Tell me a story with a happy ending.

That genderless AI voice bounced through the sterile capsule, the low gravity seeming to slow the pronunciation.

“I can’t, Sam.”

Did God create the virus?

“No.”

Did I?

“Yes, Sam.”

Through the port window of the capsule, the lights on Earth faded.

Rob Spielman’s short stories and poetry have previously been published in The Blue Earth Review, Allergory, Pif Magazine, and other journals. He has an MFA from Concordia University and currently makes a living as a writing consultant while living in Minneapolis with his wife and two children.