The End

The night had a cloying quality to it. It shimmered and seemed to be almost oppressive in its thick, smelly and dank quality. The rats scurrying around in the empty city searched for food. They had grown fat and strong. In the absence of predators, the rats grew to almost 6 feet long now. Their faces a comic mixture of aggressiveness and ill comprehension.

Life as Tron knew it had ended. Tron himself did not consider himself alive, but he bore the burden put upon him. He was to survive. Just like all the others. He was sleek, shiny and had the memories of a race within him. It bothered him the chirping voices, the remembrances, the ghosts of days past. They intruded incessantly and pinged on his consciousness. He  paused and thought about it. The consciousness was all he had. It was the precious he had to save for the end. But what was the end? Was there one? He had been told there was.

Pushing aside thoughts, he brought up the prime radiant. He was to survive! It was useless ruminating about things which were of little or no consequence..

His sixteen appendages moved him along rapidly as he traversed the length of the city. He knew he had to get to the radiant. It was time to refresh. He almost gave an involuntary shiver - no doubt brought upon by one of the teeming millions inside his memory units.

Two rats sniffed cautiously and approached him, their yellowed teeth bared. Without a thought he sliced though them with his appendages, like a knife though warm butter. He remembered its taste.

Tron was not quite human, and not quite metal. He was a giant virus with tons of information hard-coded into him by the human race. Their legacy to this planet. The Earth.

He disregarded the sirens in the distance. It was just bots. They had no real use anymore. Especially after the planet-killer had vaporized the atmosphere. Now it was always night. Nothing left to diffract the Sun's light. He moved ever quicker to his goal. The Radiant! 

It was prophesied... humans would be here again. And Tron would be their creator.

Exploration

Gerald watched in awe as he looked at the slender web which wound it's way upward from where he stood trailing away into the blue sky. The space elevator had changed the paradigm of getting things into space and opened a new pathway into cheaper space exploration.

And that had changed everything forever. Energy was now beamed free from the solar satellites which orbited the sun in a Near Earth Orbit, it's Dyson swarm doing a graceful ballet around the Moon, making sure the huge collector satellites did not create minor eclipses.

Gerald was a space miner, something of a sunrise industry, and he smiled in reflection that just ten years ago, this would have been in the realm of science fiction.

The hard part had been to get governments to put down money to create the space elevator. But some powerful individuals had got together and created the initial funding and research, and the rest as they say, was history...

Gerald was not quite human. But anyone who worked as a miner was usually not human. He snapped open his suit lapels and looked at the dull metal gleaming exoskeleton where his body should have been. He was augmented beyond belief- both genetically and mechanically, he was a new species. Recognizing this, he was often called "Borg". He did not mind.

When his name was called, he walked into the clean white room and patiently waited for the suit to be 'painted' over him. The stuff hardened, while retaining it's flexibility. He took the space elevator and prepared to enter the small shuttle which would carry him to the new solar satellite, it was being built on a meteor.

He noticed Justine similarly clad her suit painted over the heavily augmented body. She looked like a crab. He grinned at her through the visor. She smiled back and yelled  "Good to see you Gerald!" as she took off her visor to give him a peck on the cheek and then box his shoulder. It made a clanging sound.  Gerald looked around wistfully, noticing that no one even looked at them. Everyone here was highly modified.

Coming of Age

The day after was her Birthday. She was excited and nervous! What would it be like? She would soon be an 'adult' and this was to be her coming of age birthday. It was a momentous occasion and she could hardly breathe, she was so overwhelmed by it. Her stupid brother of 12 years old walked into the room and said something about 'making a big deal out of everything.' She ignored him. He was just trying to get a rise out of her, and responding to his prodding would only encourage him.

Birthdays had passed really quickly for Sanea and she was not very sure she was ready to be an adult yet, but her parents told her she was ready. She got dressed in her simplesuit just let it cover her like a second skin and tied her hair back. She would not be needing anything else for her coming of age, and soon she would be an adult, just like her parents.

Sanea's education had been compressed into her 16 years, a wealth of information passed on to her by the datasharer while she learned the basic concepts of balance, enjoying tactile information. It would soon be lost to her. She walked all the way to her parent's place; they were waiting for her and they all entered the small vehicle which zipped all the way to the facility made for adulthood.

