Shorts Collection 2

Six - Plants and animals of the Sirocca

Left to right, top to bottom.

Mushell

Mushells, or mushroom-shells, are one of many types of plant life scattered across the desert, often found near hoodoos. All mushells share the same biology of having some kind of shell enveloping the main structure of the plant. It is used to cool down the plant using condensation from the air drawn into the plant and out from underneath, and with convection. The core and shell of the plant is strong enough to withstand prey from tearing it open unless used with considerable force.

All mushells have some adaptations to promote efficient water use. This one above has roots spreading out widely, but only penetrating a short distance in the ground. The main organ for storing water is the large taproot located underneath the stems, often underground.

Kangaroo mouse

Despite its small size, the Siroccan Kangaroo Mouse is fierce and adaptable. It has evolved to survive in the harshest regions of the savannah. They have noticably larger ear for keen hearing used to detect predators.

Gold Polyp

A type of mushell, it is a multi-leafed plant which covers up the main outer shell during the dry season.

Springtrap

Freshwater Isopod

These creatures are found in freshwater rivers and lakes. They have a distinct appearance of interlocked torsos armored with a thin exoskeleton, each with tentacle-like legs. The most interesting thing about these creatures is that as the creature grows more torsos, its brain is spread out across each torso.

The creature above is relatively young, but has grown a considerable length before its exoskeleton has formed.

Pomfuzz

Walking Snail

This is a snail that walks. On four legs. Has a tail. Covered in disgusting octopus-like suckers. Maybe goes ‘meow’.

Seven

The starliner - a giant bow-shaped spacecraft with a teardrop for the bridgehead - was attached like a lamprey to one of the many bays of the spaceport. Either side of the ship was perfectly aerodynamic and smooth. However, the flat edge of the bow-shape was pitted and scarred, with streaks of black soot.

Rivers of people were streaming aboard the ship through opposite sides. My queue was a slurry of people dragging themselves across the ramps as if to the gallows. I saw people attended by servitors, cybernetic-enhanced humans, and even pets too genetically modified to resemble their original form.

The line pushed forward.

The interior of the starliner was vast and decorated, bright with glowglobes floating above the crowds, like a lobby of a Belle Epoque hotel - the classical colors of white, gold, red, and purple highlighted the posh design. Walkways to other floors traveled loops around the room before it reached the floor. People were wandering around with drinks in their hands, with servitors pushing their luggage. The walls was entirely made of thick reinforced glass that offered the view of Cascadia behind the starliner. The entire ship must have been nearly hollow, but I couldn’t see the rest from where I was standing. Clusters of seats were scattered here and there - sometimes grouped for conversation, or surrounding exotic plants or a towering statue. Every now and then, one of the ship’s autonomous servitors carrying refreshments slid across the floor like a chess piece.

I moved towards an unoccupied seat overlooking the windows that arced to the ceiling - this would extend for kilometers in either direction along the sides of the ship. I was tired enough to want to nap quietly, but I wanted to see the journey for myself.

A series of echoing thumps from the support clamps sounded as the starliner was being unplugged from the spaceport. From the windows I could see the spaceport falling away quickly, accompanied by a moment of dizziness. Before the moment had begun to register physically, the spaceport came swooping past again, its walls rushing by the great windows. Then, only the dark expanse of space.

The ship wasn’t in free-fall. The instant she detached from Tycho station, she fell away on a tangent to the spaceport’s surface. But that lasted only for a second before she ramped up the thrusters to 1G. Then, she had to durve slightly to avoid ramming into the spaceport on the way past. The starliner was designed to be smooth as possible, like a huge rigid airship. As it enters the atmosphere, she will lower herself very gently and slowly. By the time it gets near the surface, it has so much positive buoyancy that the thrusters have to hold herself down.

Cascadia’s horizon was rising vertically, so that it looked like a sheer blue wall. It tilted slowly hack towards horizontal as the starliner cancelled out the spaceport’s orbital velocity. It was smooth and uneventful, but when we finally came to a halt relative to the planet, we were hovering precisely over the city of Glass, rather than having to chase it for many thousands of kilometres more.

Although the starcraft was still thousands of kilometres from Cascadia’s surface, its gravity was so strong we might as well have been on top its tallest mountain - one that protruded the atmosphere. With the starliner’s unhurried calm - she began to descend slowly.

Cascadia was an ocean planet -

Eight

All our songs were about it. A fantastical realm of life without end. A Palace of untold wonders.

But only for the worthy.

So our lives were desperately dedicated to qualify. Pinpoint perspective on the Great Reward. Only… I never wanted to go.

Those words alone could mean death, so when I ran I knew it meant never stopping to catch my breath if I wanted to live. And so it was. Yet here I am, the place I spent my whole life escaping.

Nine

Three brothers stood on the edge of eternity, contemplating the end of all things.

The first brother spoke. “From stardust we were born and to stardust we will return. I choose my destiny. This is my will.”

He stepped outside of reality for the last time. The two brothers watched him until

The last brother waited. He was the eldest; old enough to have witnessed the last exodus from the Gap. He spoke to no one.

Specks of the last lights of the universe spun around him.