Last Plane to Heaven (44 page)

*   *   *

Once upon a time, I contracted a fatal disease.

I am dying of metastatic colon cancer. Chances are very good that by the time these words reach print I will either be on my deathbed or in my grave. I don't write anymore. A career that was first born in the 1980s as the merest dream, and blossomed in the 2000s after years of diligent effort, was finally stopped by a small mutation and some clusters of runaway cells that wouldn't fill a cereal bowl.

Putting together my final collection, I was discussing with John Pitts who I might ask to write the introduction. We bandied about various names of people I liked and admired. John asked me who I would have if I could have any writer.

My answer of course was Gene Wolfe.

When I wrote him to very politely inquire of his interest, his response was instant and enthusiastic.

So I have come full circle, from following Severian the Torturer through the distant future past of Urth, to putting the finishing touches on a manuscript introduced by the man who introduced me to the idea of what writing could ever be.

My debts to the people in this field are immense and unredeemable. So many have helped me. So many have given me a hand. So many have given me the literary equivalent of a good thrashing when I needed it.

But my gratitude to the man who is almost literally my patron saint for helping me introduce this final collection to you knows no bounds. Neither does my gratitude to you for reading it.

I love you all. It has been a real privilege to know you.

Jay Lake
Portland, OR

 

T
OR
B
OOKS BY
J
AY
L
AKE

Mainspring

Escapement

Pinion

Green

Endurance

Kalimpura

Last Plane to Heaven

 

About the Author

Jay Lake was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an award-winning editor, a popular raconteur and toastmaster, and an excellent teacher at the many writers' workshops he attended. His novels included Tor's publications
Mainspring, Escapement,
and
Pinion,
and the trilogy of novels in his Green cycle—
Green, Endurance,
and
Kalimpura
. Lake was nominated multiple times for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 2004, the year after his first professional stories were published. In 2008, Jay Lake was diagnosed with colon cancer, and in the years after, he became known outside the SF genre as a powerful and brutally honest blogger about the progression of his disease. Jay Lake died on June 1, 2014, three months before the publication of this collection.

 

Copyright Acknowledgments

“Last Plane to Heaven: A Love Story” copyright © 2007 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Jim Baen's Universe
.

“Houses of the Favored” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,
edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press.

“The Starship Mechanic” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr., and Ken Scholes. Originally appeared at
Tor.com
.

“Permanent Fatal Errors” copyright © 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Is Anybody Out There?,
edited by Marty Halpern, DAW.

“‘Hello,' Said the Gun” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared at
Daily Science Fiction.

“The Speed of Time” copyright © 2013 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared at
Tor.com
.

“West to East” copyright © 2014 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared at
Subterranean Online.

“The Women Who Ate Stone Squid” copyright © 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Love and Rockets,
edited by Kerrie Lynn Hughes and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW.

“Looking for Truth in a Wild Blue Yonder” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr., and Ken Scholes. Originally appeared at
Tor.com
.

“Scent of the Green Cathedral” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,
edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press.

“Spendthrift” copyright © 2013 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Coins of Chaos,
edited by Jennifer Brozek, EDGE.

“Jefferson's West” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Boondocks Fantasy,
edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW.

“They Are Forgotten Until They Come Again” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
River,
edited by Alma Alexander, Dark Quest Books.

“The Woman Who Shattered the Moon” copyright © 2012 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
The Villain Comes Home,
edited by Gabrielle Harbowy and Ed Greenwood, Dragon Moon Press.

“The Blade of His Plow” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Human for a Day,
edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jennifer Brozek, DAW.

“Grindstone” copyright © 2013 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Airships and Automatons,
edited by Charles P. Zaglanis, White Cat Publications.

“The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen” copyright © 2012 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Westward Weird,
edited by Kerrie Lynn Hughes and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW.

“That Which Rises Ever Upward” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
The Fathomless Abyss,
edited by Phil Athans, Athans Associates.

“A Feast of Angels” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,
edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press.

“Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable” copyright © 2008 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Paper Cities,
edited by Ekaterina Sedia, Senses Five Press.

“Testaments” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
The Book of Dreams,
edited by Nick Gevers, Subterranean.

“The Fall of the Moon” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Realms of Fantasy,
October 2010.

“A Critical Examination of Stigmata's Print
Taking the Rats to Riga
” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists,
edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, HarperCollins.

“From the Countries of Her Dreams” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr., and Shannon Page. Originally appeared in
Fantasy Magazine,
November 2010.

“Unchambered Heart” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
The Chiaroscuro,
April 2011.

“Novus Ordo Angelorum” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,
edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press.

“The Tentacled Sky” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared on
DrabbleCast,
number 178, 2010.

“Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Cthulhu's Reign,
edited by Darrell Schweitzer, DAW.

“Her Fingers Like Whips, Her Eyes Like Razors” copyright © 2011 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Postscripts,
24/25, 2011.

“Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Dark Faith,
edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon, Apex Publications.

“Going Bad” copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,
edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press.

“The Cancer Catechism” copyright © 2012 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. Originally appeared in
Dark Faith: Invocations,
edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon, Apex Publications.

Afterword copyright © 2014 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

 

LAST PLANE TO HEAVEN

 

Copyright © 2014 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

 

Foreword copyright © 2014 by Gene Wolfe

 

All rights reserved.

 

Cover design by Peter Lutjen

 

Cover art by Shutterstock and Getty Images

 

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Lake, Jay.

     [Short stories. Selections]

     Last plane to heaven: the final collection / Jay Lake.

        p.  cm.

     ISBN 978-0-7653-7798-2 (hardcover)

     ISBN 978-1-4668-5847-3 (e-book)

     I.  Title.

  PS3612.A519L38 2014

  813'.6—dc23

2014019792

 

e-ISBN 9871466858473

 

First Edition: September 2014