Short Stories 366:127 — “The Case of the Silenco Scientist,” by Maverick Smith

[image error]So often in science fiction worlds, if disability is approached at all, it’s approached with the notion of some sort of hand-wavy “cure” rather than accommodation, sometimes with a downside, but most often there’s that sense of a disability being “fixed.” This is why I enjoy stories like Smith’s contribution to Nothing Without Us, “The Case of the Silenco Scientist,” so very much: they tack in a different direction. Building on accommodation instead, the future far-flung world where this particular investigation/mystery story tales place is full of Deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens, and built to support them. Corridors have mirrors. Alerts are visual. That sort of thing.

As we follow a pair of investigators trying to track down a missing spouse, the mystery untangles at a fun pace, and things are (of course) not as simple as they seem. What follows is a nice mix of mystery and clever character reactions to the roadblocks in their investigations. Ultimately, the turn-the-tables moment is all the more enjoyable for how it builds on what came before, as the author spins all their little bits of worldbuilding into one moment of (somewhat) controlled chaos.

The entire time I was reading this story, I couldn’t help but wonder what other worlds might be like, if whole colonies in space were built on a simple principle of accommodation for their future citizenry. I’d love to visit more worlds Smith pens, or even spend more time on this planet, especially if I get to read more of these investigators in their stories, and I suppose that’s the best thing I can say about the story really: it made me want more.