Comet
Created | Updated Feb 8, 2004
Comet.
I lay on the settee and thought about the unfairness of it all. 140 million years my species had been here, in one form or another. Now we were only 30 years from rescue and I wasn't going to make it. I'd be bloody dead and buried on this god awful planet forever.
That was one wild day when we landed on this place. Everything had gone ape, to use a local expression. Our transport wasn't big by any means, only about three hundred metres around, but we were at maximum speed. Halfway through a slingshot past this pathetic little star we'd suddenly spied this little ball of rock in the way. The pilot swerved but it was just like hitting a concrete bollard on the roundabout We weren't using any fuel drives at the time. The chances of encountering satellites around a star are about a billion to one. Especially a tiny little star like this one. The impact was shattering. Only a few of us survived. My direct ancestor was in a sleeping pod when it happened. It was a piece of luck because the pods were designed to eject automatically in an emergency. The designers knew there would be no chance of waking up and getting to a lifeboat if the worst happened.
I may be grumpy now, draped out on this scruffy settee for most of my time. Nothing to do, nowhere to go unless someone takes me, but I’ll bet I’m nothing like as evil as my predecessor was at that wake up call!
The ship was through the atmosphere in seconds but hadn’t lost much speed before it hit water. That was vapourised. Then it hit rock and that must have vapourised the ship because no-one has any collective memory from the ship after that.
We do remember the hole it left. Three hundred miles across and half a mile deep. It’s in the corner of what’s called the Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatan Peninsular. I suppose the rescue flight will have to go over there and dig it all out to recover the bodies and equipment
I won’t be there. It can’t have been so bad for the ones born a million years ago. They couldn’t even have foreseen the rescue, let alone have felt so close to it.
I blame the idiots who chose the parameters for our physical existence on Earth.
The whole place was populated by damn great lizards. You can’t eat lizards, they taste awful. Our arrival didn’t do them any good . When the ship hit it must have been near a fault line. we assumed that the atmosphere was clear before we came along , but when the dust settled, though that’s rather a silly statement because it didn’t settle for years, the air was so thick with debris and sulphur. The committee decided that we should be genetically changed to live underground for some of the time to allow us to filter the air a little. They also decided that we should be small furry meat eaters so that our energy levels would remain high enough to combat the cold which seemed to have settled over the land. We could eat what was left of the lizards for a while, but that wasn’t going to be a long term option judging by the rate that they were dying. The committee thought that the only thing left to eat after a few years would be small warm blooded creatures so we had to get it just right. Too small and they would eat us, too big and we wouldn’t find enough food to keep us going. When all the arguments were over the consensus was that we’d pitched our parameters just about right. We should end up as the dominant species just as we had been on our home planet.
The biggest problem was the brain. There was no way we could have it big enough to hold all the information that we had accumulated over the millennia. The only solution to this was to set it up like a computer and split the species into branches. Each branch would hold a section of the collective memory in perpetuity. My lot got the early years so I know all about the arrival but nothing at all about the 140 million years from then until I was born. Some one in that time has a lot to answer for!
It gives me a bit of a laugh whenever the telly is on about why the dinosaurs died out. We killed them! I can’t tell anyone that of course. Its not just the communication problem. Even if I could explain it I would not be believed.
I suppose they’ll all be home in a minute. I’m stuck here on this settee all day whilst they are out there swanning about. Even when I do get some fresh air I get dragged back in again because they cannot be bothered to stay with me. I’ll give some stick when that door opens. I won’t be treated this way for ever. I may have missed the boat to get back home but I can certainly make life pretty miserable for them as well.
Of course, the biggest problem we’ve had is keeping in touch with the rest of the species.
When we were ejected in the sleeping pods they were all guided in to the life support system which had landed in what is now Mexico. There were about two hundred of us including the sixteen elders who had been asleep when we crashed. Its a shame they weren't holding an all night party! We had to be re-engineered to fit the new genetic profile within the first few weeks. As they had decided on a body mass of two point five kilos to start with we had a lot of material left over. The committee of the elders decided to use some of it to create a holder for another brain. Something a little bigger than the one we could have with our reduced size. They had to get it done pretty quickly before the power source ran out. It would be a long time before we could recreate the technology of our forbears. In fact, we still haven't done it to this day. The elders have noone to blame for that but themselves.
It was agreed to put the brain holder at the other side of the world so that we would not have to compete for food or living space. All the technology that we would not be able to use for the first few years was transferred to the brain holder. It was all locked into the subconscious area of their brains so that it would not get tangled up and rendered useless by the time we needed it again. It should be possible to resurrect the information from its genetic material as long as it managed to survive for long enough to reproduce in sufficient numbers to make finding a specimen a little easier. I wonder what happened to them. We had no further contact in the first nine years of our existence and that is as far as my retained memory reaches.
