The Stars Our Destination

<p><strong>Ten optimistic and forward-looking space stories that show how we journey to the stars!</strong></p><p><em>This is the third volume of the collected short stories of Joe Vasicek. It includes:</em></p><p><strong>The Scales of the Space Whale</strong><br>The most dangerous creatures in the universe will kill you before they know you exist!</p><p><strong>In the Beginning</strong><br>Paradise is not what-or where-it seems.<br>(After Dinner Conversation August 2020)</p><p><strong>From the Ice Incarnate</strong><br>They say that going into cryo is the closest thing to death short of actually dying. I believe it.<br>(1st place 2009 Vera Hinckley Mayhew Contest BYU)</p><p><strong>When She Awakes</strong><br>To pay her father's debt she must offer herself as coin.</p><p><strong>The Infiltrator</strong><br>The aliens are already among us in a form we refuse to see.<br>(Not Far From Roswell December 2019)</p><p><strong>Abductors</strong><br>Always check your backblast before launching your UFO.<br>(Never before published!)</p><p><strong>Starchild</strong><br>The revolutions passed and the stars spun silently underfoot.<br>(Bards and Sages Quarterly October 2019)</p><p><strong>L'enfer c'est la Solitude</strong><br>War is not the only hell in the cold empty void of space.<br>(Perihelion March 2016; The New Accelerator August 2018)</p><p><strong>The Janus Anomaly</strong><br>What do you do when you're the only sane one and everyone else is crazy?<br>(Kasma Magazine May 2019; Twilight Tales February 2021)</p><p><strong>Lizzie-99XT</strong><br>To save humanity she must become the machine.<br>(Serial Magazine August 2019)</p>