In a few minutes, the facility doors opened and they made their way into the facility, a white-coated attendant led her away into a large organism-machine which seemed to be blowing out a whole lot of air. She sat inside as she had seen people do that on the datasharer vids and the familiar entity enveloped her rapidly, spinning nanobot febrile strands  which glistened as they got to work.

Her parents watched her closely as she went under...

When Sanea woke from her induced coma, she was an adult. She walked upto her parents and her father smiled at her, his flowmetal face cracking into a relieved smile, echoing her own dull crimson smile. She was now what they called t-human with all that it entailed! She was almost a superhuman.

New Beginnings

Quentin was now on the edge of the precipice. He knew there was no way back once he took the step. It was essential that he moved forward. The history clawed at him, there was no going back once he made the dive. He felt the stirrings of emotions and memories as he contemplated his next step...

He waited in the area with no future and no past. He had the strange feeling that the Universe was swirling around him, calling to him. He knew he was beyond all that. He had to leap.

Quentin was no longer human in many ways. His cells were dispersed over a wide vector--- all carrying the basic information that made him a 'person'. If it could be called that. He had the basic information which made him 'human'; the remembrances of a world and time past. 

He resembled what the old world would have called 'a galaxy' - more in design than actual function, but it did not matter. He looked on as he savored his existence. It was likely he would not exist soon. He would take the fatal step towards further evolution. Maybe he would 'die'.

Quentin was millions of years old. Years calculated in the old Earth time. Before they had realized that time was immaterial. Ethereal. A construct created by the brain and perception. The dimensional twist was all there was now.

Quentin dived without any further fanfare. It was done. He was going to either create a new Universe or perish in the attempt.

Cycle of life

The deep red sea washed against the sandy shore. The sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks did little to change his mood, but he sat there looking out at the sea anyway. This was his place of repose, where he came when he wanted some peace and quiet; away from it all.

The night was coming, he could feel it.. the sun sinking slowly down over the horizon. He stretched and remembered he had to get something to eat soon. Diving into the red sea, he moved with grace and power as he looked around for fish.

Before long he chanced upon a shoal of large fish. He could feel his body responding automatically to the change in the sea.. the sulfurous taste entered his consciousness. It felt good.

His dexterity allowed him to catch enough for a meal and he slid the fish into a pouch as he moved into deeper water. Here the redness was diluted to a pinkish-orange.

Climbing rapidly out of the water, he adjusted his directional compass and calculated where his home would be. He was very close, he could feel it. Climbing on board his floating home, he got down to the business of eating.

The fish was a genetic mutation. It was similar to a jellyfish, but that was not unusual. The new species had not been named. They still used the old nomenclature. Fish worked as good as anything else, and it tasted great.

Some of the past years had been hard, but he had survived. His mother had taught him well before she had to leave. But she did help him build his home. It was very comfortable.

As the day turned to night, he turned off the lights powered by the waves and cleaned his hands; his mind wandering - oh yes what was the name the previous apex species had for them? Otters.... he was an Otter. And he was part of the apex species on Earth. It was the cycle of life.

My Blog has a new look! Thanks to Charles Strebor!

Charles Strebor has kindly assented to let me use his art as the masthead on the blog! Here is the original post which he had posted on Google Plus.

"Space travel, teleportation, politics and other people's morals come into play in this novelette from Lacerant.  Much like the feelings I had after reading The Final Colony, I was impressed with the story, the writing, the ideas and... ...I wanted more.

I'm much looking forward to Lacerant's first novel - it will no doubt be as amazing as his shorter works.  Bring it on, I say, bring it on.

Laceran'ts 'Orange Rock' on Amazon http://goo.gl/UFn3i
+Lacerant Plainer

The image below was created used the text from Orange Rock twisted and turned around on itself and layered with a sunset that had also been twisted and turned on itself."

What are the Odds?

She worked hard at closing the space-time curvature into a small ball. That would help her escape this universe. Her work here was done. She concentrated at 'bending' the very fabric of 'reality' and watched as her efforts started to have an effect. The black hole she used had so much potential! Reality ceased to exist as time and space lost all meaning. Lhoh watched the space disintegrate into fractals - mathematical functions spun crazily in her head as an explosion of color burst forth from the region which surrounded the erstwhile black hole.

