Nebula award winner
Available for free download from author:
.doc file: http://www.jimkelly.net/images/stories/documents/Burn.doc
MP3 audio: http://www.jimkelly.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82&Itemid=43
This story takes place on a
planet which has a human colony established in which people are expected to
live a simpler life. (From their perspective, a "simpler life" means
unenhanced humans, no robots in their daily lives or workplaces, transportation
by train not hovercraft, telecommunications generally without video, etc.)
However, the planet also has some people who are not part of this colony for
simpler living.
Although the colony doesn't
use robots in production, many of its citizens have found themselves buying
goods from the other group that does use robots. As time has passed, more
members of the colony - especially those who were born there rather than
choosing the simple life for themselves - have been tempted by what the other
group has. Also, the leaders of the colony had thought that as the colony
grew, the others would leave and go to another planet. The others did not
leave, so the colony's leaders decided to encourage them to do so. They
planted genetically modified trees that grow quickly and spread forest land out
towards the others.
The others and/or their
sympathizers in the colony have responded by starting forest fires to reduce
the forest areas. The colony has had to invest considerable resources in
fighting forest fires that threaten the areas used by the colony.
The protagonist, nicknamed
Spur, was injured while fighting a fire, and was treated in a high-tech
hospital run by off-worlders. The hospital also offers temptations that are
not available in the colony. One of these is an interstellar
telecommunications system with a large screen in his hospital room. Spur does
a search for anyone with the same name as his. He contacts someone with a
similar name (who has the title High Gregory). Spur's descriptions of conflict
leading to the forest fires results in the High Gregory deciding Spur's world
needs him to "make luck" for them. He travels to Spur's planet.
This neither is neither what
Spur expected nor is comfortable with. Bringing off-worlders into the colony
does not fit with the colony's norms, so Spur does his best to keep the High
Gregory's visit short and unnoticed. The High Gregory and his group have other
plans.
Then a report of a forest
fire near their town comes in. The town is not in an area where the forest
fires have taken place, so they aren't well equipped for a large fire. As Spur
responds to the fire, some previously unanswered questions in one area get
addressed. There are various other questions we never learn much about.
This is not a morality play
where one side or the other sees the error of their ways. It's more about the
different perspectives of cultures based on competing premises, how societies
can come into conflict, loyalties of individuals within a society, etc.
.