Three Grams of Elsewhere

Harmony Cain

Fifty years ago, a new civ­il war frac­tured the Unit­ed States into a mosa­ic of polar­ized nations. Ever since, Har­mo­ny “Bibi” Cain has iso­lat­ed him­self: from soci­ety, from tech­nol­o­gy, from fam­i­ly. A pow­er­ful empath weary from the con­stant intru­sion of oth­ers’ emo­tions, he’s final­ly clois­tered in his rur­al Wis­con­sin retire­ment com­mu­ni­ty. He hopes to find, if not peace, then at least a lit­tle quiet.

But when four impos­si­ble-seem­ing killings shake North Amer­i­ca, Bibi is drawn into an inves­ti­ga­tion he wants noth­ing to do with. The vic­tims were killed by motes—unstoppable drones only an empath can control—and decades ago, Bibi was an unwit­ting sub­ject in the wartime pro­gram that cre­at­ed them: the pro­gram that weaponized empathy.

With his few remain­ing friends at risk, and ten­sions between coun­tries of the for­mer Unit­ed States reawak­en­ing, every­thing may depend on Bibi’s life­long strug­gle with his own extra­or­di­nary ability.

A near-future Mid­west­ern reflec­tion on hate’s ascent and empathy’s decline, with ele­ments of cyber­punk and mystery.