Archive | March 19, 2018

A New World: An Arrangement

Mar19

First: A New World
Previous: Experimenting with History

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Kael looked between Caron and Hallsey, wondering exactly what she’d said that was getting her such strange looks from both of them.

“Are you offering… to teach us?  On something like a regular basis?”

“But not potions,” Hallsey added to her friend’s question.  “But like… how to find out history?”

“That depends.”  Kael was feeling out her answer as she went,  but she was pretty sure she was on the right track.  “Do you want to learn potions, history, or both?”

“Are you for real?” Caron stared at her.  “Are you really – I mean, what would you charge?” Continue reading →

BeePocalypse 4: Kids

Mar19

First: The Testers

Previous:  The More Things Change…

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Mom Cara shed her white suit, revealing herself to be still rather like herself.  “Not everyone has extreme visible changes. I run a few degrees colder than I used to, and I tend to be a little quicker to fly off the handle if I don’t pay attention, but I still look much like myself.  And I’m still myself, Kelly-boop.  I promise.”

“I believe you.”  Nobody had called her Kelly-boop in years.  She found herself wrinkling her nose the same way she had back then, before she found out that it would end more quickly than she’d thought.   Continue reading →

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-23-3

Mar19

Explorer Log 7-23-3

The first thing we did on landing was set up a null-charge shield around our living pods.  The lightning storms – “dry lightning”, my granny would say – come down so frequently it was three days before we saw the sun.

Flora and fauna here seem adapted to the storms. Either they have channels for the electricity or they’ve learned to hide from it.

I tell you, a thing that looks like a giant moose with electricity arcing from its antlers is a terrifying sight.

But the mountain cat leaping into the storm was even worse.

We haven’t lost anyone yet, mostly due to an abundance of caution.  I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to say that.

Planetary Date 109

We have figured out the trick.

We nearly lost Ewro and Tagked, but we figured it out.

There’s a combination of trees and a certain element that completely repels the lightning.

And certain vines are lousy with that element.

We’re now living in a clearing in the forest under a very nice net-and-canopy that keeps us safe.

And we’re herding Giant Moose and Red Pigs, which are neither really red nor really pigs.

This might work out.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 23

Mar19

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-1

The galaxy is full of surprises.

This planet is very nearly lifeless – scant vegetation, only a few lifeforms, most of the water heavily salinated, burning sun.  Humans COULD live there, but only as a last resort.

Yet our first probe found life and civilization.

Not a lot – and it turns out not CONSTANT civilization.  No, this place boasts an impressive natural cave system, and in there it turns out there’s a vast smugglers’ hideout.

We left a sneak-probe and took some notes.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-2

I’m starting to think some other civilization is using Subsector 23 as a dump.

Ok, that’s not the weirdest part of 7-23-2.  The weirdest part is that the dump – decommissioned ships, from the looks of it, gunners and cargo ships – is set up like we’d set up something with no breathable atmosphere. Double airlock on a dome near the landing bay, a deep underground facility staffed by five life-signs.

Yet the air here is perfect for human life and on the other side of the plant, away from the desert and the dump, is lush, green terrain.

What DO these aliens breathe?

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-3

The lightning storms!  The wild lightning arcing across the northern hemisphere of this planet! It’s beautiful, albeit deadly.  

But the southern hemisphere is just as rich in metal as the northern, and there are wide grasslands and hilly regions between the mountains. The soil might be shallow; there’s metal close to the surface everywhere.  But very large herbivores and rather large carnivores roam the surface, even in the north. This planet can sustain life.

We sent a team to see just how MUCH life.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23

This last star system on the edge of the sector might explain much about the entire sector.

We found a dead planet covered in ruins first, and then a planet almost suitable for humanoid life – covered in far newer ruins.  Its satellites – three – were covered in the detritus of what looked liked several wars.

On the far side of the last satellite, we found a small grouping of aliens still alive.  We sent down a greeting probe and, with it, a query: Did they need aid or rescue?

They shot a rocket at our ship and nearly managed to hit us.

7.23.3