Yolande Kleinn, $0.99, ISBN 978-1-946316-24-0
Sci-fi Romance, 2022

Yolande Kleinn’s A Proof of Possibility starts out like a Lovecraft-ian space opera horror.

Aida de Luca is not supposed to be down here. At least, she’s not supposed to be down here alone. The science team will be furious if they find out she’s descended farther into the cave system unsupervised. Not for fear of her safety—though some of them would probably worry—but because she might easily interfere with discoveries waiting to be made. It’s not often they find a site like this, so full of strange readings and mysterious contradictions. Even if Aida doesn’t touch anything, they’ll accuse her of fucking things up for the survey team.

Ooh, what awaits her down in the caves of this mysterious planet?

But Aida can feel that this is what she’s been searching for. End of the line. It’s pinging her comm implant more insistently now, though still in that strange and almost subconscious way that gives her nothing to interact with. She can’t respond to a signal that isn’t really there.

Sadly, her beloved Captain Jamila Warwick, whom she has a whopping case of idol worship for, has followed her down there without Aida realizing it—which bodes well for any predator looking for an easy meal—and the whole thing turns out to be love.

Sigh. Now, make no mistake, this is a gorgeously written story, and the final few paragraphs just sing with poetry, as Ms Kleinn’s stuff tends to do. I don’t mind this story, as a result.

Still, to waste such a premise and not even have a shoggoth waiting to devour them at the end of the line? These two could have just wandered off into the space station’s locker room after a session at the training hub, to find love in a similar arc and manner, so talk about a wasted premise.