Layers

“Archaeologists are not supposed to believe in ghosts.”

 

In this short, powerful novella, Torger Vedeler has created an alien world all but destroyed by climate change and mass extinction. Led by Karl Chikelu and his wife Deborah, a team of human explorers find that SMS-168b once possessed an alien civilization both distinct from our own and yet similar in many ways. As they begin to excavate the alien ruins and learn to read their texts, Karl and the others are suddenly confronted both with Deborah's unexpected pregnancy and the danger that they themselves might not survive the expedition.

 

This struggle is mirrored by the story of the doomed inhabitants of SMS-168b themselves. Faced with their warming and dying world, a group of them descend into the earth, digging tunnels and caverns below their ancient river valley. Rejected by the others of their kind, two clans must confront not only their most ancient fears, but also find new meaning in the struggle to survive. As generations pass, this requires that they reexamine their most sacred beliefs about the universe and the place of all things in it.

 

The result is a story that challenges both human and alien beliefs about life and its meaning.