APHELION

Since we first gathered beneath stars we could not name, we have told stories to keep the dark at a tolerable distance. Around fires, at settlement edges, under failing lamps and recycled air, we have shaped memory into something that can be held. As we crossed oceans and continents, the stories travelled with us. When we crossed into orbit and then between suns, they did not fall silent - they adapted. In cold hulls and drifting stations, under foreign constellations and shifting anchor points, we continued to speak. Not always to record truth, but to preserve warmth. Not always to explain, but to endure.

This collection follows that quiet tradition. These are speculative tales of distance and restraint, of fragile worlds and measured choices. They linger in thresholds - between science and memory, exploration and stewardship, departure and return. They are stories stretched thin across vastness, some trembling, some holding fast. Because even at the edge of mapped space, we still gather. And we still tell them.