‘One Last Frontier’ by Finnian Burnett

Aboard the Enterprise

To round out our 50th issue, find another feature story from Finnian Burnett. Read an excerpt of ‘One Last Frontier’ below, and be sure to pick up a copy of Issue 50, Spring 2026 to read this story in full, along with the accompanying feature interview!

One Last Frontier

by Finnian Burnett

“Take your meds, honey,” the nurse says, handing you the paper dispensing cup while holding a cup of water for you to sip. You’ve lost your ability to hold it; your trembling fingers having lost their grip. Not the first thing you’ve lost. Not even the most recent.

Your voice, that was the last thing to go. You can still feel the words, curdling somewhere around the base of your throat; you remember most of them, how it felt to curl your tongue around some of your favourites like lasciviousness and guttural and warp coil.

Warp coil, you say in your mind, popping the P and crackling the hard C.

Another thing you’ve lost. Star Trek. You used to watch it every day, all the series — even Enterprise, which your granddaughter hated. But most of all the original series, with Kirk and Spock and Uhura and Chekov and Bones and Sulu. And, oh, it doesn’t matter now, because no one turns on Star Trek for you. Not here.

Your granddaughter showed you how to watch streaming services on a tablet, but you can never remember how to make it work, and, “Oh honey, you don’t want to watch that old crap again,” the nurse would say when you could still speak, could still ask her to turn it on for you, when you could still hold it.

“She likes Star Trek,” your granddaughter would say on her visits. “It’s not hurting anyone.”

But it is, you guess. Hurting the other old folks who watch Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and daytime soap operas and shopping channels, even though most of them just stare at the walls or the floor these days, not even looking at the screen.

You met George Takei once. Sulu. Fifty years ago, maybe. Maybe more. Was it sixty? Your shaking hands play over the tablet
sitting on the bed at your side and you try to catch the nurse’s eye, to somehow implore her to turn on and set up the tablet so you can watch your show. Could you see it one more time? Could you take a ride on the Enterprise once more before you die?

Read the rest of this story in Pulp Literature Issue 50, Spring 2026!

Have a story of your own to share? The 2026 Raven Short Story Contest is open to entries until October 15th! Find the guidelines and our entry form here.

Finnian Burnett has perfected the art of slow writing, strategic procrastination, and finishing books anyway. ‘One Last Frontier’ is from Finnian’s third novella-in-flash, Redshirts Sometimes Survive, a love letter to healing, found family, and queer resistance through the lens of Star Trek fandom. Finnian lives in BC with their wife and several affectionate houseplants.