#sci fi writing

[jpitha]

Vocal Mimicry and Ear Worms

Every time the drink machine finished, it played a little song.

It was pretty simple, less than 10 notes, but it was the same song, every time.

It wasn't even that it played the same song every time. It wasn't even that everyone on the ship - except the humans - got a drink from the machine.

The song was catchy.

Peg started it. She just found her self whistling the "drink finished" song one day. "beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep." She couldn't help it.

Then, Kelly picked it up. The song worked its way into her head too. She'd be working at her station and suddenly she'd be struck by an intense need to sing the song.

After about three cycles, every single human on the ship was singing it. Normally, this would be chalked up by the rest of the crew as "just another strange Human thing" but the problem was that it was the 'drink finished' song. Everyone onboard was conditioned to want to go get their drink when the song was done.

The humans could mimic is perfectly.

"beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep."

Captain Flowing River Rapid's feathers fluffed in irritation. Two people on the Command Deck got three quarters of the way out of their seats before they realized what they were doing and sat back down, sheepish. "Desmond! What have I said about mimicing the drink finished melody?"

Desmond ducked his head at the reproach. "Sorry Captain River, I couldn't help it. It's just so catchy."

Captain River clacked his beak. "It wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that you can all mimic the sound so well."

Desmond turned and looked at the Captain. "What? We are? We're singing it, but it doesn't sound exactly like the drink machine."

The Captain pointed at Desmond accusingly. "Don't deny it! You're all singing the song at all times of the cycle! You know that everyone thinks a drink is ready when you do it. You sound exactly like the machine!"

One of the Sefigans who got partially up from their station nods quickly, their antenna bobbing. "Captain River is correct, Des. You all really sound a lot like the drink machine. How are you doing it?"

Desmond shrugged. "I mean, we heard the song, and it gets like, stuck in our heads. Singing it feels like one way to get it out. Plus, it's fun to sing Kel. Fun to make sounds."

Kel's wing covers clack. "Can you mimic other things?"

"I don't know Kel, I don't really think of myself as a mimic. There are others who can do it much better than me. Some humans made a whole career out of it."

"That sounds like a thing I human would do, yes. But what about your Des? Let's see...." Kel looks down at their station. "What about this?"

Kes runs a test for the collision alarm. It's a warbling rising and falling tone."

Des thinks for a second and sings - for him - a pretty close approximation.

Captain River gasps and leans back in his chair. "How do you do that?"

Desmond wails. "It wasn't even that good! I just heard the tones and repeated them."

Kelly entered the Command Deck just then. She was carrying a pad and her overalls looked stained. "Captain River, I've just come to report tha-"

"Kelly! Mimic the collision alarm"

"What? Um.." Kelly makes the same noise."

Now, everyone on the Command Desk gasps. Kelly is taken aback and looks at Desmond. "What's going on Des?"

Desmond sighs. "They say we're all mimics. It started with the drink machine."

"Oh that. I still can't get it out of my head! 'beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep.'"

Kes starts to rise from his seat again and catches himself, and sits back down swearing.

[lovedeathandyautja]

Reunited

[marlynnofmany]

Fingernails and Fisticuffs

The box of miscellaneous engine parts slipped out of my grasp, catching a fingernail on the way down. I said, “Ow!” but was overshadowed by the loud clatter of washers and junk. Heads of several species turned from across the cargo bay. I reassured all my alien coworkers that nothing was broken.

“Are you okay?” Paint asked. She was the only one close enough to notice how I was shaking my hand, and worry was clear on her lizardy face.

“Yeah, just broke a nail,” I told her. “I didn’t think it was long enough for that. Ow.”

Paint looked at the box with alarm. “There are nails sticking out?”

“No, a fingernail,” I said, holding out a hand. “One of these. The little not-claws that humans have.”

“Not-claws?” Paint repeated. She stepped closer to get a proper look. Her expression was somewhere between distaste and pity. “I never really studied them before. They’re hollow! Just the top half! Why?”

I shrugged. “I guess we don’t really need proper claws anymore. Our distant ancestors had them.”

Paint looked scandalized. “How could you not need claws?”

Before I could come up with a good answer, Trrili walked by with a heavy pipe held in her pincher arms. I’d say she was looking down her nose at us, but she didn’t really have one of those. Just bug eyes, mandibles, and lots of opinions. She said, “No wonder humans like weapons so much, if you don’t even have sharp digits.”

“We can fight without weapons too!” I protested.

“Really,” Trrili said, stepping past to deposit the pipe beside several others with a loud clank. “How? You can’t bite like her,” she said with a flick of one antenna toward Paint. “Or even grapple like him.” The other antenna pointed out Mimi, tentacle-walking over like an octopus with a plumber’s belt.

“We can grapple pretty well,” I said. “But most of our fighting is punches and kicks.” I shadowboxed briefly, with what I thought were some pretty good moves. I even did a slow-motion roundhouse kick that brought my foot level with Trrili’s head.

She blocked it with a pincher. “Any Armorlite could hit harder, and so could half the Frillians I know.”

“Maybe, but they’re probably not as agile.” I bobbled and weaved.

“On two legs,” Trrili said, sweeping one of her own forward to try and trip me. I jumped over it, but she still wasn’t impressed. “Honestly, it’s a good thing you can climb things and fit into cabinets to hide, because the softest Mesmer child could defeat you in a fight.”

“Oh yeah? Bet you can’t do this.” I opened the box I’d dropped, dug out a metal washer, and laid it flat on the floor. “Pick that up.”

Trrili regarded me silently for a moment, pincher arms flexing and antenna doing a disapproving dance.

I just grinned at her. “What? It’s easy.” I scooped it up with one thumb and the finger with the longest nail. “…If you have fingernails.”

Mimi joined us, chuckling in his gravelly voice and plucking the washer from my hand. Paint giggled a little too, though stopped when Trrili glared at her.

