Short Stories 366:221 — “The Rainbow Collection,” by Nathan Azinger

Very often in science fiction set in the far future, the only entertainment pieces that seem to make it through from our contemporary point in time are so often things that we already consider classics: classical music, for example. This latest story from The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis had me pretty much grinning from ear-to-ear on the basis of what piece of entertainment history it chose to pop up in the story, and how “The Rainbow Collection” played completely on said piece and theme and okay, it was The Muppet Movie and it’s just so perfect.

Okay, we meet an alien who is struggling to get by—he’s managed to leave his home planet’s rural backwater, but the ship he manages to scrape enough credits to purchase, (alongside the cargo within it), break down mid-way to Plexis, where he’s hoping to begin his career as a merchant, plying the space-ways. Instead, he learns how cruelly stacked against the little guy “free” enterprise can be, and beside himself and without a plan, he stumbles across a human showing a movie as a part of an outreach/education program about human art history. And it’s a showing of The Muppet Movie!

What follows is a delightful twist on the theme from both the movie and the path the alien was already following, complete with a perfectly placed homage ending. The tone of this story is light, and breezy, even in the face of the insurmountable odds the alien faces at first, all while refusing to let his dreams die. That he finds a way—and where the inspiration comes from—just made it all the more enjoyable, and I left this story with a huge smile on my face.