On Miphre, a planet hardly larger than a moon, jagged mountaintops stab above the cloud cover and harbor small ecosystems in the palms of their hands: rock eels and ribbon mosses and seabirds with rodents clutched to their breasts, each one nestled between those stony fingers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe perfect nesting spot for gastor,\u201d the captain of The Cyclops Cradles Her Sheep<\/em> said when they arrived on board a few hours ago. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a buffet for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Sun tilted her head to the side. \u201cGastor don\u2019t nest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry?\u201d The captain\u2019s reply was concurrent with a pointed look from Dossa Nirav, Sun\u2019s mentor.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re ovoviviparous.\u201d She paused and reluctantly added, \u201cThey retain their eggs until they hatch internally. Then they come planet-side to refill their crops after the birth. They don\u2019t make nests.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I meant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Sun watches the clouds with a mug of Earl Gray cupped in both hands. The observation is interrupted by the sound of the ship\u2019s engines.<\/p>\n Please visit Lightspeed Magazine<\/a> to read more great science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared in the February 2025 issue, which also features short fiction by Andrew Dana Hudson, Seoung Kim, Eugenia Triantafyllou, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Kristina Ten, David DeGraff, and more. You can wait for this month\u2019s contents to be serialized online, or you can buy the whole issue right now in convenient ebook format for just $4.99, or subscribe to the ebook edition here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cIt Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand\u201d by Lowry Poletti On Miphre, a planet hardly larger than a moon, jagged mountaintops stab above the cloud cover and harbor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[992,993],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-lightspeed-magazine","tag-lightspeed-presents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/Lightspeed_177_February_2025_io9-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Source Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"