The Uncertainty Factor┃Featuring the Short Story Moontropolis: Conch Shells on the Moon

By Samuel Yaw

THE UNCERTAINTY FACTOR
"And, for the privilege of loving you once, I will bear the burden of missing you forever."

In the near future, society has adopted the Concordance Index, a percentage score that measures a person's capacity for stable relationships. Determined by genetic markers, psychometric profiling, and developmental history, your Concordance "number" dictates everything: what job you hold, where you live, who you marry -- and ultimately the life you're allowed to live.

Jackson Wells reluctantly works as an Auditor tasked with hunting down citizens who artificially "boost" their Concordance numbers. When he meets Jelena Shepherd, a brilliant and beautiful psychologist responsible for calculating the Concordance numbers, their nearly identical numbers suggest a perfect match.

But when Jelena abruptly ends their relationship without explanation, Jackson has to come to terms with how a seemingly perfect series of numbers can still end up with a wrong answer.

Also included is the in-universe short story Moontropolis: Conch Shells on the Moon. After Henry's wife, Laura, is exposed as an android, known in the lunar city of Moontropolis as a Plastinate, she vanishes without a trace. Grief-stricken, Henry retreats into the Shells, simulation pods that let him relive his memories of Laura. But, unable to let go, he ultimately transfers his consciousness into a Plastinate body, venturing into the vacuum of space in search of her. When he finally tracks Laura down, he finds nothing as it seems. Some people run for a reason. And maybe Laura did too.

Inspired by a mix of (500) Days of Summer, Gattaca, and Blade Runner, this book aims to (hopefully) answer life's greatest question: Why did you stop choosing me... and how do I move on?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GV9CYFGN
• ISBN13: 9798253129449
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"