Synopsis
A young girl born in a Mars colony is left behind when everyone else returns to earth. She has to tend to the worker bots left on Mars. The bots start doing strange things, seeming to have become sentient. Meanwhile strange asteroids enter the solar system that may be alien ships.
History
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December 2023
Review
This was a very good story with an excellent main character and an enigma involving the bots. The mystery never is fully revealed and there is ultimately a device that doesn’t really make sense - nothing is really resolved. Or in another way something is resolved. The mystery seems to invigorate the curiosity of people on earth and bring them back to Mars.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December 2023, edited by Sheila Williams, magazine, Dell, 2023-11-00
All of the stories in the Mars (Phetteplace) series:
Candida Eve
The Ghosts of Mars
