panicofgods

[panicofgods]

CreNaya

WompWomp posting older stuff that I hadn't shared. There's a lot about this that I don't like, I hate every bit of dialogue I have ever written, and it was written with a word limit so a lot isn't as fleshed out as I'd like. BUT I like the story I'm setting up and the world I'm putting together and maybe one day I'll write more about the research team on this strange new world. I'm going to stop blathering becuse otherwise I'll talk myself out of posting this again ~~~~~~~

The sky above CreNaya shone with uncountable stars and the ghostly light of the two large moons that hovered close to the planet. Mayia took another shot of the ground shuttle with the small, telescoping camera as it lifted with a hum back into the cloudless sky. She assumed it would head back to the station that orbited in a looping figure eight about the moons before it picked them up in the morning. Pausing, she dug in the pocket of the uniform she had been provided that still enveloped her small build, for a hair tie and pulled her dark hair in to a bun and out of her face.

Across the glade of grey-brown leaves they had landed in, Katarina, one of the senior science officers on this expedition to a new earth-like planet, knelt picking leaves and laughing like a schoolgirl.

“May! Come look at this!” She plucked another leaf and a swirl of glittering dust rose and dissipated into the atmosphere. May looked at her watch: 22% oxygen.

“Mayyyyyy!” Kat looked up at her, long magnifying goggles balanced on the end of her nose, “This is such a wonderful discovery! It acts like pollen, but on a cellular level looks much closer to spores or fungi…” She trailed off, suddenly distracted by something crawling on her hand. 

May walked closer and saw a large millipede-like creature had started winding its way around Kat’s hand. The scientist laughed again, and May took another picture. Kat was breathtaking like this. The scientist’s long red curls were tied behind her head, and her freckles seemed a negative photo of the stars. She turned her sparkling green eyes on the camera, somehow grinning wider.

“What?” she asked as she unwound the strange bug and sealed it in one of the many…. many… large plastic boxes that surrounded her.

They were respectively the fourth and fifth humans to set foot on the planet after an initial crew had come down to make sure the area was safe. The orbiting station, named KDM after the women behind the first successful launch of a man into space, was the first ship to come so far from the Milky Way. Even at faster-than-light travel they had been in stasis for two months to get there. They had been deposited on the planet’s surface to take stock of the local biology, if it could be called that, and would be picked up via the trackers they carried in 12 hours.

Kat snapped the lid onto the box and grinned up at May, “Take this too the cruiser, would you?” May grinned at the woman and picked up the box.  She paused too take a closer look at the strange creature. The millipede had almost seemed to fall asleep, or at least curl up, and oozed a pit of clear liquid from its chitinous shell. A military vehicle striped of everything save the engine, sat nearby, and May deposited the first of many boxes there.

May remembered when they had just come out of stasis and the walls all felt far too close together. The cruiser had looked so big and shiny. An older model known for its reliability on unhospitable terrain, it had been stripped of all defining characteristics that may have told her what it was. Now, it was just a frame with seats and padding. A shinny white spider of bone and metal curled and sleeping in a dark corner of a metal cage. Now, on the surface of the planet, it was dwarfed by the trees that stretched for the sky. The dark and slightly wet bark and the dangling vines that dripped sap to the ground, coating the strange plant life with a sticky, glistening mucus speckled with spores and dust the became caught in it.

She placed the box gently in the back. The strange bug glistened more, and she made a mental note to take a sample of the fluid later.

Kat made an excited squeak, “May! I caught a new specimen! Look at the wings!”

May looked across the clearing. Kat was surrounded by hundreds of blue and purple bugs. Their wings, translucent and glittering in the fading light, cast strange shifting shadows around the glade and across the dark arms of the trees. A terrible though occurred to May. The old horror movies she had loved so much as a kid came back to her in a rush. The image of those beautiful bugs burrowing into Kat’s eyes and into her brain. Laying eyes in her friend’s corpse.

