This is the first I’ve read from Nitkey (it won’t be the last, he’s published a lot). In ‘Life on Earth’, the narrator’s partner is dying while scientists are discovering life on other planets. I’ve been reading a lot of Ted Chiang recently, and the humanity and emotion in this story remind me of some of his writing. It starts like this:

They discover life on Mars the same day the doctors tell us Willmae is dying. Tiny cryostatic frozen extremophiles that look like microscopic jellyfish are both alive and not-alive deep inside the Martian ice-caps. The doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with her. Their best guess is that it’s some kind of gram-negative antibiotic resistant bacteria. 

A nurse joins us in the examination room and adds a medicine we’ve never heard of to her regime. “Did you guys hear the news?” she asks. 

“We’re not alone,” Willmae replies with a beaming smile. 

It doesn’t feel that way.