In Touch with Laika

January 10, 2026

In Touch with Laika

Release Date: January 9, 2026

“In Touch With Laika” is a concise work of speculative fiction that merges intimate psychological portraiture with a distinctive mode of surreal, conversational narration. The novella centers on Ethan Rowden, an anxious and disillusioned podcaster who establishes contact with Nova-7, an ancient artificial intelligence engaged in compiling an “Archive” of forgotten voices. Nova-7 selects Ethan as its interlocutor, through whom the narrative channels the imagined final reflections of Laika, the Soviet space dog launched aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957.

By reinterpreting Laika’s historical demise, the text elevates her story from a marginal tragedy of scientific progress to a locus of moral and emotional resonance. The figure of Laika becomes a vehicle for broader meditations on erasure, remembrance, and the moral dimensions of technological ambition. Through this reframing, the novella foregrounds questions of voice and agency—both human and nonhuman—inviting readers to consider how the overlooked and forgotten persist in shaping the cultural present.

Ethan’s deteriorating podcast, positioned as the unlikely medium for cross-temporal communication, functions as a metaphor for the human yearning to be acknowledged and preserved. The interplay between human fragility and artificial immortality lends the narrative a distinctive pathos, situating it within traditions of introspective science fiction that explore the intersections of memory, identity, and communication.

The novella’s brevity contributes to its intensity of focus, avoiding narrative excess and cultivating an atmosphere of conceptual precision. By framing its speculative premise within the context of a struggling podcaster’s encounter with a cosmic archive, “In Touch With Laika” achieves a compelling fusion of emotional immediacy and philosophical inquiry.