A Rush Hour Ride on the Dwarf Planet: Neotropical Imaginings from a Postpandemic Colony

Abstract

In this dystopian flash fiction piece, a colonist on the Dwarf Planet takes the train back to her cubicle after another hard day’s work. As she struggles amid the harsh environmental conditions, KÆ reflects on why she volunteered to come out to this remote colony in the far reaches of the solar system. It is revealed that the great pandemic of 2020 never ended; the virus mutated and humans fled the Earth to build new worlds on other planets. But glimpses of the world left behind beckon as KÆ and her fellow colonists are now being enticed to return to a revived Earth; in particular, to the land of her forebears, Borneo, where orangutans roam in the resurrected rainforest and holiday-makers frolic in the famed underwater world of Sipadan and play on the island’s pristine beaches.

Keywords

• borneo
• covid-19 pandemic
• flash fiction
• speculative fiction
• dystopian worlds
• utopian imaginaries
• environment
• tropics