Serious EH
“We can build it, the technology is there,” the engineers had promised. The U.S.S. Regal Endeavor was the pride of the United States space program. Earth's greatest architects and engineers having designed and built the ship in space, it's unique construction had allowed them to construct impossibly huge interiors. Archways and pillars like unto the great Romans' to accommodate the unforeseen bounty of treasure that travel to the furthest reaches of space would bequeath the intrepid explorers. The ship sparkled in the unfiltered cosmic sunlight, an insulated layer of clear dura-plasteel coating gave the ship a feel of infinite integrity, endurance and awe, a manipulative trait necessary for the psychological well-being of the inhabitants remaining on Earth. The Regal Endeavor was the first, a flagship of what was to be a fleet of the tentative missions to the stars, sent into the vast reaches of the seen/unseen, to pioneer the settling of new planets, light-years away.
What humanity lacked was a complete understanding of what they would find once they got to wherever they were going. So the ship had been loaded with it's scientist crew members and affluent passengers. Some were eager to pioneer the next great step in humanity's ever-increasing reach for immortality in the stars, others sought to lay claim to exotic riches and unimagined alien treasures. The ship had been slung around the earth, using the natural pull of it's gravity and it's atomic sails were unfurled, catching the cosmic rays, transmuting the ship into energy for it's arduous journey. Along with the supercomputer “Applesoft∞”, Tom Selleck and Diane Lane, the husband & wife captains of the ship and caretakers of the wealthy, had been hand-picked by the United States of Earth's government to lead the trip. Renowned for their charisma, charming good looks and intellectual fancy, the choice had been obvious.
The first planet they were to visit orbited the Vega system, the early twentieth century superstitions of the Sirius “Dog Star” system having played no small part in the preliminary decision to colonize this particular system. There would be no intelligent alien contact this trip, best to save that experience once the Earth had a back-up plan. Preliminary reports had identified one promising planet, now it loomed optimistically in the viewports, a lush blue-green verdancy. Landing had been delayed when the crew's unbridled hope had sent the station into a week long orgy, the free love principles of the nineteen sixties having returned with a fervor in the “devil may care” attitudes of the twenty fifth century. Now back on track, super-intelligent lab rats, cloned from the stem cells of humanity's greatest thinkers, were to be sent to the surface to investigate the already thoroughly mapped surface of the planet. After all, even expeditions into the far flung reaches of outerspace had insurance claims.
Squeaking Einsteinian equation tantras with their funny little rodent voices, the labbies had hopped from their cages, into the landing modules, anxiously cleaning their whiskers and fur. They were nervous but the crew members reassured them that they would never have sent them to the planet's surface had it been unsafe. No one was such a monster to send their soul mate to certain death, even if their spirit now resided in that of a cloned, vat-grown rat. Applesoft∞ gave the countdown and the landing pods separated from the ship, dusting through the ozone layer, burning an offset orange in the planet's atmosphere. The crew watched as micro-cams born into the labbies streamed the footage back to the ship. The rats took their first shaky steps onto alien soil, sniffed the air, and bound into the foliage.
The landing party's finds had made the risks taken worthwhile. The humidity where they had chosen to land hovered between ninety and one hundred percent, moisture oozing from the leaves , trunks and stalks densely littering the planet's surface. The varieties of plant matter shone brilliant, orchids of blue and orange, tall palm tree-like growths with vines that looped upwards into the air, unfurling into more thick vines that dangled to the ground, where ferns with thick bark grew bell-shaped flowers, snuggled in the shadows. Baldwin, one of the more adventurous and intrepid botany/physician-labbies had began investigating a cropping of ferns, his biological circuits gathering information on, anatomy, cell structure, reproductive organs, metabolism and consumption, when the bulb began sniffing back at the foot long rat. Baldwin was ecstatic, a plant that exhibited signs of intelligence! His initial disappointment at being sent to a planet without intelligent life was quickly forgotten. Jumping closer, Baldwin stood on his back two legs, close enough for the plant to quickly snap backwards and (for lack of a better term) sneeze all over the rat of science, covering him in a film of blue mucus.
