Online here.
A neat little (3k words) story set on the distant Kepler-186f. Badar is the only human on the planet and that suits him fine. To be honest, even the presence and the voice of the AI can be an irritant. He’s on the planet for a couple of years, to help a mega-corporation make a claim on the planet. A couple of years solitude, and then a big paycheck at the end of it, with which he can set himself up back on Earth (on a remote part of it), is the perfect job for him.
When it turns out that the population of the planet is in fact some 50% higher than he thought, he has some decisions to make, in a dry, wry story. If you like this story on Clarkesworld, come back here and read his Bean There on Best SF Presents.
More from this issue here.
