You are listening to a Clarksville magazine podcast. I'm your host and narrator Kate Baker. Welcome to the 1st of June. We have an exciting lineup for this month. And you know why we have an exciting lineup for this month? It is because of you. Your support. Every little bit that you share with Clark's World, every big bit that you

share with Clark's World allows us to bring you these words and worlds and characters and new

civilizations and new stories each and every month. It lets us bring you the arts, the nonfiction.

It lets us bring you the entire magazine. And we cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I've received a bunch of emails from our listeners over the last few months. And I cannot thank you enough for sending me those, letting me know what stories you love, why they resonate with you, especially in these trying times. So thank you for taking the time out of your day to spend it with us and to let us know how we're doing. So our first story for the month of June, 2026, is titled Up the Line to Death and is by Carrie Vaughn.

Carrie Vaughn's work includes the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel Bannerless,

the New York Times best-selling Kitty Norville Urban Fantasy Series, and over 20 novels and upwards

of over 100 short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Hugo Award.

Her most recent work includes the novel Questland, about a high-tech LARP that goes horribly wrong,

and the literature professor who has to save the day, and a kiddie spin-off collection, The Cormac and Amelia Case

Files. She's also a contributor to the Wildcard series of shared world superhero books

edited by George R. Martin and is a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop.

Carrie's work is 100% human created by her and her 30-plus years of experience writing stories.

So, my dear listener, I hope that you can sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

We have a problem, Major Needham said, marching into her office.

But since she said that almost every day, Lucas didn't really pay attention.

He was a civilian contractor, so he didn't have to stumble over Sir or Ma'am, which he entered

the room like some of his uniformed colleagues did.

Major Needham preferred Sir.

Is it on the list? asked Cynthia Patel, the other civilian contractor, not looking up from her monitor. Her screens glow reflected off her pink

rimmed glasses and her distracted air. She wore her security badge clipped to an oversized sweater

that she wore every single day no matter the weather.

No, this one doesn't go on the list. This one's a real problem.

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