“That’s beside the point,” Trrili declared. “What would you do if faced down with true danger, and no weapons in reach? And that includes rocks to throw; I know how fond you are of that.”

“I’d throw Mimi at it,” I said, pointing.

“Do not,” he said.

That just made Paint laugh again. Trrili was shaking her head.

“Hey, don’t underestimate some good problem-solving,” I said. “Especially if I’ve got time to prepare! There are some great trickster legends about humans who made traps for their enemies out of the most unlikely things.”

Paint asked, “Like what?”

Mimi interrupted, “Let’s get the supplies put away first, then have story time.”

“Of course,” I said, picking up the box. Mimi had already grabbed a couple of things out of it. “Blip and Blop will want to hear this too. And Trrili, I think you’ll appreciate some of those legends. Especially the ones about a human child left home alone when dangerous adults break into the house. Some of those traps were downright vicious.”

“That remains to be seen,” Trrili said.

I winked at Paint. “And some are funny.”

Storytime after dinner was a big hit. Blip and Blop enjoyed it so much that Captain Sunlight had to make everyone promise not to do any of that.

Unless, of course, the ship was ever attacked in a very specific way. She may have been taking notes for later.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

[purpleisnotacolor]

Fun funky sci-fi concept I just had:

Androids can't comprehend/don't believe in randomness.

Why? because...

The computers we currently have can't be random, we can make algorithms that appear random, but solid intentional math is still behind the creation of the randomness algorithm, and thus whatever "random" result it picks.

So if sentient computers were aware of the algorithm they use to "pick a random number", they would not consider the number they picked random, they can see the intentional math behind the number picked.

And in most sci-fi settings, androids are created by humans on purpose. They are made from blue-prints and hand selected materials, that can only come together to form life because of thousands of years of technological progress. There are no unplanned pregnancies that make androids.

And so when humans give them examples of random, unintentional creation of life, like unplanned pregnancies, they dismiss it with "that wasn't random, you just can't see the logic behind it."

Basically: androids believe in some kind of Intelligent Design by default. So rather than ending up with a sci-fi where people have transcended religion, you'd end up with the opposite:

Thousands of a new people who are certain that the universe must be intentional, and looking to find what that intention belongs to.

[nixite117]

Worldbuilding

If there’s anything I suck at more than anything in fiction, it’s world building.

So let’s get started.

The general idea of my sci fi world is that Earth has just joined the stars. While this is public knowledge, there is very little known about its dominating species, “humans.” However, Earth has been classified as a Class D planet.

Every planet in the universe can fall under certain labels and classifications based on their abilities to sustain life. N Class planets are incapable of sustaining life, and are what make up most of the universe. Whenever a planet with life is found, it is first classified by what kind of life inhabits it. The two options are sentient and non-sentient. Then, if sentience is recognized: advanced or primitive? A society becomes advanced when they have an established connection to technology.

If no sentient species is established, then the planet is analyzed for threat levels of wildlife and disease. This is their “danger class,” and trumps all other classes. If the danger class is high enough, it is then considered a “death planet” and thus is much too dangerous to land on.

The Interstellar Safety Commission is the governing body responsible for this, and publicizes information about such on all planets that are candidates for resource harvesting and/or colonization. They also do this for private companies who are hoping to mine out various planets.

This organization has existed for almost 30,000 years.

Earth was the subject of this classification just before human’s began building civilizations. At the time, not only did the federation find that the planet had, at one point, been hit by an asteroid, but that the planet was teeming with violent creatures. The federation was newer at the time, it’s many members being unfamiliar with the many shapes that life can take. Thus, sights like the glyptodonts and prehistoric hippos were new and unfathomably terrifying.

Because of the mass amount of planets across the universe, typically the solar system around a “death planet” will be quickly archived. Organizations that apply for legal planet mining can easily find new ones nowadays as tech has grown significantly since the start of the ISC. So Earth was largely forgotten, as was our solar system. So much so that our little corner of the Milky Way was one of many little things that was forgotten. This is a loophole that many exploit but that will be discussed later.

Because there was no observation of our planet after this, Earth was pretty much left to evolve in peace. 10,000 years later, it’s the year 2088 and Earth has joined the stars. Upon reviewing the planet we came from, the ISC was baffled by our ability to survive, much less evolve on what is largely considered a “death planet.” Due to this information being public, many rumors started about the human race. We’ve been amongst the stars for almost a decade, which is nothing in the great span of the universe.

Humans have barely begun diplomatic missions with the universe, as our tech is extremely primitive in comparison to most alien tech. This contributes to the grand mystery around humans.

The main misconception is that humans are naturally aggressive and deadly. They are also all huge, hulking creatures with sharp teeth and a kick like no other. As time passes in space, and we learn more about our place among the stars, many of us learn one great truth about our impression on the universe.

Humans.

Are space orcs.

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

[bryng]

am i making any sense

[whereserpentswalk]

Your girlfriend used to be a supersolider. I mean physically she still is, but she doesn't work as one anymore because of an injury taking away the use of one of her arms. She's been through a lot, she's been fighting for longer then unmodified humans tend to live, even with life extension technology, she's been fighting for longer then even the planet you're on has been colonized by humans. The empire she fought for is long gone, but she's still here.

She looks strangely inhuman. Her body looks almost like a statue, she's so perfectly lean and muscular, but in an almost inhuman way. Her eyes are strangely colored, and her skin has pieces of machinery sticking out of her. She's more human looking then the cyborgs you tend to see throughout the city, but there's something most people consider off about her. People always act uncomfortable around her, especially since her body language is kind of stilted, and her face doesn't show emotion, it makes her think of herself as less human than she is.

She's strangely skittish due to her past. Robots always scare her, even ones you consider small and cute. Occasionally she'll see someone with a visor covering their face and she'll want to avoid them due to some memory she has about that. She can't sleep when spaceships are passing overhead, and you'll have to hold her and comfort her until the sound ends.