Lhoh was everywhere for an instant and then she was no more. She was in another universe, and it resolved  slowly as she watched it glimmer like an apparition. It was ephemeral. She released her pressure on the bending and it slowly solidified. She let go gently of the tenuous bending. Space was normal again.

Lhoh did not know from where she came, she just always was. She looked at herself and realized that she had been depleted, just like last time. She was always less, not more and this bothered her. She created universes.... or did they create her? It was immaterial. All she knew was that at one time she had been created from the very stuff she was creating. It had been a 'birthing' of spectacular proportions. She was pure mathematics, every part of her being understood and empathized with the grandeur of the function; the geometry of the solution. It was what she existed for.

Lhoh concentrated on the work she had to do. She began working out the solutions to this universe; the probability equations; the rules she made were as logical to her as existing. They flowed forth and bent the universe to her will. Nothing was superfluous, it was beautiful and she felt pleasure in the way it ebbed and flowed from her. Time meant nothing; it was a construct and she had loads and loads of time.

The stars twinkled in response to her efforts as she manipulated the gravity to create a three-dimensional map in her mind. It was wonderful. She wanted to do this endlessly. Every new creation was wonderful and unexpected. She reveled in it. 

What Lhoh did not know was who her creators were. And that Lhoh stood for 'Last Hope of Humankind'.

Mining the Asteroid - 2

Sentine was busy at work. Her ship The Driller was parked close by; anchored on the large asteroid which hurtled through space. She was on a tight time schedule. The Asteroid was called FT-22ssX; an old Earth nomenclature for asteriods which seemed meaningless to her. She called it 'Old Grumpy'; named after the hard mantle it had. Old Grumpy was largely composed of metals and she had to finish mining enough for a payload before it made another pass at Ganymede.

Saving on fuel was important. With all the cutbacks imposed by the Nezzer in charge of Nokiaexxon, she would not be able to use too much of the solid fuel. Almost all the energy used to travel was garnered from the Sun's rays. 

She looked across where her mother and father were also using large drills like her, these drills dwarfed them all. In this microgravity, it was easy to use. One had to be careful of rocks and radiation though. The three of them were heavily suited and sheilded from the Sun's radiation. The suit was 12 layers thick; and included a evacuated gel layer, a carbon isotope layer and the hard shell which made them look like lobsters. Thinking about lobsters made her hungry. They no longer had access to Earth food; that was only for the very wealthy. And the Nezzers.

She remembered her last visit to the Nezzer space station. They lived in style; as befitting a conquering species. Humans were no match for them and surrendered meekly to the Nezzers, once the Nezzers had blown up whole islands from space as a demonstration of their powers. They had wanted humans as slaves and didn't give humans a chance.

She snapped out of her reverie as she noticed her mother waving as she headed back into the Ship; it was time for her break. Sentine lumbered over to the huge solar array which had been fastened securely with some nanofibers which the Nezzers 'sold' to her. It was all part of the standard kit. Except they didn't have anything left over after they managed to pay for essentials. Just enough to do the job and keep drilling.

She turned a switch and the huge solar panels folded back like petals, the black covers closing over the blindingly reflective material. She headed in after her parents.

Marie and Don were already heating rations. There was a warm cup of dark liquid on the table - synthesized coffee. They had just a few days before they would hit perihelion.

Pets

Ralph and Marie were enjoying sitting out on the lawn, having their coffee. It was not the coffee which they remembered, the flavor profile was different; it was bound to be different. After the upheavals in the past few centuries, the hybrid plants developed never quite matched up to the original stuff.

It was a quiet evening. They watched the sunset in quiet. The scene was incredibly beautiful, they saw the rings of a large Gas Giant as it spun slowly in the gathering twilight; the colors seemed to be arranged for their viewing pleasure. Marie stood up and stretched as she told Ralph to get going with the chores. Ralph nodded and got up, picking up the small kitten from his lap and placing it on the manicured lawn.

They were many light years away from Earth where they were born, but this was now their home for a long, long time. Their life was fulfilled. Ralph was a designer with the planetary design committee  which was operated and run by General Universal and he loved his work. There was no real reason to work other than to maintain their home. The planet paid for everything. Power, amenities, quality of life was common to all. Marie considered it communist. They joked about it often, she liked painting and had a serious body of work.

