"Arvies" is a 2010

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short story by

Adam-Troy Castro __NOTOC__ Adam-Troy Castro is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer living in Wildwood, Florida. He has almost two hundred stories to his credit and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and S ...

. It was first published in ''

Lightspeed Magazine ''Lightspeed'' is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine edited and published by John Joseph Adams. The first issue was published in June 2010 and it has maintained a regular monthly schedule since. The magazine published four o ...

'', and subsequently republished in Castro's anthology ''Her Husband's Hands'', as well as in the compilations ''Lightspeed: Year One'',Lightspeed: Year One edited by John Joseph Adams
by Sean Wallace; at Prime-Books.com; published June 10, 2011; retrieved December 26, 2014 ''Nebula Awards Showcase: 2012''Nebula Awards Showcase: 2012
via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

and ''The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2011''.Rich Horton's Prime Books Anthologies
by Rich Horton; at SFF.net; published February 27, 2011; retrieved December 26, 2014

Synopsis

In a distant future ruled by superintelligent

fetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Pren ...

es who have been genetically engineered to live centuries ''in utero'', life has been legally redefined as lasting from

fertilisation Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a zygote and initiate its development into a new individual organism or of ...

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

, such that everyone who has been born is legally dead: disposable near-mindless slaves whose only purpose is to act as living "vehicles" for the fetuses that are robotically transplanted into them. One such fetus is Jennifer Axioma-Singh, who decides she wants an experience that no other fetus has ever had: to give birth. The story does not explain the derivation of the term "arvies," which is this far-future's term for the human beings this far future allows to grow to maturity, to serve as vessels for the super-advanced fetuses. The author left it down to the reader to recognize the acronym RV, or "recreational vehicle."

Reception

"Arvies" won the 2011

Million Writers Award Million Writers Award was a short story literary award presented annually by storySouth from 2003 to 2016. It honored the best online short stories. The award was structured to be egalitarian allowing for anyone to nominate a story including readers ...

for best short story,The storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2010
by

Jason Sanford Jason Sanford is an American science fiction author whose 2022 novel ''Plague Birds'' was a finalist for the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards.

; at

storySouth ''storySouth'' is an online quarterly literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, criticism, essays, and visual artwork, with a focus on the Southern United States. The journal also runs the annual Million Writers Award to select the best ...

; retrieved December 26, 2014 and was nominated for the 2011

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short sto ...

.2011 Nebula Award Winners!
by Irene Gallo; at

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

; published May 21, 2011; retrieved December 26, 2014

References

External links

Text of the story
*{{isfdb title, id=1153062, title=Arvies Science fiction short stories Works originally published in Lightspeed