The House Left Empty

Civilization has suffered. Governments are in retreat, but small groups of people have organized to help one another. A single neighborhood can make its own food and power, repairing what breaks and sometimes building the most fabulous new devices. A libertarian existence, in one sense.

And then one day, a starship is delivered to their front door.

"The ball in my hands was black and slick, a little bigger than a basketball and heavier than natural. When I was a kid, I’d gone bowling once or twice. This ball was heavier than those. There were a lot of tiny holes and a couple large pits, and I thought I could see where fins and limbs might pop out or unfold. Of course this was a model. Anything else was too incredible. But just the idea that it might be made me hold the starship carefully, but away from my body, away from my groin."

Robert Reed is the author of several hundred published science fiction stories. He is best known for his Great Ship/Marrow saga.