“Kat…” She started, moving towards them. Kat laughed as one landed on her face. May started to run. As she drew near, the creatures suddenly moved as one and shot upward.

As if thinking as one unit. They came together, catching the light and turning the bruise colored shadows a more vibrant blue and purple. Their flight seemed to pulse and twitch, then spread into a long glittering stream. An ocean current suspended above them by invisible lines into the darkening sky. Kat stood up and they marveled at the twinkling of the thousands of glassy wings in the sunlight.

“They… they feed on the spores from the plants,” Kat murmured, “I can’t wait to see what’s in those spores. What this ecosystem feeds on.” May nodded and looked at her friend. Kat stared up into the glittering mass, her eyes wide and her jaw loose. Her hair was disheveled and stuck up at angles. May took a step back and pulled out her camera. From this angle, May was cast in the shifting light from the bugs, like she was deep under water, yet still lit by the sun. Like she shone in the darkness of this strange world.

An hour later, Kat called it a day and they started moving the remaining boxes to the cruiser. May noted that the centipede, whom Kat had named Squiggles, had secreted a surprisingly large amount of the strange, clear mucus. It coated the base of the box with a thick layer. She wondered if it was a form of terraforming, as the box was dry but the whole planet seemed to be constantly damp.

Kat called to her, and May quickly forgot about the secreting bug as she moved to answer her.

When CreNaya was first discovered, it was an instant celebrity among the astrological science communities. Its water rich atmosphere drew attention, but the discovery of running water on its surface kick started the rush to reach it and discover what it could hold. Kat and May had met on the research team trying to speculate as to what the planet may look like when the moons were discovers. Twin moons that dragged the tides in and out all over the planet in 57 day seasons. Currently, it was the season on this half of the planet. In a few weeks, the whole forest would be under water, and the other side would be dry. Most rivers and streams were places where strong under currents fed by something in the planet’s crust sped and ripped the temporary sea floor apart.

Kat drove like a maniac down one of these creek beds.  It reminded May of the day they met. Kat had picked her up from the station when she got into Santiago from Tokyo and May had expected every turn on the busy streets to be her last. Kat had tripped over herself apologizing when she realized May’s discomfort later and had insisted on taking her out to dinner as reparations.

Now, May clamped her hand down on the handle by her head and tried not to scream as her friend hit a rock and the car shuddered as it became momentarily airborne. Kat whooped as they crashed back to the bed, jarring May’s teeth and causing something to clatter to the floor of the cab behind them.

“What about the specimens?” May shouted as the engine complained about the harsh treatment.

Kat seemed to regain some control then, although she didn’t let up on the accelerator as they tore through the forest. The site they were supposed to spend the night was only about three miles ahead, and May was happy they would make it there in one piece. Although, the grin that Kat had worn while hurtling towards their deaths was, dare she say, cute.

The reprieve from terror was short lived as something in the engine audibly popped. A shrill hissing noise rang out, followed by a screech and suddenly the car started to slow. Kat cursed and moved to pump the breaks. Nothing.  The two women looked at each other. They were still easily going 45 miles per hour down the creek bed. Kat grinned and May grit her teeth.

May gave credit where credit was due; Kat was a good off-road disaster driver. As jarring as it was to have the car slam into the sides of the creek bed, and as loud and scary as the sound of metal protesting the scrapping of rocks and debris was, they did slow down rather quickly. Granted, the grin on Kat’s face the whole time, albeit a lively and beautiful look, was almost as scary.

Her legs shook as may dragged herself out of the car and she gripped the door for support. May made up her mind that if she was going to vomit she should do it out of sight of Kat as she heard the hood pop open.

“Holy shit.”

May whipped around. The vertigo made her head spin. Kat stared into the engine compartment wide eyed with her jaw hanging open.

“May… May! Look! Look at this!” Kat’s face was lit up with a curious mix of excitement and awe, and May stumbled around quickly to look.