Alarm signals flared on the station, where Tom and Diane flew in to action, calling the landing party back on-board the Regal. Once the labbies had returned Baldwin to the module (and into one of the quarantine nodes, careful to avoid touching any blue areas) Applesoft∞ gave the code for module retrieval and the Regal zoned in on it's location, sending a beam to pick up the distressed crew. Baldwin's feed was a garbled mess but the technicians monitoring the video feeds saw through the other rats' three hundred and sixty degree eyes. Baldwin, his body prone and lifeless, was quickly deteriorating. Blue liquid bubbled over his fur, eating through several hundred million dollars of bio-engineered flesh, the labbies squeaking in fear. Alarms whistled through the station, while Tom and Diane deliberated over how to handle this possible epidemic.
With two minutes until the module would re-attach to the ship. The hard decision had to be made, Tom flipped the switch he had installed to override Applesoft∞ and prepared to jettison the corpse of Baldwin. A heavy blast door slid over the quarantine viewport and a vacuum hiss stole through the module, as the labbies calmed one another, realizing they had lost one of their own. Re-attaching to the Endeavor, the module locked into place and the labbies ran out frantically, squeaking in sorrow. Picking up their friends, the technicians chattered to the rodents, commiserating with their loss.
Diane, ever the curious biologist, had caught a direct elevator to the shuttle port, greeting the crew with a mix of grief and barely restrained excitement the encounter had produced in her curiosity. Placating the crew with the appropriate amount of condolences, she swiftly launched herself at the module and opened the vacuum sealed chamber where the alien mucus had been brought onboard. Inside the chamber, Diane was astonished to find the complete skeleton of Baldwin, glued to together by blue mucus. Before she had a chance to consider her actions, Diane reached inside and picked up the bones of her favorite lab-assistant. Ballooning outwards, a soft blue-tinted bubble enveloped her hand, drawing out the moisture of her skin. Now a patchwork of flesh, sinew & bones Diane's quickly dropped the bubble from her person, where it fell, sticking flat to the dura-plasteel interior. Wide-eyed with horror, Diane watched as micro dots of blue moisture could be seen pulsating outwards, individual spheres replicating in the moisture-laden, animal flesh rich environment...
Steve Jobs resigns from Apple the same day I post this story with the character of Applesoft∞. COINCIDENCE???
What humanity lacked was a complete understanding of what they would find once they got to wherever they were going. So the ship had been loaded with it's scientist crew members and affluent passengers. Some were eager to pioneer the next great step in humanity's ever-increasing reach for immortality in the stars, others sought to lay claim to exotic riches and unimagined alien treasures. The ship had been slung around the earth, using the natural pull of it's gravity and it's atomic sails were unfurled, catching the cosmic rays, transmuting the ship into energy for it's arduous journey. Along with the supercomputer “Applesoft∞”, Tom Selleck and Diane Lane, the husband & wife captains of the ship and caretakers of the wealthy, had been hand-picked by the United States of Earth's government to lead the trip. Renowned for their charisma, charming good looks and intellectual fancy, the choice had been obvious.
The first planet they were to visit orbited the Vega system, the early twentieth century superstitions of the Sirius “Dog Star” system having played no small part in the preliminary decision to colonize this particular system. There would be no intelligent alien contact this trip, best to save that experience once the Earth had a back-up plan. Preliminary reports had identified one promising planet, now it loomed optimistically in the viewports, a lush blue-green verdancy. Landing had been delayed when the crew's unbridled hope had sent the station into a week long orgy, the free love principles of the nineteen sixties having returned with a fervor in the “devil may care” attitudes of the twenty fifth century. Now back on track, super-intelligent lab rats, cloned from the stem cells of humanity's greatest thinkers, were to be sent to the surface to investigate the already thoroughly mapped surface of the planet. After all, even expeditions into the far flung reaches of outerspace had insurance claims.