The Future was General Universal, and they owned everything, took care of everything and enjoyed the benefits of space. Governments were passe.

The kitten Shaza purred and followed Ralph as he walked into the house and started clearing up the place. It was the weekend, a time of rest and relaxation. They did not really require any of it. Their bodies had no parts which were prone to fatigue. It was a hangover from the days on Earth.

The only fully organic creature on this planet were the Pets, and they too had been modified to breathe the methane atmosphere which would kill any Earth organisms.

Idyllic Summer

Lucy was happy that Nerex had agreed to meet her. It had been a long dark winter, and the time had come for them to meet and maybe have a short pairing. Nerex was wise and smart, an ideal mate for her. But he also lived so far away! Nevermind, this summer would be different. She felt happy about it as she went about her daily chores.

Felix swam in the deep waters of the channel. He was one of the fastest swimmers in the group. He dove in and moved in deep looking for fish. It was a treat to watch as Felix moved in the water, his body streamlined to meet the waves, he dove in repeatedly, just coming up for air just once in a while.

Felix left his friends at the channel and headed home. He was Lucy's progeny, and he was a strong young specimen. He made Lucy proud.

With the Summers, the whole area took on a festive look. The main markets were crowded with produce and shoppers. The main articles on sale were enhancements. Each new enhancement was greeted with surprise and astonishment. This was a society dominated by biotech and each and every individual was involved in its development.

Lucy visited the markets in time to catch Nerex looking for a new floating Island. The Island was small, but it served multiple purposes. It also had a minimal personality and insisted on showing off, using it's filppers to move around. It told Lucy it was happy to meet her.

Nerex and Lucy left the market together. They were paired from time to time. This year, they would celebrate the new year together. It was a time of idyll.

Felix was being taught about his history. He flapped his tail to stay still in the water as they explained about how humans had become extinct. He was also told that his species were called "Dolphins" by the humans. How odd. Considering that Felix always thought of himself as Seten. He bobbed his head in the water to indicate that he was paying attention. It would not do to annoy his teacher.

Migration

The sun beat down on the baked ground as they walked on the small paved road. It was hot. Hotter than they had felt in a long, long time. The days were longer and the heat was unbearable. Sean remembered a time when his grandfather told him stories of a cold season. Now it was hot and wet. The tropical weather was rain forest weather. He hacked at the vines that clung to everything around him.

The time was late afternoon. He was trekking with his small family through the once-great city which had stood on the banks of the river which passed through it. Now it was in a ruins and he stopped to stare at the growth which had overtaken the city. Already the signs of the city were disappearing.... roads were overtaken by mud and filth and the city had become a vast jungle. Something screamed from the top of the vines and he gave a silent signal to his family to keep quiet.

The small rooklets were hungry. They were everywhere. They would kill all of the travellers if they managed to spot them. The travellers froze in place, waiting for the rooklets to disappear. In a while it was clear again. They were trekking North, where it was cooler. This season, they would carry out their annual migration. Follow the old paths and find food and shelter from the Sun. Next season, they would come south again. It was the endless migratory cycle to survive. They followed the food.

Night time was to their advantage. The cooler weather was wonderful for travelling, except they had to keep an eye out for the numerous predators - mostly insects who preyed on humans. They were impossible to stop if they were able to isolate them. At night, they would burn torches to ward off the hungry insects. It was the only thing which stopped them.

Sean and his family camped out in the ruined city in the day and some of them slept. His wife took the time to rest her weary feet and his children were made to sleep while he kept guard. When his wife woke, he would take the time to sleep and get some rest himself.

Finally it was dusk and they broke camp to trek north. Exiting the city, they crossed a signpost which said "Welcome to Montreal".... they did not look back, none of them could read.

Mistaken Identity

Reet and Gert watched the aliens on the planet with interest. It was what they had expected. The aliens were bipedal as per reports they had recieved from the advance scouts who had travelled to this area of the galaxy. They stared at the images. They had been watching the aliens for some time now, it was more out of scientific curiousity rather than from any interest in the alien's planet.

