Brave New Worlds

oneself through a plate glass window. The waters envelop him, filling his ears and stinging his eyes.
    We welcome this sinner into the mystical body of Christ, and do mark him with the Sign of the Cross , Connie recites in his mind, reaching up and drawing the sacred plus sign on his forehead.
    He exhales, bubble following bubble.
    Cornelius Dennis Monaghan, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost , he concludes, and as the black wind sweeps through his brain, sucking him toward immortality, he knows that he's never been happier.

Peter Skilling
    by Alex Irvine

    Alex Irvine—a k a Alexander C. Irvine—is the author of the original novels A Scattering of Jades ; One King , One Solider ; The Life of Riley ; The Narrows ; and Buyout . He's also written some tie-in novels, such as Transformers: Exodus , Batman: Inferno , and Iron Man: Virus . His work on this last property has lead him to script the Iron Man: Rapture miniseries for Marvel Comics. Irvine is also a prolific author of short fiction, with more than forty stories published since making his debut in 2000. His short work, which frequently appears in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , has been collected in Unintended Consequences , Pictures from an Expedition , and in a four-story chapbook, Rossetti Song .

    Since the late 1970s, Conservative Christians have united their voices to take an active and highly visible role in the American political sphere. It is an interesting development in a nation founded on the separation of church and state, and one that provides fodder for a great deal of speculation. Even science fiction writers sometimes wonder: what would the United States be like if current trends in conservatism and religiosity continue?

    Our next story spins just such a future world, a world that has taken a significantly dark tone. This United States is a surveillance state bristling with rules and rigid strictures. Within such a complicated framework, it would take years to learn all the right things to do or say—years Peter Skilling never had. He's awakened ninety-eight years after his own death, a stranger in his own homeland. Medical science has given him a second chance at life, but living it just might be beyond his grasp.

    Here is a new dystopian America. Thomas Jefferson would be glad they can't bring him back to live in it.

    P eter Skilling did not remember falling into a glacial crevasse on the north slope of Mount McKinley, so it came as a surprise to him when he awoke to find what appeared to be a robot sitting next to his bed.
    "You're a very lucky man, Peter Skilling," the robot said to him. "A genuinely unique set of circumstances. You might have sustained fatal trauma from your fall, but look! You fell into a subglacial stream, resulting in scrapes and bruises only! And you might have been ground to gel by the glacier but for the earthquake that struck hours after your death and sheared away a portion of the mountain, leaving your body exposed in a depression away from the redirected glacier. Then, too, consider the above-average snowfall that encased your remains and protected you from the depredations of weather and wildlife. "
    "My remains?" Peter croaked.
    Noting the dryness of his throat, the robot moved swiftly to unspool a thin hose from the wall and placed its nipple in Peter's mouth. Reflexively Peter sucked, and his mouth filled with cool water.
    "This is the truly amazing chapter in your saga, Mr. Skilling," the robot gushed. "You died so quickly and in such cold water that—if you'll permit me an inorganic figure of speech—your autonomic system shorted out. Your brain function is astonishingly well preserved, and we have been able to surgically reconstruct damaged pathways. You were our perfect candidate. Quite a find, if I do say so myself!"
    The robot paused. "Do you consider yourself sufficiently apprised of the fortuitous circumstances in which you find yourself?"
    Peter hadn't caught much of the robot's effusion, but he gathered that he'd been in an accident on the mountain and survived. That seemed lucky. "I guess," he said.
    "Very good," the robot said. It extended a hand, and Peter shook. The robot's hand was warm. "I am called Burkhardt," the robot said. "I wish you all the very best. "
    It left, and Peter noticed a woman in a white coat who had apparently been waiting near the door while the robot, Burkhardt, had told Peter how lucky he was. She stepped