Most people you meet just walking around the city think of her as being sort of creepy. A lot of your freinds talk behind her back about how she's killed people before. A lot of people think she doesn't feel emotions just because her body doesn't show them, a lot of people think it's impossible for her to love you.

You do your best to make her feel safe. You pet her skin, and kiss her a lot, and play with her hair. You feel the need to make her feel comfortable again. Whoever made her into what she is now took away her ability to feel sexual pleasure, but she seems to enjoy pleasuring you. She wants to cry when she lays her head agaisnt your breast, but her eyes can't do that anymore.

She seems to so often feel like a monster, feel like something designed to hurt people. She's so aware that her body itself is built as a weapon of war, that it makes her feel like violence itself is her nature. But you tell her that she doesn't have to be violent anymore if she doesn't want to. And you call her pretty, people have said a lot of things about her body, but you don't think anyone has called her pretty before.

[sod4leaf]

Upated designs!

i finally am happy with designs for some of the species (ilgorans not included because they are already perfect little fellas)

i also somewhat updated the lore a bit so here is a link to the google doc with the lore dump:

[jpitha]

Hunting

It is unlikely that humans are the only predator species to achieve sapience in the galaxy.

In order to be a successful predator one has to be intelligent enough to learn your prey's movements and be able to think ahead to what they're going to do next but also be flexible enough in your thinking that you can improvise if the situation chances. If you don't have this elasticity, you won't be a very successful predator.

Humans are very successful predators.

****

Greg bent down low and spoke as quietly as he could to the worried Sefigan next to him. "I need you to stay as still as you can. I'm going to go around, and try and surprise the Gren guarding the exit."

The three Sefigans, caught between wanting to obey Greg and staying silent but also trying to communicate that they thought it was suicide to do so started shaking.

"No, no, it'll be fine. I've been watching him. He's not really paying attention." Greg stood silently and put one finger to his lips, then smiled.

Moving much quieter than one would think given his mass, Greg crept away, hunched down just a little to keep motion out of the tops of the bushes they used to hide. The Sefigans watched in horrified fascination as Greg would take a few steps and then freeze, not even breathing while he watched the Gren.

As he walked, he made no noise at all over the soft sand, his feet finding purchase slowly. The Sefigans, a small furry prey species from a rocky mountainous world felt very old fears from the most early parts of their brains while watching him hunt the Gren.

The Gren guard was panning slowly as he guarded the exit, his fur flat, his eyes dull and his mouthparts drooping. If one knew a bit about Gren physiology one could easily see that he was bored and tired. His shift wasn't due to end for another 3 demi-cycles and nothing usually ever happened on this exit.

When Greg was no more than 2 meters away, he reached down and picked up a stone, no larger than a comm badge. He raised his arm and in one silent fluid motion, tossed the stone high and far over his head, to hide its origin. It clattered against the wall on the far side of the pen, opposite to where Greg was standing. The noise and motion caught the Gren's eye and his whole body swung over to where the stone landed.

His back was turned to Greg.

Greg bent his legs low building energy and took two steps and lept onto the Gren's back. His higher mass bowled the taller but much lighter Gren over and the Gren's head hit the stone with a hollow thwack.

Greg jumped up off the Gren and checked him quickly. He was dead. Trotting quickly over to where the Sefigans were still hiding he motioned for them to follow.

Still terrified, they followed this... ambush predator they were scared of and by the time they reached him, he had gotten the comm out of the Gren's pack and was fiddling with a ring that had complicated studs all around it, fitting them against the door until one clicked and the door hissed open.

Minutes later they were all running across the desert to the canal below where they had hoped to cling to the side of a barge and float to the spaceport.

"Human Greg! Human Greg!" The smallest Sefigan called as they jogged down the sandy hill towards the canal.

"What is it Li? Can it wait?"

"That was amazing! I've never seen a human hunt before! Is that how they all do it?"

"Not really? Humans developed as persistence hunters, not ambush hunters, but as you well know, skills can be taught."

"Persistence hunter?"

"Yeah, my ancestors would pick an animal out of a herd and run after it. As long as we didn't overexert ourselves we could just... run until it died."

The three Sefigans looked at each other as they jogged. Greg wasn't breathing heavily as they went towards the canal, but all three of them were nearly at their limit and would need a long time to rest when they were safe.

"Human Greg, you scare us." The tallest Sefigan looked back at the holding compound and then back at Greg. "But, not as much as we were scared of what the Gren would have done to us."

Greg smiled showing his wide, large, white teeth. "In this world, sometimes you need to be scary." He looked at the canal. "Come on, the water isn't too cold, let's get in and swim towards that barge. It's not too far."

[lovedeathandyautja]

This sketch of Lark and Okih is never going to get finished, it’s actuality been rotting away in my gallery for… months. So I’m just gonna post it lol

[historicrad39a]

2. Enslaved

Previous

Sector -300 +145 outskirts, +28 Rotations and 2 Deci-rotations since invasion start - ~253ly from Ka’Lagrath space, aboard the Slaver ship Mutiny

We had five new prisoners today. Unlike the other eighty-some individuals enslaved aboard this ship, including myself, these creatures were not acquired (as the Ka’Lagrath like to say) through one of their numerous “protection contracts.” Instead, they had been onboard an exploration vessel belonging to a civilization the Ka’Lagrath were supposedly at war with. The Mutiny had been redirected from my species’ homeworld to rendezvous with the Ka’Lagrath warship responsible for successfully “acquiring” these new prisoners.

As the new prisoners were transferred the same hold cell as I, I overhead the warship’s guard warning the Mutiny’s guards to be careful of these new prisoners, as they were supposedly very much against this whole enslavement thing, and would do anything in their power to escape. I was somewhat excited about this news, as I doubted the Ka’Lagrath would be willing to kill, or even gravely harm such rare and therefore “valuable” prisoners - which would make an escape attempt much easier.

My hope was that these new arrivals would be kind enough to break out all of the other prisoners, myself included, were they to be successful. Furthermore, as the Ka’Lagrath were unsure of their exact biology, any attempts at subduing them with gas would be extremely limited in scope. However, these hopes were quickly dashed, as the new arrivals did little but sit in silent unease.