After the life support pod was sent off with the brain holders we settled in to our new existence. We had a few teething troubles. Our original reproductive system of genetic copying couldn’t work without the technology to support it so a system of fluid transfer and internal incubation was devised. It was essential to make this an absolute imperative in order to ensure the survival of the species so it was written into the genetic material of the next generation so that there was no chance of the species forgetting to reproduce. It appeared that the lizards already had a similar system so we copied the basics of that cutting out the bit where they dropped the egg on the ground and walked off hoping for the best. No wonder the stupid things died out.
After about a year all our remaining life support functions had run out and we were on our own. That is the problem with storing everything in genetic code. Without the ship there was no way of renewing the sources.
There were a few more upsets. It was found that we could not all be the breeding containers so we decided to split again into two subspecies. One would hold the next generation and the other would keep the genetic instructions. This worked fairly well and allowed us to set up a defense system utilizing the gene carriers as they were not so weighed down by their responsibilities.
Those first nine years went well. The atmosphere of the planet began to clear and the temperature went up a few degrees so we thought it best to live above the ground. We had speed and were quite savage. Our defense system worked well and there were not many creatures around that could give us any trouble. It seemed that the committee had been right, we were on the road to becoming totally dominant.
We ought to have been a little sorrier for the poor old lizards. They never recovered after the crash had so devastated their world. A few of the smaller ones survived by going underground. This made them fair game for us during the hard times. It was easy enough to catch one, but a lot harder to eat it. The warm blooded furry things, a bit like mice, were the best food. Lots of energy in a small package. It sure beats the tinned stuff!
No sign of anyone coming home yet. I had to laugh when I saw the program about the comet collision in 2028. My lot thought I was choking and made all the right sympathetic noises. Of course, I couldn’t say anything!
A comet! Will it hit the Earth? Yes baby, it certainly will, but it ain’t no comet!
As soon as I saw it my genetic memory fired up and it was as plain as day that this was our people at long last. Lets hope they slow down this time. It was only a few days later that I realised what ‘2028’ meant to me. I would be dead. To get this close was the most vicious irony of all. Even five generations ago I would never have known anything about it. I ‘d have spent my time lounging around in blissful oblivion thinking I was happy.
They’re still not home. I’ll make them suffer when I see them.
I don’t know how the rescuers are going to find everyone. We have become scattered throughout the entire modern world. We will need all the parts to reassemble the whole. Our entire history on this planet is divided into micro bytes of information spread throughout the species. I don’t hold the record of what happened after our first years so when I came back into the system a few years ago I was stunned to find that we now numbered in the millions. We only get to meet on special occasions. It seems that the English group is especially isolated from the species, but I’m assured by the others that all the memory groups are still in existence. We still haven't recaptured the technology, but that was expected to take a long time. The important thing was the survival of the links so that when it became possible we could reassemble a species profile and all be united as one race again.
It must be nearly six o’clock. I’m really hungry. I’ll do for them when they come in!
I think that being dependent on others is the worst part of it all. We only get to meet when they take us. Its absolutely necessary for us to get together to renew the generations. Our genes need to be transferred because contained within the spiral is our memory. We use a sexual transfer, which I must say, isn’t that unpleasant, but all we really need is a fluid exchange to move the DNA across the race.
That’s their car now. It’ll take them about two minutes to get it into the garage then they’ll be in. No mercy this time!
“Come on in Matty, I’ll get the kettle on,” she turned to her friend as she opened the door,”Don’t worry about your shoes, I only take mine off as a habit!”
Matty came in.
“Oh what a cute little...........bloody hell , he bit my ankle!”
“Oh God, sorry Mat . I forgot about the Chihuahua. The little sod never used....Get off!.....to be like this. Get off Rocky! I think he’s getting old and crabby.”
“He’s drawn blood..... look......there’s a tooth mark in my leg!”
“Oh I’m so sorry Mat. Stand still, I’ll catch him and put him in the porch. Come here you bad...bad dog. Rocky......behave!”
Put me in the porch if you like. I got you though. You won’t be quite so casual about leaving me here all day tomorrow. Dominant species. Ha! You won’t be so dominant when my comet comes!
end.
I lay on the settee and thought about the unfairness of it all. 140 million years my species had been here, in one form or another. Now we were only 30 years from rescue and I wasn't going to make it. I'd be bloody dead and buried on this god awful planet forever.
