I stare at Dandelion. “Reaching another exoplanet is the entire plan.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t actually solve anyone’s problems, does it? The Hylarans want to avoid having their settlement overwhelmed by a refugee population five times the size of their own, but don’t want to kill ...
2024-05-18 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt takes about two weeks for Captain Klees to find an algae pancake recipe that’s halfway tolerable, and by then the first hydroponic root vegetables are almost ready. By order of our dear captain, we ground crew are barred from eating the root vegetables beyond a sort of good faith first taste...
2024-05-14 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe dandelions have started to bloom. Specks of yellow dot the patches of green spread across the largely dead sands on the slopes just out of sight of the colony, and it’s well past time to take samples to see how the seeded microbial communities in their roots are doing. Hwaseonge Hnmang<...
2024-05-11 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day is full of preparation. The first thing we do is set up a meeting between our ground crew, a handful of Hylarans (Hive, Celti, Elenna, Max and Dr Kim, chosen for their existing proximity to us and expertise in relevant fields), and the shipboard crew via radio.
“So the plan, ...
2024-05-07 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostWe tell Max that we have something important to talk about and there will be a big decision for the colony to make, and a setmeet is arranged for that very night. I know they’re expecting some sort of retaliatory demand for either the kill switch thing or for the forced medical treatment and I ...
2024-05-04 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostI expect Max to show up sooner or later to try to figure out what we’re so upset about and start doing social damage control before we can relay our complaints to the ship and make a much larger diplomatic incident, so I explain as quickly as I can. I barely finish explaining the basic premise ...
2024-04-30 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“What did you do?!” I ask the doctor, collapsed on the floor and struggling for breath. But he can’t talk right now, so I look instead to Max, who takes another step back.
“The doctors just provided healthcare,” they say. “You and the captain were reasonable, but your companions...
2024-04-27 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostTellyn Delphin looked up from the documents in front of her to survey her son. The fourth of her children and sitting there with that faux-apologetic look on his face, shoulders hunched, hands balled into fists like a toddler. In the privacy of her own head she wondered, not for the first time, w...
2024-04-24 08:35:29 +0000 UTC View PostWe head back to our own living dome, dodging random Hylarans who want to talk about what just happened with the ship. That’ll still be fresh news tomorrow. Once alone, I explain calmly, neutrally, everything that has happened since I collapsed talking to Hive.
It’s been a while since I...
2024-04-23 23:24:55 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Klees and Tal turn immediately to face the direction of the radio tower, way on the other side of the colony. I don’t waste time with questions. Sharing two breathing masks, the three of us make our way as quickly as possible towards the tower.
“Courageous to Hylar...
2024-04-20 23:56:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe chip in my hand isn’t mine, obviously. Mine is still in my own arm. Tal or Captain Klees would’ve had to load the code onto one of theirs and then cut it out. I wonder how secret this whole operation needed to be – did they have a doctor up there that they could trust to help, or did on...
2024-04-16 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostHey guys.
Can’t believe I missed soap making. If I’m not out in time to see a Hylaran cuddle their first tiny animal, I’m killing someone. You guys had better be taking video footage of all of this. Also, has anyone gotten those embroiderers some wool yet? Do we have wool...
2024-04-13 23:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostI have a pen. I have the synthetic paper that the colony uses. I sit down to draft a reply.
It needs to reassure the crew outside that I’m fine, and it needs to not contain anything that Dr Kim would flag as something that’ll get her in trouble. It won’t be delivered, otherwise. But I...
2024-04-09 23:30:14 +0000 UTC View PostHey there, Aspen. How’re you doing?
Dr Kim says you’re too weak for visitors right now. She won’t let us send you a voice message either, says that you’re fighting the infection hard and getting to agitated could be a problem, but I finally managed to convince her to de...
2024-04-06 23:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostWe do the scan. Dr Kim doesn’t pretend it’s about anything except my brain this time. I go back to my room. I eat a resentful breakfast.
Would I have gone along with this if Dr Kim had been honest about her research project from the start? No, probably not. I’ve been too many people...
2024-04-02 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Honestly,” Dr Kim says, “I have very little frame of reference for what you do and don’t know, so it’s hard to know where to start.”
“Start with the eye. What does it do?”
“It’s a bionic eye. It helps you to see.”
“Don’t fuck around with me.”
...
2024-03-30 23:29:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Hi, Aspen,” Dr Kim says. “I’d like to do another scan of your spine today.”
“Why? We all know the infection has basically cleared up, right? What’s the point of scanning it again?”
“It’s always best to be certain.”
“What’s the point of this quarantine?...
2024-03-26 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Ask Me Anythings will be discontinued, and votes on the next TTOU bonus are moving down from Craftsperson level to Apprentice level starting next month. I am open to suggestions for a new Craftsperson bonus.
2024-03-26 03:41:47 +0000 UTC View Post“What do you think about the Courageous finally coming here, Aspen?” the AI asks.
I shrug, not bothering to sit up in bed. “It brought me. It’s better to be here than in space.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.” It doesn’t elaborate. I don’t think the AI has much unders...
2024-03-23 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Mama, how many people currently live on Hylara?”
“397 people.”
I relax. 392 Hylarans plus my crew; that’s the expected answer. “Why is the colony being supplied for 464 Hylarans?” That’s a reasonable thing to do, to provide excess in case of emergency, it just doesn...
2024-03-19 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAll but the topmost level of the hospital was underwater, and the Friend was more worried for the structural integrity of the lower levels than the rain. Most of the building had already been evacuated by the swiftest, most silent boats and planes that the Silversky Collective could sneak past th...
2024-03-17 01:10:46 +0000 UTC View PostTinera, Tal, the Friend, and Captain Klees gather outside the door, peering at me anxiously. I give them a little wave. “How is everyone?”
“How are you?” Captain Klees asks.
“Feverish. Not dying, I’m pretty sure. This isn’t causing any major impediments, is it?”
...
2024-03-16 23:28:13 +0000 UTC View PostI wake up in darkness.
I’m sore, warm, and on a bed; not the stretched canvas of the Hylaran beds, but on a thin mattress on a solid surface. My muscles don’t want to move, but I force myself to feel my arms for ports and find a single drip line going into my right arm and a pulse monit...
2024-03-12 23:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s not a nice reminder of home.
I’d seen my fair share of storms. Arboreans had all sorts of responses to all sorts of different storms. Your high velocity winds with little to no ocean movement or pressure change? Get in a building, or as close to the roots as you can; if you’re in...
2024-03-09 23:24:30 +0000 UTC View PostIf we played two truths, and a lie what would be your two truths, and one lie?
I can free dive over two hundred metres down.
I have a scar on my thigh from when I tried to ‘wrestle an octopus’ as a child. (It came up in our net.)
I was the best aluminium ori...
2024-03-09 09:16:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe light from the robot eye is even more distracting the next morning. I drag myself out of bed and stumble into the main living area, where Tal is already at the computer.
“Did you sleep?” I ask, fumbling around for breakfast.
“Yep! But now I’m doing this. How’s your eye?...
2024-03-05 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Klees goes in to consult more about his foot replacement the next day and reports that the replacement is growing well. I go in to talk to Dr Kim about my eye. She’s very excited about me getting feedback from the eye, and gives me a set of visual exercises to ‘train’ it. “You sho...
2024-03-02 23:29:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe four of us storm up the hill, Tinera in the lead. The Hylarans picking through the scene are mostly strangers, but we recognise Elenna and Celti; Elenna inspecting a piece of wreckage, expression neutral, and Celti standing with arms folded, grim, eyes flicking from person to person. His eyes...
2024-02-27 23:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post