The prisoners were certainly interesting in appearance, they were bipedal and had 2 slender appendages that appeared to be for grabbing/manipulating objects - in this regard they were extremely similar to their Ka’Lagrath captors - however, unlike the Ka’Lagrath, they had long ‘fur’ on their heads, and their skin was something of a tan-ish red color - although this was somewhat obscured by how bright they appeared in infrared.

Curious about them, I attempted to strike up a conversation with them. As I was a (now former) diplomat, I figured there was a good chance we shared at least one language in common. Unfortunately, of the 15 languages I knew, we shared none in common.

It’s worth noting at this point that our species, the Myilrs, are occasionally born with what one might call psychic powers. These powers are both very versatile - allowing communication across species in the absence of a shared language - and very limited - as only very, very few individuals outside the Mailrs were actually compatible. I was fortunate enough to be born with these powers, however, given that the Ka’Lagrath had a keen interest in these powers, were I to be found out, I would likely to be killed and dissected.

Were I to do this, I’d need to be careful. If I extended the range too far, and a compatible Ka’Lagrath guard was within that range, I’d be found out. If they happened to install any anti-psychic countermeasures, I’d get a splitting headache, once again giving me away. Of course, there was also a possibility that none of the five individuals were compatible, their species was completely unknown to me, so it wasn’t as if I knew how compatible their species was on average.

After mulling over it for around a third of a deci-rotation, I made up my mind. Closing my eyes I began to concentrate…

Can you hear me? I asked. The reply was immediate.

What? Who are you? Responded one of the individuals. Their “voice” (if you could call it that) was somewhat high-pitched, it sounded similar to the natural register of we Myilrs, but far higher than any of the Ka’Lagrath. At around the same time, one of the individuals - the smallest of the five - let out a stifled yelp of (what I presumed to be) surprise.

I am the individual sitting across from you, the one currently looking in your direction. I responded. The individual did not respond for a moment.

How are you doing this? Earlier I think you tried speaking to us, but we couldn’t understand. But now you’re… speaking(?) English. They responded.

Does your civilization, - the… English, is it? - have stories of those who can read minds? This is something like that.

The individual shook their head from side to side. No, we call ourselves (people). English is one of our (unknown word). And yes, we do have such stories.

Given the nature of how this power worked, I was reading the intended meaning behind their thoughts. This meant that there would be words (or meanings, rather) that I could not understand.

Well, I guess that’s not important right now. I’m assuming you can still hear me… So, what exactly is it you need? The individual asked.

From what I overheard, you individuals were apparently dangerous enough that the ships’ guards were warned about you trying to escape. Yet from what I see, you are just sitting in silence. Why?

That’s what they were saying? The individual cocked their head. I suppose I can’t blame them after (farmer(?)) bit one of them…

Bit? As in used their mouth to attack? I was under the impression only non-sapient creatures attacked in such ways.

Anyway, we are planning to escape. It’ll just take a few (unknown word, time related?) The individual continued. I’m (Young flower(?)), by the way.

Young flower? I asked

What? The individual responded. I mean, I suppose it originally meant something like that. They continued.

Based on the individual’s reaction, I guessed that what they had just told me was their name. Unfortunately, as most names had meanings, I usually only “heard” the meaning of the name when told via this power. To hopefully combat this, I decided to spend some time actually conversing with the out loud as well as internally to hopefully learn more about them.

Over the course of 2 Deci-rotations, I conversed with the individual known as “Hanako” along with her crew mates. I slowly began to learn their language (of which, they apparently had several), and as a result I now knew more about them.

They called themselves “Humans”, and they were part of an alliance composed of 2 different species. Similar to the Myilrs and Ka’Lagrath, their species was composed of two primary sexes, and numerous genders (whilst Ka’Lagrath also had more than 2 genders, this information was largely repressed). Their homeworld was around a G class Star, and as a result, they couldn’t see into the infrared or Ultraviolet spectrums.

Hanako - the human I had been conversing with - was in command of an exploration vessel. They had been exploring the outermost edges of Human space when their ship was attacked and they were captured. Humans were apparently also rather social creatures, as Hanako seemed to enjoy my company, and her crew mates also seemed to enjoy my presence (as I could not communicate with them directly, this was a bit harder to tell).

I had asked on numerous occasions about if they were planning to escape or not, to which they said they were. However, when I asked how, they couldn’t quite figure out how to describe it. They had assured me they would escape, but strangely it appeared as if they didn’t know how they would.

3 Deci-rotations after the humans first arrived, the Mutiny was stopped to refuel in an uncontrolled star system. In addition, five Ka’Lagrath cruisers had also rendezvoused with the tanker in order to take on fuel. It was during this refueling stop when I began to hear a distinct rumbling sound similar to that of air entering or escaping a room.

There were no vents in this holding cell, nor was the door open or any other way for air to enter or escape, and the air felt perfectly calm. Yet despite that, the ‘flowing air’ sound continued, slowly growing louder and clearer. After several minutes, the sound was impossible to ignore. It was loud enough to drown out conversation, and it made it hard to think clearly. Almost everyone in the cell, including the sole Ka’Lagrath guard, showed signs of anxiety on their faces or fidgeted nervously. I silently wondered if the ship hasn’t sprung a leak, and we were mere moments away from an explosive decompression.

The humans, on the other hand, were dead calm. Worried about their complete lack of concern, I went over to Hanako.

“Why calm?” I managed after struggling for a moment.

A look of confusion crossed Hanako’s face for a moment, she then bared her teeth (in a gesture I was assured was a sign of joy/happiness, rather than an intimidation attempt) before saying “you’ll see!”

Her words thoroughly confused me. What would I see? I didn’t think it was possible to see sound, were humans perhaps capable of seeing sound? Was she referring to the fact the ship was visibly shaking from the noise? I didn’t understand in the slightest.

