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  • FUTURES

Practice on a pulsefish

A taste of things to come.
By
  1. Steven Berger

    1. Steven Berger is an speculative fiction writer based in Austin, Texas, who occasionally veers into humour. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Find him on Twitter @steber.

A lemon sits in a small pool water surrounded by flashes of electricity

Illustration by Jacey

I shook the pulsefish by the tail, the last drops of blood draining from its opened throat into the dark waters. Between the pulsing vibrations of the fish and the sway of my boat, it was hard to keep my knife straight as I sliced through its ghastly skin. My hands were fully numbed by the time I plopped a white fillet onto the cutting board, as if I was watching someone else do it. The meat shimmered with resonant electricity.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00545-7

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