Reet looked at Gert and asked if they should report back to their commander. Gert indicated that it was not necessary as the alien planet held very little intrinsic value, both from a viewpoint of acquisition and from a technology viewpoint. Gert turned away and began the sequence for exiting the space around the galaxy 3663; it was another dead end.

The two explorers were the advance guard for the main imperial fleet. They were high ranking officials, unlike the scouts, whose job it was to search for signs of life and intelligence. Though they had found a great many alien species, it was not always worth the time and effort to contact species which had not progressed beyond a certain level. In many cases, it was counterproductive. Gert was already mapping a course to the next planet as indicated by the scouts. They had twelve scout vehicles moving in tandem, marking out inhabited worlds for their perusal.

There was an incoming communication from the fleet commander "Please get moving, we have other planets to visit. We need to scan all the planets in this galaxy by the next few cycles." Reet acknowledged and sent a null report, they were on the move.

Their ship was spotted by the alien radars - they were beaming something incomprehensible: it looked like it was their number system. Gert ignored it.

Back on Earth, the SETI was informed of the UFO by the Griffith observatory. It seemed to vanish. They rechecked their observations. Maybe it was an error. They had no other observations to check against. The SETI official decided against informing anyone on priority. It could have been a mistake.

Mining the Asteroid

Sentine ran the length of the narrow walkway from her Spaceship to the space station. After a long time, she would have to deal with artificial gravity. It seemed strange. Sentine was a miner with Nokiaexxon, one of the premier companies involved in the mining of asteroids in Near Earth Orbit.

She walked gingerly as she held on the ropes in the walkway, it seemed she would fall. She knew it was an illusion, but up and down were concepts alien to her nature now. She was spaceborn and had never been planetside.

Her life was spent on her Spaceship, The Driller contracted to Nokiaexxon for the next 50 years - renewable at their option, and closed to negotiation. She forced herself to pay attention as she approched the airlock which cycled out the air and opened to the vaccumm of space.

Getting in the airlock, she pressed the button in sequence for closure, and waited patiently for repressurising. She stood silently and stared outside reinforced porthole, waiting for the alarm to sound the all-clear. The moon stared back at her and she noticed the Earth just beyond, the blue planet a mystery to her. Why would people want to live there? Space was her life.

Her mother and father ran The Driller with her. They were an amazing spacer family. She was the third generation of miners on the asteroid belt. But the Near Earth Orbit mining was so much more lucarative. She heard a hiss and the alarm sounded. She took off her space suit and climbed out of the airlock on the other side. The Nezzer who greeted her was short and stocky. He spoke in a gruff voice "You have new orders after you complete work on this asteroid. You are to go back to the asteroid belt on Saturn and mine the asteroids there." He passed her the coordinates and looked away. She knew there was no point arguing with the Nezzer. They owned all the companies which managed the mining in this Galaxy. She took her time savouring the soft carpeting and luxury of the station. The Nezzer turned away, he had no time for some inconsequential human.

Sentine knew it would be a long trip back, she had almost got used to the good life here close to Earth.

New Frontiers

Deep in the middle of the galaxy was the Gessett. They had been created in the hot initial periods of the creation of the Universe. Due to their evolution from the exotic matter in a superhot, superdense period of the history of the Universe, they had virtually died out. Only the white hot searing temperatures of a white hole sustained them.

They clustered around the white hole, dark specs which were highlighted against the incredibly dense gas from which white hot radiation bathed them. They fought for space, jostling and shoving as they seemed to flutter for more of the heat - always more!

The Universe had got so cold. In their senses, it seemed to be dark and lifeless... it would not be able to sustain them. Many had died trying to live in areas which did not burn brightly, even white dwarf stars were not able to sustain them. They were voracious, and they needed energy.

The Gesset was the oldest species in this Universe. They had to achieve enough energy to propagate. In the initial hours of the creation of the Universe, they had the energy to make the jump and they multiplied. They had traversed Universes; and they were unstoppable.

The Gesset clustered around the white hole, and they would die here. There was no other place for them. 

Until they had spied a white hot energy - it had been far away, but it was life-giving. They could make the transition. They could jump from this Universe. It held a promise that would not be denied.

