someone invited me onto a fleet of self-sustaining drones built for interstellar travel with vast databanks capable of carrying my uploaded memories with them on an eternal quest of exploration, would I say yes? Give up the human individuality and attachment to one specific creature that give Lily her agency? I don’t know if I’d like to become a ray. I would love to meet them though.
