Eric Del Carlo’s fiction has appeared in Analog, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, and many other magazines and anthologies over the years. His most recent novel is The Cold, a harrowing story of “emotional apocalypse” from White Cat Publications. He returns to Asimov’s for the fourth time to bring us the tale of a man on a human-settled alien world who must reconcile with a youth spent among the . . . When the attack on the Compromised Territories came, I was informed right away. No one contacted me personally, but news this urgent rippled swiftly through the government offices. The City