In the engine compartment, a thin, clear slime coated everything. Most of the metal components looked fine, but the plastic and rubber ones were half dissolved and ruined. The oil and coolant tanks were slowly melting away, and the exposed belts were long gone. Squiggles lay curled in the slowly dissolving coolant tank. Its pincers twitched sporadically and it repeatedly gushed more of that clear slime, which mixed with the remaining coolant and seemed to momentarily repell the off-color fluid.

With shaking hands, May pulled out her camera and snapped pictures of the damage as Kat reached in barehanded and grabbed the creature. Squiggles hissed weakly, Kat cooed softly in response and for a second, May watched her beautiful face fall. Then, Kat grimaced and knit her brows together in a look of determination.

“Water, do we have water?” Kat looked up at her, “I need water, now.”

“Yes,” May breathed and ran stumbling for the back of the car. Thankfully, the crash had done little to the rear of the vehicle and she yanked the doors open. Inside, she saw Squiggles box. The bottom had completely dissolved. Later, she would note that other specimens had eaten away at the inside of their containers as well, though not nearly to the same extent. For the moment though, her only concern was getting Kat one of the gallon jugs of water they had been sent with.

She slammed the door and almost fell in her haste to get back to Kat. The red head barely seemed to notice how frazzled May looked as she unscrewed the cap of the jug and poured the contents down on the hissing creature.

Squiggles seemed to calm instantly, and May watched the change reverberate into Kat. Slowly, Squiggles started to unravel, and the hissing turned into more of a clicking purr. Soon, it lay limp in Kat’s hand as the water dripped to a stop. The two women looked on as it slowly, carefully, wound its way down Kat’s arm. It came to her jacket, a brown cotton affair, wrapped securely about her lower arm, and stopped.

“Fascinating,” Kat murmured, holing her arm to her face, “This may be a sort of defense mechanism!” May smiled despite her frayed nerves as the woman started to rant excitedly, “That must have been traumatic, and now it’s found a safe place, it’s hiding to heal!” She pointed carefully to the creature’s exoskeleton, “It even appears to have dug its armor into the fabric!” She looked at May, “Take a picture? I’d love to study this behavior more, but I’d hate to traumatize poor Squiggles…” She ran a finger lightly over the creature.

It did not stir and May snapped a photo. It was a good photo. The light of the setting sun coming through the trees illuminated Kat’s flushed face and highlighted the darker reds in her hair. Her face was turned down, and she looked so lovingly at the creature wrapped around her arm. Even in the photo, her eye’s shinned with a caring light. May sighed and smiled at the oblivious scientist. Kat was so full of love for all life. All kinds of life.

An hour later, the sun was almost down, and Kat and May sat on top of the car. May stared up into the trees and waited for the emergency team to come get them.

When Kat had told the team still up on KDM the news, grasping May’s wrist and speaking into the watch, there were loud words of excitement, but also a large dose of fear. Now that they knew the lifeforms could chew through plastic so quickly, there was worry for should one get free on the station. As soon as the pair got back, they and everything on them would need to be scrubbed clean in a metal room. May was not excited for that prospect.

Kat had then spent time digging through the car and releasing the other creatures. Some had already eaten through the boxes and had to be saved from the floor of the vehicle, but most were merely getting close to escape.

Above them, the twin moons were barely visible through the drooping, drippy canopy and strange set of stars winked down at them. May imagined she could almost see the red and blue flashing of the emergency shuttle in the atmosphere.

Kat let out a huff, “This changes everything,” She turned and looked excitedly at May, “we thought there was no way to break down the mess in the Milky Way any faster, but these creatures,” Kat’s face lit up, and although she stared into the darkening sky, May was sure Kat’s mind was lightyears away, “We can study them! Find out what they do to break down plastics and we can use that!” The rosy smile, so sweet and genuine warmed May to her core.

Kat’s face fell a bit and she grasped May’s hand, “You took pictures, right?” With each word, Kat leaned towards her, “We have to release everything, but with pictures and my notes we could start cataloging them tonight!”