I turned towards the window - the direction in which the sound seemed to be coming from - and tried to focus. I didn’t understand what was happening at all, I had so many questions that-

My train of thought was abruptly interrupted by a singular large THUD. The vacuum of space itself seemed to shudder as a massive object streaked in from near-luminal speeds before coming to an abrupt stop in less than a second. The aforementioned ‘flowing wind’ sound noticeably decreased in volume, and was partially replaced by a ‘winding down’ noise, a split second later, two more loud THUDs accompanied two more massive objects emerging from out of nowhere at similar speeds and stopping in a similar amount of time. The ‘flowing air’ sound finally came to an end as fifteen or so smaller objects emerged from out of nowhere in a similar fashion.

Despite being separated by the vacuum of space, I could clearly hear the objects. Each one groaned and creaked for several long seconds as they remained motionless. It was then that I recognized the sound. These sounds are almost identical to the noises heard when a ship is traveling through rift-space, and then the sounds heard after emerging from rift-space, as the drives powered down.

This made no sense. Eighteen or so objects - evidently ships of some kind, has just emerged from rift-space right in front of my very eyes. The Mutiny was around 500 light seconds from the system’s primary star - no ship in existence could possibly drop out of rift-space at any location other than near the system’s center of mass. And yet, these ships seemed to have done just that.

The ships’ design was completely unknown to me. Unlike the smooth a bulbous designs of Ka’Lagrath ships, these vessels were very blocky in nature. The center most ship had a long, flat deck behind a vaguely conical bridge. Either side of the primary body were two massive “wings” pointed at a slight angle “downwards”, and 2 strut-like protrusions at an angle extending out from a central tower-like structure on the bottom. Finally, on one side of the primary deck, there was another tower which appeared to be a bridge of some-sort.

Either side of the center most ship were two vaguely trapezoid in shape, with 4 large railgun double-barreled turrets on each wing (2 above and 2 below), totaling 8 turrets (although it seemed as if there were more behind the forward facing turrets). Above what looked like an embedded bridge was an enormous triple-barreled railgun turret, and there was another directly below in on the bottom of the ship. I had never seen such large railguns before - these were definitely far larger than the 23cm railguns commonplace on Ka’Lagrath vessels. Finally, both ships had an insane amount of secondary railgun turrets dotted along their hulls.

The smaller ships were less impressive, but still formidable. They were a boxy shape with a single large ‘humps’ above their center. On either side of the bridge of the ships sat dual barreled railgun turrets, and the hump contained 4 large openings that were likely for a weapon of some kind.

All in all, the eighteen ships sat in ominous silence for long seconds. The Ka’Lagrath fleet reacted instantly, all five cruisers began turning to engage the enemy fleet. Turrets rotated and hatches opened as the cruisers began to prepare for battle. The mysterious fleet, did not wait idly by, instead, around a hundred or so small craft began to emerge from the ‘back’ of the center most ship before charging at the Ka’Lagrath fleet. Following behind the small craft were the fifteen or so smaller vessels that had emerged from rift-space a moment ago. The front most ship rotated its turrets and loosed 4 rounds towards one of the Ka’Lagrath cruisers. Hell began to break loose as the Ka’Lagrath and the mysterious ship began exchanging fire.

The Mutiny was rocked by numerous impacts as the small crafts dove at it, releasing some sort of payload before darting away to attack a different target. These ships moved as if they were flying through an atmosphere, rather than the vacuum of space, which was extremely odd. Although, nothing about this situation was normal so far.

Bafflingly, as the rounds hit their target, there would occasionally be an explosion following it. This meant that, for whatever reason, these ships used explosives rounds rather than simple metal slugs. What’s more, the rounds likely contained an oxidizer as well in order to facilitate the explosion.

One of the smaller ships charged at a Ka’Lagrath vessel and four slow (compared to the railgun rounds) projectiles were deployed from the hump on the ship’s back. Noticing the lack of speed from the projectiles, the Ka’Lagrath cruiser attempted to dodge - the projectiles turned to match its course. The cruiser tried everything it could to make the projectiles miss, but it was ultimately futile. All four of the projectiles hit their mark, and the Ka’Lagrath cruiser was torn in half by an enormous explosion.

It was at around this point when I noticed that the eight forward-facing turrets on one of the two larger ships began to rotate, each pair of turrets seeming to track a different target. Each pair eventually locked onto their target and slowly tracked it for long seconds.

Then, massive plumes of fire and smoke were expelled from each barrel in sequence as the massive guns fired. They were using not railguns, but ancient explosive-propelled shells shot from a cannon. All hell broke loose, as the remaining four Cruisers all but disintegrated in massive explosions. All the ships that had been attacking a moment ago suddenly began falling back as the spine-mounted turret on one of the large ships slowly began to rotate.

Fear. That’s the only emotion I felt as I stared down the three massive barrels on the central turret. The Mutiny, the ship I was currently on, was its next target. Time stood still as the turret coldly tracked the Mutiny as it attempted to flee. Then, three massive plumes of fire and smoke exploded out of the barrels as I braced myself for impact.

The Mutiny shook with such intensity that it felt as if it were being torn apart. The ship screeched and screamed in agony as fire enveloped the hallways. The power died but the emergency light were of little use compared to the flames currently licking the door to the hallway. Somehow, we had survived. The ship was completely dead, but it would take time before the air supplies ran out.

The central turret began rotating back to its neutral position as several ships that looked something like a needle with a cone-like top were deployed from the center most ship and began speeding this way. The ships charged at the Mutiny, seemingly determined to ram the thing. I was sure they were intending to slice through the Mutiny’s hull, damning those of us still alive to boil or freeze to death in the vacuum of space. But at the last second, retro-rockets fired on each of the pin-shaped craft followed shortly thereafter by the intense screeching of metal penetrating metal. I was knocked off my feet as each of the pin-shaped craft slammed into the Mutiny’s hull. One of the ships had come to a rest no more than 20 meters away from the cell we currently occupied.

