

Notes from the far
Yuliia Vereta
It is not mentioned in the Directory of planets.
There are no minerals, no water, no vegetation.
Inhabited by low-level robots of obsolete types,
out of production for dozens of earthly years.
Thanks to sunflower oil I made friends with one
With indicators on his forehead and wrists.
He is capricious and touchy, but knows gears.
Civilization is primitive, not computerized.
Agriculture is entirely absent. So are the beasts.
The planet is a flat gray ball, without mountains,
air or oceans, with a surface covered with dust.
This is a decent place for my aging and blackout.
During the flight around the mighty Reynold-V,
I got tiny bacteria crawling into my lubricant.
They turn it into sick abrasive solution. I’m rusting.
Solar engines don’t work. I now hold on the wires.
Want to give the locals permission to dismantle me
and use parts for the good. They are kind to me.
They look like the ancestors I have never had.


Yuliia Vereta (she/her) is a Ukrainian-born Polish science fiction and horror writer. Prolific in speculative genres, she wrote dozens of short stories, and poems, most prominent of which appeared or are forthcoming in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Star*Line, Leading Edge, Aphelion, The Dark Dossier, Dissections, Schlock!, ParSec and other magazines, published in print and online.