Squeaking Einsteinian equation tantras with their funny little rodent voices, the labbies had hopped from their cages, into the landing modules, anxiously cleaning their whiskers and fur. They were nervous but the crew members reassured them that they would never have sent them to the planet's surface had it been unsafe. No one was such a monster to send their soul mate to certain death, even if their spirit now resided in that of a cloned, vat-grown rat. Applesoft∞ gave the countdown and the landing pods separated from the ship, dusting through the ozone layer, burning an offset orange in the planet's atmosphere. The crew watched as micro-cams born into the labbies streamed the footage back to the ship. The rats took their first shaky steps onto alien soil, sniffed the air, and bound into the foliage.
The landing party's finds had made the risks taken worthwhile. The humidity where they had chosen to land hovered between ninety and one hundred percent, moisture oozing from the leaves , trunks and stalks densely littering the planet's surface. The varieties of plant matter shone brilliant, orchids of blue and orange, tall palm tree-like growths with vines that looped upwards into the air, unfurling into more thick vines that dangled to the ground, where ferns with thick bark grew bell-shaped flowers, snuggled in the shadows. Baldwin, one of the more adventurous and intrepid botany/physician-labbies had began investigating a cropping of ferns, his biological circuits gathering information on, anatomy, cell structure, reproductive organs, metabolism and consumption, when the bulb began sniffing back at the foot long rat. Baldwin was ecstatic, a plant that exhibited signs of intelligence! His initial disappointment at being sent to a planet without intelligent life was quickly forgotten. Jumping closer, Baldwin stood on his back two legs, close enough for the plant to quickly snap backwards and (for lack of a better term) sneeze all over the rat of science, covering him in a film of blue mucus.
Alarm signals flared on the station, where Tom and Diane flew in to action, calling the landing party back on-board the Regal. Once the labbies had returned Baldwin to the module (and into one of the quarantine nodes, careful to avoid touching any blue areas) Applesoft∞ gave the code for module retrieval and the Regal zoned in on it's location, sending a beam to pick up the distressed crew. Baldwin's feed was a garbled mess but the technicians monitoring the video feeds saw through the other rats' three hundred and sixty degree eyes. Baldwin, his body prone and lifeless, was quickly deteriorating. Blue liquid bubbled over his fur, eating through several hundred million dollars of bio-engineered flesh, the labbies squeaking in fear. Alarms whistled through the station, while Tom and Diane deliberated over how to handle this possible epidemic.
With two minutes until the module would re-attach to the ship. The hard decision had to be made, Tom flipped the switch he had installed to override Applesoft∞ and prepared to jettison the corpse of Baldwin. A heavy blast door slid over the quarantine viewport and a vacuum hiss stole through the module, as the labbies calmed one another, realizing they had lost one of their own. Re-attaching to the Endeavor, the module locked into place and the labbies ran out frantically, squeaking in sorrow. Picking up their friends, the technicians chattered to the rodents, commiserating with their loss.
Diane, ever the curious biologist, had caught a direct elevator to the shuttle port, greeting the crew with a mix of grief and barely restrained excitement the encounter had produced in her curiosity. Placating the crew with the appropriate amount of condolences, she swiftly launched herself at the module and opened the vacuum sealed chamber where the alien mucus had been brought onboard. Inside the chamber, Diane was astonished to find the complete skeleton of Baldwin, glued to together by blue mucus. Before she had a chance to consider her actions, Diane reached inside and picked up the bones of her favorite lab-assistant. Ballooning outwards, a soft blue-tinted bubble enveloped her hand, drawing out the moisture of her skin. Now a patchwork of flesh, sinew & bones Diane's quickly dropped the bubble from her person, where it fell, sticking flat to the dura-plasteel interior. Wide-eyed with horror, Diane watched as micro dots of blue moisture could be seen pulsating outwards, individual spheres replicating in the moisture-laden, animal flesh rich environment...
Steve Jobs resigns from Apple the same day I post this story with the character of Applesoft∞. COINCIDENCE???