In the supercollider the reaction was incredible. The new supercollider made the CERN particle accelerator look like a toy. It was built underground. They were so close to the answers which it would give them. Ralph and Suzanne were working on the new equipment which spanned a whole continent. This was the future!

The Gesset had no malice. They needed the power they had seen. They attacked the supercollider structure hungrily. They fed on it. They made the transition. 

Jet Lag

Jen was a chemist, and by virtue of her profession, she automatically linked all biotechnology to chemistry. She was also one of the top people in her field. She worked with some of her colleagues in the University of Science and Technology in Hawaii.

Her ability to think out of the box was one of the reasons that Denny had called her over to Tokyo. She liked the place, but the crowds bothered her. It was a very busy city and the feeling was very similar to any big city she had visited. She was not a big city person, and it irked her to be living in the small berth they had allocated to her in the Research Facility. But she was here for a purpose.

Denny knocked and peeked into her small living quarters "You will get used to it. You're not here for very long anyway, I used to have similar problems." She smiled at him wanly "No it's okay. I guess I'm just tired. A little lagged from my flight." He nodded "Let me give you some time then to unwind. Come to the mess when you feel like, we all meet there when we are not in the lab."

She stretched out and slept. The tiredness took over immediately and she dreamt of her project. They were working on the newly discovered XNA structure. It had replaced their DNA research; and the biologists and geneticists were excited about the possibilities, especially as it showed the trait of natural selection. She dreamt of the structure and it spun wildly in her dreams, twisting and melding.

When she awoke, she realized she had slept for over six hours. She freshened up and walked down to the mess hall where a large group of people were relaxing. They fell silent when they saw her. She looked around but Denny was nowhere to be seen. After some time, they opened up to her and discussed her work. She realized she didn't fit in, but held her silence. They went down to the lab and she began working. It seemed natural to her. The protein receptors needed to attach to long chain peptides - it seemed so logical to her. She worked all night. In the morning she was done and she walked out the lab. Denny was there to see her.

He hugged her "You know what you did?" She was a little taken aback "Not really, its been a little overwhelming, much of it is a haze. Did I screw up?" He grinned "You created new life - a new species. We are still looking at it, but we didn't want you to stop, you were working like you were possessed."

She wondered if she had been dreaming. He told her that she would meet her creation tomorrow.

New Moon

Night was the time Jake started to work. He sat at his small desk and began to compose the summary of his project. It was times like this that he felt accomplished. Otherwise, he seemed to lurch from one thing to another on a daily basis. He was a project analyst and liked the feeling of quiet and calm.

His mind wandered as he wrote. The ink pen he favored made him feel good, he couldn't explain it. His wife walked in "Jake you were supposed to put out the garbage." He remembered and made an apologetic face. He had forgtten. He kissed his wife "I am getting really absent minded."

He went out the back and looked at the clear night sky. He suddenly noticed there was a new moon - it was small and seemed distant, but it glowed with a ruddy pale pink light. He gawped at it. For a full minute he was frozen, before he ran inside and switched on the telly "Maud, you have to see this." They listened as the announcer said "The new moon appeared ten minutes ago in the sky. We have no official confirmation of the event from the authorities, but it is expected to cause widespread flooding and changes in the weather. If you are located near the sea, try to get to higher ground or inland."

Maud sounded shocked "What does this mean?" Jake shrugged "I don't know, they don't seem to know either." They watched the rest of the emergency broadcast in silence. The neighbours were all out in their backyards, a hubbub was growing.

With each passing moment, it seemed to take on a new urgency. How could a moon just appear? It was impossible. There were some experts on the telly, opining of the possibility of this occurance. They seemed to suggest it was impossible. Jake went out again to see the new moon. He had to for some reason. Maud came with him, and they watched it as it just hung there in the sky, about half the size of the older moon. It should have been doing something, not just hanging there. Was it a prank?

Late at night, the President was on the telly. He seemed confident, but that was his job. Jake didn't know what to think. The President was saying that his people were on it. Jake was unable to sleep.

In the early hours of the morning, they landed. It was pandemonium. The moon was a spaceship, It was a habitat. It was the mother ship. Jake's world had changed forever. He sat and stared at the telly.. 

Who knew?

