#theterrorscififest2023

[nopickls]

Under the water, it is a different world. The ice is floating now above him. It glows like an overcast sky, but the light loses its strength and thickens into darkness within a few fathoms. Below him, it is black as outer space.

Script for The Terror, S01E01 + Archival footage from Apollo 11 (2019) for @terrorscififest

[thembys]

"What was it like?" "Like a dream, sir."

A painting for @terrorscififest, shown two different ways up as I couldn't decide which looked better. Medium: oil on canvas.

[kelly6ridge]

fitzier in a ghost in a shell-ish au, where James is presenting like a cyborg, (human brain in a robot shell) but in actuallity is a full a.i., and his mechanic that he wishes he could tell is Francis, one of the last unmodified humans out there.

(this is *not* a commentary on our current ai woes, i just love ghost in a shell)

@terrorscififest

[kingcameacallin]

Of course. I shouldn’t have expected anything from someone like you. Do you even feel anything at all when you k i l l someone ?

@terrorscififest prompt: horrible for supper

[laissezferre]

You must be Captain Crozier, it says. Francis makes no reply, merely stares at it dumbly like a cross-eyed fish.

I am very pleased to meet you, Captain Crozier. My name is J. More precisely, I am identified as unit J773, but you may label me whatever you like.

Happy The Terror Sci Fi Fest! This bad boy's got everything! Robot (1)! Angst! Dubious Consent! Hope you like it!

[terrorscififest]

Are you ready, terrors?!! In case you missed it, here are the details of the event. We've got one month to go. Happy creating!

[trans-snart]

and for my entry of the Terror Sci Fi Fest, I bring you the first entry of my Voyager AU! 🖖

[jamesjamesonfitzjames]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Terror (TV 2018) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Henry T. D. Le Vesconte/Edward Little Characters: Henry T. D. Le Vesconte, Edward Little (1811-c.1848), Harry D. S. Goodsir, Thomas Jopson, Stephen S. Stanley, Alexander McDonald (1817-c.1848) (mentioned), James Fitzjames (1813-c.1848) (mentioned), Francis Crozier (Mentioned) Additional Tags: speculative biology, Alien Flora & Fauna, Oral Sex, Ned Little learns how to relax and have fun, and it only takes an alien plant and the desperation of starving to get there Summary:

The lichen was confirmed by Harry Duncan Spens Goodsir to be a perfectly ordinary lichen, by all appearances he could perceive and tests he was capable of performing.

...Unbeknownst to Goodsir, this was no ordinary lichen.

Written for Terror Sci-Fi Fest 2023!

@terrorscififest

[tigerballoons]

I had the idea way too late for this year, but maybe one day I'll get round to writing up my Terror space au.

In the mean time, please enjoy the epilogue 😉

[ohelpthekraken]

Title: You May as Well Fire at the Moon

Summary: Post “First Shot’s A Winner.” The fact that the skitterbots hadn’t worked on the creature concerned Lt. Little.

Warnings: Blanky's amputation is non-graphically described, and Edward has suicidal thoughts (but does not act on them) towards the end.

500 words.

Lieutenant Little watched the ship’s boy walking around the deck picking up the deactivated skitterbots. The BN-NX-82 rifles [1] the Marines had used fired a swarm of nanobots that, upon contact with a living target, would skitter around devouring it and use the biomass to self-replicate. They were also dangerous to anyone who touched the poor sod being eaten, hence the use of inorganic medics [2] in situations where skitterbots may be present. Depending on their programming, they would devour each other or deactivate from lack of fuel when the target was gone. He had watched several shots hit the creature’s haunches and seen the skitterbots deploy, and the start of the swarm. But the altered magnetic field that surrounded the beast [3] had disabled them before it could be meaningfully injured. The ship, on the other hand, had been injured.

The creature—the Tuunbaq, he reminded himself—had ripped open part of Terror’s hull like tissue paper causing the compartment to depressurize. Mr. Honey had only just struggled into his enviro suit and begun patching up the hole, sparks flying, and Hickey was redoing the sealing on the hatch he had broken earlier. In Little’s memory the sound of rending metal merged with Blanky’s pained screaming. Over the comms. when the leg of his suit had been breached and Blanky’s leg was sacrificed to the stars, and again in Medbay when MacDonald had cut the remains off. Little imagined what the doctors were currently doing: snipping, pruning, sealing, doing whatever reconstruction they could now that the replication technologies onboard were starting to fail.  And now, Crozier’s pistol was burning a hole in his coat pocket.

Back in the solitude of Edward’s cramped cabin he pulled the pistol out and turned it over in his hands. Examined its construction. Toyed with the safety. Pointed it at the small shaving mirror, making eye contact with the darkness of the bore. Crozier’s pistol wasn’t an NX model, meaning it didn’t fire skitterbots and therefore would not grant him the complete disintegration he wanted and secretly thought he deserved.

Edward thought about the Navy firing two ships of men out into unknown reaches of space and wondered if they were no better than the skitterbots—programmable, mass produced, devouring everything in their path before dropping dead. Edward hoped this sad little expedition would drop dead before they started eating each other.

Well Captain, Little bitterly thought, putting the pistol into a drawer. All our clocks are running out. But I have a duty to the men, so I will prolong my time as much as possible.

Author's Notes:

Thank you for reading a scientific writer's first attempt at creative writing in about a decade! While this was fun to write I struggled a bit, so I may or may not just post a list of ideas of how things work or events might happen in this little AU. Regardless, please feel free to talk to me about it!

The title is a quote from British Army Col. George Hanger about the accuracy of the ‘Brown Bess’ sea rifle (1814).

[1] British Navy NanoExtruder mk. 82. [4]

[2]  Stanley and Goodsir are the inorganic medics on this expedition.

[3] In this AU I picture the Tuunbaq to be the simulacrum of a neutron star’s soul. Not exactly sentient, but able to be directed to an extent. It can manifest in a typically physical sense, but the men perceive it to be surrounded by radiation and strong magnetic and gravitational fields that royally fuck up their equipment. Signal interference.

[4] Lead is the 82nd element ;)

[kelly6ridge]

James Fitzjames in the ALIEN Ridley Scott robot suit

@terrorscififest

[kingcameacallin]

how do you sleep at night ? // songs you listen to at one am sitting in your thorton waiting for that next gig to finally roll in. 

@terrorscififest prompt: we are gone // link to the playlist

tracklist: 1. alberic - the dead pirates // 2. pale horse - turbowolf // 3. hard times - the cold stares // 4. over & over - reignwolf // 5. abandoned - aligns // 6. revolver - kid kapichi // 7. .beenherebefore. - dead poet society // 8. chippin’ in - samurai // 9. gasoline - måneskin

[kingcameacallin]

I think you’re forgetting I was at Arasaka. I saw how corps operate – wasn't all roses and rainbows. When Stanley needed a foe removed he ordered it without a thought to m e r c y.

@terrorscififest prompt: a mercy

[terrorscififest]

Happy ides of March and happy two months until The Terror Sci Fi Fest! Have you chosen a prompt? But you don't have to really. Make whatever you like!

[terrorscififest]

Get ready for the most galactic event of the year!

Rules | Collection | Ask

[kingcameacallin]

He can't count on his clan anymore, but he's a true nomad. He knows those lands. And he will help you. Won't have a c h o i c e.

@terrorscififest prompt: the ladder