Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026
The narrator is a Yem — a species unique in the universe for their ability to direct their own reincarnation using meditative tones, returning life after life to their home planet. After dissolving a long-term bond with their mate Sann, the narrator chooses a “Jump Life,” meditating on neutral tones to be reborn randomly elsewhere in the galaxy.
They wake in bipedal form on a distant planet, reveling in the novelty of strangers. There they meet Divagra, a passionate, intellectually fierce woman obsessed with solving the universe’s communication delays — the agonizing slowness that keeps reincarnated souls forever separated from the people they’ve loved in previous lives. The narrator falls deeply in love with her, the first love they’ve ever truly felt. They bond, have a son named Senki, and build a life together. But as Divagra grows ill and begins dying, she throws herself into researching reincarnation, desperate to find a way to reunite with lost loved ones. The narrator holds Yem’s secret the entire time, guilt-ridden but unwilling to betray their planet — until the very end, when they tell Divagra everything, including the meditation that could guide her soul to Yem.
Divagra dies, possibly having used the secret. The narrator eventually returns to Yem, spends many quiet lives in a loving communal homestead, and begins to believe they’ve finally found peace. Then an alien invasion shatters everything. Warships descend and target the Cradle — Yem’s sacred rebirth chamber — and souls stop being reborn. The narrator suspects Divagra is behind it.
Infiltrating the Cradle, they find an alien version of Divagra commanding the operation. She has taken the Yem ability to direct reincarnation and — across multiple lifetimes of research and alliance-building — engineered a machine that uses larval Yem souls as living message spheres, destroyed in transit to transmit instant communications across the galaxy. Her InstaComm is a miracle of connection built on genocide.
Before the narrator is killed, Yem counterforces — including Sann, now a Council member and undercover operative — reveal themselves and retake the Cradle. Thousands of larval souls are recovered, but many, including the narrator’s beloved homestead family, have already been transmitted and lost.
The narrator is imprisoned for treason. As punishment, Sann administers a sphere that destroys the Yem homing frequency in the narrator’s soul — exiling them from Yem for all future lives — then kills them.
In the lifetimes that follow, the narrator drifts randomly through the universe, occasionally stealing souls from InstaComm machines and freeing them. The technology spreads, celebrated as a wonder. No one knows its true cost. The narrator carries the guilt alone, life after life, a stranger everywhere, belonging nowhere.
Emily C. Skaftun is a speculative fiction writer, editor, graphic designer, and irony enthusiast. Her short story collection, Living Forever & Other Terrible Ideas, was published in November 2020. Emily lives in Seattle with a furry house monster named Basilisk. In her spare time, she plays roller derby as V. Lucy Raptor, dabbles with taxidermy, and writes postcards to the void. More at ecskaftun.com.