A first story in Asimovs for Jablonksy, and hopefully there will be more.
It’s a great little story. It doesn’t break any new ground, but it handles a chain of alternate/alternative futures well, seeing it through the lens of a couple with a young baby.
NASA is investigating an anomoly in Earth orbit, and the advice to humans is to disconnect all equipment prone to damage from an electromagnetic pulse surge, and to await the results. There’s a worry that the world may end, and an already strained relationship between the two is exacerbated by the threat of what may happens.
Of course, the world doesn’t end, but the pair (as everyone else) are subjected to glimpses of future possibilities, and alternative pasts, through telephones from loved ones – including from their currently infant son, who makes several calls from the future.
Nothing resolved, nothing explained, but none the worse for that.
