Story idea:
Title: Hyperspace. During humankind’s first faster-than-light journey to the edge of our solar system, the astronauts aboard discover an impassable barrier in space. When one of the crew members becomes trapped beyond the barrier, the boundaries and understanding of our universe are called into question.
In 2019, the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Documentaries premiered, movies were made, and I sat down at my desk to write a story.
So much of the Apollo 11 mission contained unknowns. Scientists were unsure of the stability of the moon’s surface. Some thought the lander would sink into a quicksand-like powder. There were fears of contamination, microorganisms and lunar fever. And the psychological effects on the astronauts were a mystery since the early missions into space. John Glenn’s experience seeing “fireflies” in space and other occurrences of cosmic phosphenes are still debated to this day.
How many more unknowns are out there as space travel evolves? This was the question that guided my story idea. The universe is full of unknowns and we can only discover them by challenging our understanding of what we haven’t yet discovered.
In August of 2024, I sent Hyperspace into the unknown when I discovered a call for science fiction stories about 100,000 years of intergalactic peace and the events that set them into motion. This was where my story idea finally found its way home.
After writing it in 2019, I left the story stranded in space, uncertain what to do with it or where it should go next. The weight of all our scientific discoveries since the moon landing paled in comparison to the chaos of the pandemic. The prompt given by the submission opportunity offered a way back into my story and I even found a way to connect it to another one of my stories (Fossil Fuels, as seen in Astounding! Tales from the North.) It also gave me a new sense of optimism for the future.
Even in the face of the unknown, the search for knowledge still leads you where you need to go.
And in March 2025, Hyperspace was published in Issue #27 of Alien Dimensions Magazine.
Discover it for yourself HERE.
What unknowns have you faced?
Start your story in the comments below…
Photo Sources:
- Apollo 11 film: By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59817406
- First Man film: By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57634807
- John Glenn in Friendship 7: By NASA – http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb/caption.jsp?searchpage=true&keywords=glenn%20mercury&textsearch=Go&hitsperpage=30&pageno=1&photoId=S62-00303, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2130785
- Alien Dimensions artwork: © SPACE FICTION BOOKS 2025