"The Very Pulse of the Machine" is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 published in 1998 by Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...

. It was the winner of the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Short Story

Hugo Award for Best Short Story

The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...

. It was also nominated for the 1999 Locus award and Asimov's Reader Poll.

Plot summary

The story follows Martha Kivelsen, an astronaut who is in a moon rover crash while exploring the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Io. The rover is destroyed so Kivelsen decides to make a sledge from the rover's parts and drag her partner’s body back to the lander before her air supply runs out. She has no time to sleep so she takes drugs to keep her awake and give her energy, but they cause her to hallucinate. Along the way she hears a voice in her radio claiming to be Io.

External links

• The Very Pulse of the Machine at BestScienceFictionStories.com - short story reviews and resources.