The fires in the hallway had died down, and any Ka’Lagrath guards who had survived the impacts were scrambling throughout the darkened hallways. Sparks flew from the points of contact of the closest ship accompanied by the electric sounds of welding. After a moment, the sparks and noise died down only to be immediately followed by the sounds of metal being torn through by an immense force. Then once more there was pure silence.

*pop pop, pop pop*

Four distinct popping noises were shortly followed by barely audible Ka’Lagrath screams. There were other voices too, they were somewhat muffled and mechanical in nature meaning I could not decipher them.

*BOOM*

*pop pop pop, pop, pop*

The distinct sound of an explosion followed by more of the previous popping sounds. Looking into the hallway I saw several Ka’Lagrath guards running towards the source of the noise. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it seemed they were rather panicked. A group of around ten guard were running down the hall when-

*THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK*

A much heavier “thunking” sound began ringing out, as hundreds of orange trails whizzed by tearing the Ka’Lagrath guards to shreds. The residual “tings” of many objects hitting the floor was audible after that terrifying machine stopped firing.

A few seconds later I saw a creature in thick armor wearing a helmet with a black visor peer through the door and into the room.

“Over here!” I heard them shout in the Human’s tongue. Several more individuals rushed over to the door as Hanako spoke up.

“Get away from the [unknown word]”, I didn’t need to know what the last word was to understand that I needed to get out of the way, and fast. I scrambled away from the door as the (presumably human) individuals fiddled with the door. An eerie silence fell over the room, as every individual was herded to the corner furthest from the door. The silence was occasionally broken by rapid pops and the occasional boom. It was right when I was about to speak up when-

BOOM

The door was blown off its mount as it flew across the room, impacting the wall opposite of it. The armoured individuals stormed the room, the smoke from the recent explosion twisting around their figures as they emerged from the smoking entrance. One of the armoured individuals spotted the humans and immediately ran over to them.

I could not decipher most of their conversation, but what started as the armoured individual checking on the humans in concern quickly turned into something resembling an argument. I would need to ask Hanako about it when I got the chance. After the (what I assumed to be an) argument went on for far too long, the armoured individual gave off an air of exasperation before dejectedly speaking into some device.

After another few moments, the armoured individual began speaking to Hanako, and she relayed that we were supposed to follow a few of the armoured individuals back to their ship. At the time I was still greatly confused, but by doing this my fate would be irreversibly changed as I got involved in a conflict that would change the course of history…

Hey Y’all, long time no see. It’s been two or so months since I last updated this series, as explained in this post I’ve been very busy, but going forward I’ll be trying to update this series every other Monday or so (and failing that, the 3rd Monday of every month). That aside I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it ended up being quite a bit longer than I initially expected which is part of why it took so long.

I’m currently undecided about whether the next entry I write will be an intermission, or a full-blown chapter. The contents wouldn’t differ much, if at all. So far the actual chapters have been from an alien perspective, rather than a human/familiar one. But I’m not sure if it’s worth keeping this up “naming scheme” going forward. I still like the idea of alternating, but the issue is that of “are the entries labeled ‘1, intermission, 2, intermission…’ or just ‘1, 2, 3, 4…’” if any of you have strong opinions on this, please let me know.

Once again I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll (hopefully) see y’all in 2 weeks or so!

~Rad

Read the next entry here

[nerdybluephoenix]

Aliens meet a cat. Cat does not like them at all

I'm gonna answer this prompt with my usual ocs, because it gives me an excuse to redraw some old artwork I made in 2020

New version:

I might finish this drawing another time. Old artwork at the bottom of the post.

///

Captain Evek stepped into the room. Inside, two of her crew members were hunched around an open cage. The human, Constance, was cooing at whatever was inside. Evek could hear a horrible hissing noise inside followed by a low growl.

“I’m sorry - this is the animal you’ve been comparing me to?” Tix, the other crew member, did not look pleased. “It looks nothing like me.”

“What did you drag on my ship this time?” Both crew members looked up at the captain.

“Evek!” Constance happily waved her over. “Look what I found! It’s a cat!” Evek stayed rooted where she stood. She wasn’t going to step closer to some creature making clear warning noises like that.

“...remind me what a cat is?” Evek said. She thought over Tix’s words and her face scrunched up in amusement. “Oh, is it the Earth creature you say looks like Tix?”

“It does not look like-”

“It looks exactly like you!”

Now Evek was curious enough to step closer. If at least cautiously. She got down on her knees to get a better angle at whatever was inside. It was hard to make out with the poor lighting, but it seemed to be a ball of fluff.

“I can’t see it very well,” Evek admitted. “Why is this thing on my ship?”

“I found her. On the ship,” Constance said. “I think she snuck on after our last stop. I can’t believe humans are losing their pets in space already.”

“Are cats dangerous?” Evek said. On the firm “no” from Constance, Evek made up her mind to step over and gently tilt the cage so the cat slid out.

“Wait! You really shouldn’t do that!” Constance said. 

It was too late. Upon being slid out of the cage, the animal popped to life like a firecracker. It flailed about the room, bounced off on walls, and knocked several items over. Tix fled underneath a table and let out a low growl that was much like the cat’s warning sounds. This only spurred the small thing more and it continued to wreak havoc until it finally clamored up a wall and onto a bookshelf. Constance cursed.

“Sorry, I just wanted a better look,” Evek said. She stood to look around the torn apart room then up at the creature on the shelf. From Evek’s height, the cat sat perfectly eye level. She stepped closer. It hissed. “Tix, I’m sorry to tell you this, but Constance is right. It looks a lot like you.”

“It does not,” Tix said from under the table.

“How do we get in back in the cage?” Evek said.

“Carrier,” Constance corrected. “And I have no idea.” She picked up the carrier and brought it closer to the shelf. The cat slunk away until she sat herself between a corner.

