This flash fiction piece made the final round in the 2010 Escape Artists national fiction contest.
European astronomers saw it first; a dim, cobalt-blue star with a color and position that made it immediately clear that it was something new and different.
It was little more than a curiosity at first – not many people took notice until it began to steadily grow brighter, soon visible to amateur star gazers, and within a month it was clearly visible to the naked eye on clear nights, a blazing blue beacon shimmering in the evening sky. That’s when the fears began to spread, slowly and quietly in office gossip and coffee shop discussion. ‘What if’ became the question that everyone – and no one – wanted answered. (more…)
Visions of a Dark Horizon 