From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,
edited by John Joseph Adams
(Note: This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)On a spaceship erratic behavior--no matter how small--cannot be tolerated. Orlando, a boy genius, has hit his sister, just one in a series of crimes. The father makes excuses, the mother asks for drugs, but drugs dampen performance on a spaceship. A robot doctor has to decide the boy's fate. The boy is ready to be culled. The robot gives the genius boy hope that he has a different destination, a new living world with secret homes on asteroids.
This feels like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" made logical and necessary if not attempting Jackson's verisimilitude.
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