“She’s trapped now. Why don’t I just…?” Evek stepped forward and snatched the cat up in two hands. Much like before, the cat burst into panic. Captain Evek held the animal out as it bit and clawed at any skin it could reach. Okay, ow! “I thought you said it wasn’t dangerous?”

“As in, won’t kill you,” Constance said. “You should put her down.” She tried, but trying to place the cat back onto the shelf ended with more flailing and biting. Evek was stuck in an awkward position where if she wasn’t careful, she could drop the cat.

Maybe from exhaustion, the cat suddenly froze in Evek’s hands. It seemed to be glaring at Evek. Judgment practically seeped out of it. She could feel it’s little heartbeat running rapidly in its chest.

“Aww!” Constance cooed. She brought he carrier over and quickly scooped up the animal and closed the door. “She likes you!”

“That doesn’t even begin to be true,” Evek said. She rubbed at her hands, now covered in bite marks and scratches. “I’d like to get that animal dropped off at our next stop. Maybe we’ll find a human who wants it.”

“N’aww, but I kinda want her,” Constance said. She placed the carrier on the table. The cat was curled up in the back again.

“You already have Tix,” Evek said.

Tix came out from under the table to jump on top of it instead. His ears were back and his tail flicked in clear annoyance.

“I am not a cat!”

/// Old Art Under the Cut ///

[lamelycool]

Annoy Me

Spock x Reader

A/n: this is my first fanfic so go easy on me. Just thought there needed to be more Spock fics out there! Also this isn't a specific version of Spock I just liked this gif. Also the reader is a wee bit bratty and of a southern persuasion just a warning.

Summary: You can't help but to love hitting on Spock. Much to his annoyance. Anyday now he'll airlock you. And if not him then space hr would surely. But he comes to realize he looks forward to your teasing and even encourages it. The only thing is that it takes you dying for him to realize :(

Warnings: fem reader, angst, fluff, flirting, character death?, blood, injury, drowning, throwing up.

"Whats up hot stuff, what do ya need?" You say laying your pad down with an easy going grin. After all you can't help but to smile, it is a pleasant surprise that is Spock standing in your doorway.

Spock quirks a brow up, "I am neither an item nor is my temperature high." Crossing the threashold he stops about five feet in front of you. Even that is too n close brings butterflies to your belly, jitters to your hands and makes your cheeks feel flush.

"Of course of course. Anyways what's up?" You respond quickly to distract from your flustered feelings.

"I am here to remind you of the away mission scheduled today." He says stoicly, hands pressed firmly behind his back.

"Away mission? Today? I don't remember being told about this..."

"You were messaged about this an hour and fifteen minutes ago." Spock furrows his brow slightly. Had you really been so careless as to not see the message? Or had you read it and forgotten. Spock isn't sure which is more irresponsible. He finds it odd for you to do so. You are normally very hardworking and punctual.

"Oh... I must have over looked it. Not that I'm complaining. I got an excuse to see you." Your eyes scan him from head to toe suggestive yet filled with jest. "After all your company is always more than welcome. Anyways could you summarize the mission for me? Since you're already here and all?"

"It is a standard mission. Simply a small away team to the surface of the planet to gather samples and scout the area."

"Nothings simple or standard when it comes to away missions on the Enterprise... Oh also, who all is on the away team? And more importantly will I have the pleasure of you accompanying?" Oddly enough finding yourself hoping he will be. When had your teases and jokes turned into genuine feelings? You can't help but to wonder...

"Yes I will be on the away team. There will also be two other science officers, three security officers, Dr. McCoy, and yourself. Does that satisfy all of your inquiries?" Spock states with the slightest hint of exasperation.

"Yes it does, thank you very much! You're a lifesaver." You beam at Spock.

"I fail to see how my summarizing of an away mission is saving lives." He dead pans.

He finds himself thinking, ' Why am I dragging this conversation out further? She obviously did not mean her statement in a literal sense. I'm only encouraging her teasing. I must meditate on this later.'

"I look forward to seeing you then." You say genuinely. The only statement you've said so far that wasn't paired with a joke, jest or tease.

Spock responds only with a curtious yet stiff nod. And with arms tucked behind his back he leaves. Leaving only the whoosh of the door behind him.

You breathe easy now that he's gone. Its not that he intimidates you. Well... At least not in a bad way. You just don't know how to behave around him. He makes you forget how to act. Around him you feel like a young dumb girl again.

'Snap out of it, we got a job to do!' You think with a sigh and check your messages. You must prepare for the impromptu away mission.

~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•

"How much longer are we going to be scanning this area?" You ask Spock. You guys had been walking around and scanning for hours now. And you were quickly losing patience. How many unique plants could possibly be on this ice chunk of a planet?

"As I said two times previously only a moment longer." Spock sighs out continuing to scan the evergreen plant in front of him. He had long given up on acting like your whining was anything but annoying.

"Pphff it's too cold! Please hurry up before I lose my limbs to frostbite." You plead to him while shivering.

"I assure you that you still have at least 2.34 hours until serious frostbite would be a concern. As well as the fact complaining will not change that you are cold." Spock barely spares you a glance as he continues moving from plant to plant and scanning some rocks.

"Mr. Spockk I know you are a hotty, but how are you not even the least bit cold right now? The temperature on this planet is ridiculous!" You whine arms crossed like a petulant child.

"I never said I was not cold. I simply have control of my body and can handle it. It is an issue of the mind over matter." Spock calmy states and stands brushing the snow off his pants.

"Now come on, let us begin to our rendezvous point." Spock orders you already walking ahead.

"Hey wait up! Not everybody has pretty long legs like you do you know!" You scurry to catch up to him and luckily he is kind enough to slow his gait for you.

"My legs are not long they are proportional to my body." He says ears flush a twinge of green.

After that comment a silence falls between you two. Only the sound of crunching snow and howling wind can be heard. Said wind is whats responsible for the low visability. You have to be careful to watch your step. Because it's nearly impossible to see much further than a couple feet ahead of you. 'This is going to be a long trek back,' you think with a sigh.

