Welcome!

I'm excited to present an incredible line-up of stories in our second issue of Compelling Science Fiction! Our first story, Michael Ryder's "Crinkles," takes place on a space station and witnesses the birth of an emotional AI. We continue this off-world trend with "Seeds of War" by Tommi Virtanen. "Seeds of War" is a short first-contact story from the perspective of the contacted, and that's all I'll say to avoid spoilers. Our third story, "Personal Trainer" by Meg Elison, provides our second unique take on mind transference (see this story from issue 1 for a different kind of mind transference). Next comes the longest story we've ever published, "Oelinium," by Steve Rodgers. "Oelinium" clocks in at around 8000 words, and does the difficult job of introducing a sprawling universe in short-story form. Rounding out this issue is "Twiceborn," by C.L. Kagmi. "Twiceborn" is told from the perspective of an ancient race trying to survive xenocide. I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did!

Joe Stech
Editor

Compelling Issue 2

• Crinkles
  by Michael Ryder
• Seeds of War
  by Tommi Virtanen
• Personal Trainer
  by Meg Elison
• Oelinium
  by Steve Rodgers
• Twiceborn
  by C.L. Kagmi