Competition #107 merged famous SF/F stories with real-world writers to produce a new plot. Many of the entries were political in nature, and not many managed to draw light from the black hole of the tumultuous times of 2026. Remember this for upcoming competitions: Bitterly funny is superior to just plain bitter, no matter how clever your ideas are. (And many of them were. A shout-out to all of the Elon Musk/The Martian entries.) Thank you to Melissa Lee Shaw and Peter Wainwright for submitting themselves to this particular competition slush pile. FIRST PRIZE: Patternmaster by M.C. Escher Coransee will