~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•~°~•°~•°~•°~•°~•°~

You finally reach the point where snow meets ice and sigh out a puff of air. Definitely not looking forward to crossing the frozen sea again. Just looking at it gives you the creeps. Despite the fact the ice is thick you can still see the murky black nothingness of the waters below. There's no telling what lurks beneath either.

You and Spock just began to cross when suddenly, "Hey wait Spock! Look out!" A massive beast akin to apolar bear with a set of knarly horns charges towards Spock. There's no time to grasp for your phaser. So you quickly push Spock out of the way. So that the beast collides with you instead. Once it makes contact it rams its horns deep into your abdomen and whips its head side to side painting the ice red with your blood.

Spock in a daze scrambles to pick up your phaser that had fallen. Fumbling with the settings he changes it from stun to kill. Not sparing a moment he locks on to the beast in a burning rage and pulls the trigger twice. The beams hit the beast and it collapses dead.

"Ensign? Ensign?!" Spock looks around frantically. A chill runs down his spine once he sees a hole in the ice. He rushes to the hole and hits his com badge.

Urgently he speaks, "Bones! There has been an accident. My partner has been hurt and is under the ice we will need immediate medical attention." Spock commands urgently.

"What!? Shes hurt? What do you mean under the ice? Whats going on Spock, what happened?! You green blooded hobgoblin expl-" Spock cuts off his com. He rips off his jacket and dives in the water hoping to find you before it is too late.

He swims down quickly and begins feeling around blindly for you. He searches frantically until his lungs begin to burn begging for air. Only then is when he finally latches on to an arm. Without a second to spare he drags you to the surface with him and heaves you guys back onto the ice.

"Ensign? Can you hear me? Stay with me!" Spock begs brushing your hair out from in front of your face. He lays his head against your chest to hear for a heartbeat. He listens closely for any sign of life. Spock begins to feel sick to his stomach when cannot find any and begins to panic.

"I implore you to please breathe. Please..." He begins cpr while his thoughts race. He cannot simply let you die like this. He cannot.

"Please do not do this. I do not give you permission to die. You should have never been so reckless as to do this! You are human and fragile. It was stupid! I could have taken the damage much easier-" he cuts himself off by giving you mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Not long after he started to try and breathe life into you do you jolt up and twist to the side to spew out dark water. The slightly acid water burns n hurts bout as much as it did when you first gulped it in.

Spock rubs your back through all of it while speaking to you. You can only make out bit and pieces of what he says. Mummurs of reassurance and comfort. And whether it's more for you or him is debatable.

When you are done gagging up water you cough out to him, "if you wwantedd tto kiss mme you coulve jus saidd so." Shivering violently you let out a breathless laugh you say, "II'd ddrown more offten if I knew II'd gget a kiss ffrom yyou. Mmakes it worthh iit."

Spock allows a small laugh of suprise to slip from his lips as he wraps you in his jacket. He begins to massage feeling back into your frozen hands. "No please refrain from doing such a reckless thing. I will kiss you as much as you wish without such an action." He begins to apply pressure to your wound with his unoccupied hand. You wouldn't die today and he'd still have to listen to your teasing and deal with your flirting. But he's grateful and he would have it no other way.

A/n: hope you enjoyed the fic! If you have any suggestions or criticism feel free to leave a comment. I'm very much a noob to fanfic writing especially on tumblr. Thanks for reading!

[escapedaudios]

One of the worst sci-fi tropes ever is when aliens contact humans they judge us, except their judgements don't feel alien in nature. Instead their judgements are usually the exact same things that real-life center left human political pundits say. Like the aliens dock and they'll say something whack like "Hm, such a primitive species, they pollute their environment and go to war with each other for oil". Oh wow, this definitely isn't the author projecting their rote standard political views onto this advanced super wise super intelligent space alien. It's so boring and hamfisted.

They are ALIENS. They should not give a FUCK about whatever you think is important as a human. Get WEIRD with it. If I'm going to be judged by an alien, I want them to judge us for some weird ass alien Sci-Fi reasons. I want them to feel alien, I want to see a creatively written perspective and not a carbon fucking copy of completely standard points of view that already exist on planet earth in huge numbers.

I'm all for using Sci-Fi to make allegorical points too, political or otherwise. But when the ultra-intelligent interstellar space alien is repeating human points verbatim, except more smugly and more judgemental I roll my eyes so hard. Like how is this species from another galaxy exactly ideologically alligned with the average George Bush-era American democrat. It's so weird.

[moomoog017]

prompts ᯓᡣ𐭩 space

"You’ve literally just put us in the middle of space."

"Trust me, I’ve been to a lot of planets."

"I’d rather be stranded on this planet then be here with you."

"You talk to the universe or something."

"So you thought the space aliens weren’t cool enough for you?"

"Isn’t it the cutest little alien you’ve ever seen? Can we keep it?"

"I would destroy the galaxy for you."

"Take control of the galaxy, with me."

"I’ve never seen a star so beautiful."

"All this time roaming the galaxy, I’ve finally found you."

"That spacesuit looks hot on you."

"My heart like an exploding star."

"This planet is ours."

"You can go to every galaxy but you will never catch me."

"Wherever we go, we go together."

"What do you think lives here?"

"I’d take my chances with [insert space beast]."

"I thought it was cute!" (Says screaming while being chased)

"This planet is deceiving."

"Do you ever think what it would be like, just the two of us in the galaxy?"

"Don't eat that."

"I cannot...it is against my people."

"What if we don't speak to beings that don't speak our language?"

"You take your planet for granted."

"Have you ever piloted a spaceship before?"

"It's really tight in this cockpit..."

"If you break my ship I'll kill you."

"Listen here alien!"

"Great we crashed."

"Please let me touch your armor!"

"What is it made out of?"

"Put your helmet back on."

"I've never met your species before."

"Don't breathe the air."

"Who owns this planet!"

"Step out of the ship and we won't have any problems."