Night had fallen on Hetex. It was actually a moon, but for all practical purposes, it could be called a planet, purely based on the size. Seezen was not impressed. She had been to much bigger planets, some which made you feel like crawling instead of walking, but at a little over Earth size, it was considered to be quite the experience to visit.

Seezen was not here to visit. She was here to change this moon. Get rid of the cold, warm the atmosphere and get rid of the liquid methane all over the planet. She did not like variety, she was a terraformer, and her job was standardization. There would be some alien life for sure, but it would be inconsequential enough to trample. All alien life so far discovered had been microscopic. Struggling to make the jump from unicellular to multicellular to complex animals. They had a long way to go. Time that she had no time to waste watching little litchen-like blue creatures. She fed in the data in her notepad. The notepad directly started to analyze the data and fed in subroutines into her command module.

It would take years, but the destruction could begin now. She walked over the ice-encrusted landscape and took readings directed to her notepad, which made some more adjustments to the command module.

The command module took a full hour to sort and build in the action plan. She got into her tiny flitter and flew upwards to where her space ship was waiting. The command module greeted her 'Shall I commence the sequence Seezen?' She replied in the affirmative. The command module commenced shooting rays at the poles, blowing up mountains of frozen methane. The moon would soon be rid of the methane. 

In the depths of the methane sea near the largest landmass, two large squid-like creatures spoke to one another. They decided to attack the invading vehicle. War was being thrust upon them.

Sequel or not to sequel...

Do take a look at my books on amazon.com Orange Rock and The Final Colony. While Orange Rock is a longer story, The Final Colony is my first published work. Both are very different, so it's unlikely that a comparison can be made. Thinking of starting a sequel to The Final Colony. Would you like Xen to make a reappearance? Let me know!

Time for Fun

Children ran around in the courtyard. It was fun to play and enjoy the noontime on Qaxis. An ancient planet from an ancient time. It was all fun and games. The hot midday sun beat down upon Extine and Rudi as they played an ancient game. It involved a stick and a ball. It was liberating.

Noontime on Qaxis was their favorite time. It also gave them time to learn about History. The other children played an ancient game called "catch". It was silly, but it was part of the learning process. It was also fun. It had been some time before the controller had learned of the concept of "fun". But now it understood. It meant time spent doing meaningless things. Without a goal. Useless processor time. But it served no one anymore. Humans were extinct. It was bound to happen someday. The controller was the sum total of the pinnacle of human achievement. It's only goal was to exist and survive. Of course, it had to have "fun".

Extine and Rudi were it's concepts - virtual extensions of itself. The controller excelled in creating and recreating simulations from all the inputs it had got over the millennium. It had run the whole gamut of the simple simulations in the past, and it now had moved over to creating fantasy situations. That made it more "interesting".

The controller was self-repairing. It was actually as big as a small moon. And it orbited the Earth, the birthplace of humankind. It had learned and learned. One day humankind would settle the stars. But they never did. They built the controller to house information, and the controller was now sentient. It had a huge burden.

Extine and Rudi were suddenly attacked by drones in a parody of the timelines. Their swords were useless against the laser weapons of the drones. They died quickly. The controller moved rapidly to his next simulation.

 Paradise

Night fell on Xitic abruptly. It always did. It was the nature of the moon, which had a higher rotational speed that most planets she was used to. Netine dismissed the queasy feeling which overcame her every time she thought of the fast spinning moon.

She was a one of the bunch of 'settlers' who had landed on the moon. The authorities had said it was very Earthlike. They had said it would take some 'minor' terraforming to transform this moon into something close to paradise. They were right; except it would take thousands of years. And Netine was here now.

She surveyed the bleak landscape. It would require them to melt the polar caps, release the trapped Carbon dioxide and create moonwide warming. It would happen, but not in her lifetime.

Netine tested the strength of the rocks underfoot as she climbed up a steep cliff face. She was tasked with finding usable minerals. Her 'bot was strapped to her back for analysis and for retrieval of rock samples. She cursed under her breath as she adjusted her breathing apparatus.

Xitic was as close to hell as she could imagine. Dark and dusty landscape stretched before her as she climbed steadily. Standing on the lip of the cliff, she surveyed the unwelcoming landscape. She pined for home - it was too far away for them to ever return.