May smiled back at her, trying to match the blinding energy and enthusiasm of that look. The burning excitement that seemed to buzz inside Kat was usually just embers. Now, it burned brighter than Solis ever had. She nodded and Kat somehow became brighter.

“Oh that’s wonderful!” Kat enthused, “We’ll get so much done!” her eyes fell a bit and a hand went to her messy hair, “Um, it’s going to be a late night, I wouldn’t want to… impose,”

May melted a bit, “You wouldn’t b…”

“Would you like to go for coffee after?” Kat slapped a hand over her own mouth, “Oh! I’m so sorry, me and my big mouth, please continue, I’m sorry.”

May laughed and found herself taking the other woman’s face in her hands, “It’s fine! You’re excited, this is exciting!” She blushed, “I’d love to help you catalog specimens and get coffee after.” Kat beamed at her. She did not stop holding May’s hand.

The two turned towards the sky, now dark. In the darkness around them, spots of light came from the ground and trees, like a reflection of the sky above. A small flashing light was now visible. Soon, they would be returned to KDM and the work would begin. Kat leaned against May. Everything would change.

But first, coffee.

[panicofgods]

Bamf

*Yay, first post. I'm gonna share my writing. I'ma do it. I swear* TW for amnesia stuff. 0% Proofread by anyone else ~~~

The midday desert sun glinted off the Tabaxi’s teeth and caused his pupils to shrink, giving him a haggard and crazy look. Perched high on a rock above where the rest of the party sat below, making camp in the shade, he looked out. From here, he could see almost back to Peya, the mountains around the town like jagged knuckles beating against the sky.

His tail twitched sporadically and squeezed the chakrams in his paws tighter. All day, as he had carried them, they had been shocking him. Bolts of lightning that lit up his nerves and made his skin break out in gooseflesh despite the heat. They made him think of things he had forgotten. Of places very far away.

Muscles wound tight, Wet felt drawn into the open space before him. Just over the edge. The plummet to the ground shouldn’t kill him. Right? He never was one for thinking.

He leapt.

Using the momentum of his muscles uncoiling like a great spring, he whipped one of the chakrams out over the sand, yet higher into the cloudless sky and towards the great eye of the sun.

Below, the party readied for bed, waking the child who would watch them through the day as they slept. The mule was taken off his harness, and bed rolls were laid out in the small shade cast by the huge rock outcrop.

The wind blew gently so high in the sky, and Wet felt it rush around him as he reached for the weapon he’d thrown. That cold lightning raced through him again, starting in the palm of his hand where he gripped the other chakram, and crashing through him, through his very heart, and streaming out his empty palm.

Wind roared in his ears, then was abruptly silent.

In Wet’s hand was the chakram he’d thrown.

He grinned, eyes’ wide with a new delighted light and he twisted in the air to throw the other chakram.

“Wet!” Someone – Griffon? Phoenix? Her name escaped him – called from below. Wet looked down as the wind again stopped rushing, yet higher in the sky.

The other’s stopped their tasks and glanced around, looking for something. Him? The child jumped atop the cart and looked around, seeming almost frantic.

What were they looking for again?

His stomach abruptly shifted into his mouth as his momentum changed and gravity dragged him back towards the sand. With a WHUMP he crashed into the ground near the base of the cliff. Groaning, he forced his shaky arms to hold him up. Perhaps he could help them search…

Small, clawed hands buried in his fur and he was forced upright with the force of the child grasping him. He looked up as a large, dark shape reached for him and placed a hand on his head. Figures cloaked by the too bright sun speaking words he did not understand came towards him, reached for him, touched him.

“You dropped this.” Wet looked up. Griffon - Her name was Griffon – held out his weapon. She was smart and kind. The child was small and brave. The dark shape was large and protective. He jumped at the shock that sparked between him and the chakram as he took it.

For now, he would curl up with these friends. He would eat and talk and rest with them. He would continue to protect this place and these moments.

Maybe tomorrow he would explore that electric feeling in the chakrams.