That was one wild day when we landed on this place. Everything had gone ape, to use a local expression. Our transport wasn't big by any means, only about three hundred metres around, but we were at maximum speed. Halfway through a slingshot past this pathetic little star we'd suddenly spied this little ball of rock in the way. The pilot swerved but it was just like hitting a concrete bollard on the roundabout We weren't using any fuel drives at the time. The chances of encountering satellites around a star are about a billion to one. Especially a tiny little star like this one. The impact was shattering. Only a few of us survived. My direct ancestor was in a sleeping pod when it happened. It was a piece of luck because the pods were designed to eject automatically in an emergency. The designers knew there would be no chance of waking up and getting to a lifeboat if the worst happened.
I may be grumpy now, draped out on this scruffy settee for most of my time. Nothing to do, nowhere to go unless someone takes me, but I’ll bet I’m nothing like as evil as my predecessor was at that wake up call!
The ship was through the atmosphere in seconds but hadn’t lost much speed before it hit water. That was vapourised. Then it hit rock and that must have vapourised the ship because no-one has any collective memory from the ship after that.
We do remember the hole it left. Three hundred miles across and half a mile deep. It’s in the corner of what’s called the Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatan Peninsular. I suppose the rescue flight will have to go over there and dig it all out to recover the bodies and equipment
I won’t be there. It can’t have been so bad for the ones born a million years ago. They couldn’t even have foreseen the rescue, let alone have felt so close to it.
I blame the idiots who chose the parameters for our physical existence on Earth.
The whole place was populated by damn great lizards. You can’t eat lizards, they taste awful. Our arrival didn’t do them any good . When the ship hit it must have been near a fault line. we assumed that the atmosphere was clear before we came along , but when the dust settled, though that’s rather a silly statement because it didn’t settle for years, the air was so thick with debris and sulphur. The committee decided that we should be genetically changed to live underground for some of the time to allow us to filter the air a little. They also decided that we should be small furry meat eaters so that our energy levels would remain high enough to combat the cold which seemed to have settled over the land. We could eat what was left of the lizards for a while, but that wasn’t going to be a long term option judging by the rate that they were dying. The committee thought that the only thing left to eat after a few years would be small warm blooded creatures so we had to get it just right. Too small and they would eat us, too big and we wouldn’t find enough food to keep us going. When all the arguments were over the consensus was that we’d pitched our parameters just about right. We should end up as the dominant species just as we had been on our home planet.
The biggest problem was the brain. There was no way we could have it big enough to hold all the information that we had accumulated over the millennia. The only solution to this was to set it up like a computer and split the species into branches. Each branch would hold a section of the collective memory in perpetuity. My lot got the early years so I know all about the arrival but nothing at all about the 140 million years from then until I was born. Some one in that time has a lot to answer for!
It gives me a bit of a laugh whenever the telly is on about why the dinosaurs died out. We killed them! I can’t tell anyone that of course. Its not just the communication problem. Even if I could explain it I would not be believed.
I suppose they’ll all be home in a minute. I’m stuck here on this settee all day whilst they are out there swanning about. Even when I do get some fresh air I get dragged back in again because they cannot be bothered to stay with me. I’ll give some stick when that door opens. I won’t be treated this way for ever. I may have missed the boat to get back home but I can certainly make life pretty miserable for them as well.
Of course, the biggest problem we’ve had is keeping in touch with the rest of the species.
When we were ejected in the sleeping pods they were all guided in to the life support system which had landed in what is now Mexico. There were about two hundred of us including the sixteen elders who had been asleep when we crashed. Its a shame they weren't holding an all night party! We had to be re-engineered to fit the new genetic profile within the first few weeks. As they had decided on a body mass of two point five kilos to start with we had a lot of material left over. The committee of the elders decided to use some of it to create a holder for another brain. Something a little bigger than the one we could have with our reduced size. They had to get it done pretty quickly before the power source ran out. It would be a long time before we could recreate the technology of our forbears. In fact, we still haven't done it to this day. The elders have noone to blame for that but themselves.
It was agreed to put the brain holder at the other side of the world so that we would not have to compete for food or living space. All the technology that we would not be able to use for the first few years was transferred to the brain holder. It was all locked into the subconscious area of their brains so that it would not get tangled up and rendered useless by the time we needed it again. It should be possible to resurrect the information from its genetic material as long as it managed to survive for long enough to reproduce in sufficient numbers to make finding a specimen a little easier. I wonder what happened to them. We had no further contact in the first nine years of our existence and that is as far as my retained memory reaches.
After the life support pod was sent off with the brain holders we settled in to our new existence. We had a few teething troubles. Our original reproductive system of genetic copying couldn’t work without the technology to support it so a system of fluid transfer and internal incubation was devised. It was essential to make this an absolute imperative in order to ensure the survival of the species so it was written into the genetic material of the next generation so that there was no chance of the species forgetting to reproduce. It appeared that the lizards already had a similar system so we copied the basics of that cutting out the bit where they dropped the egg on the ground and walked off hoping for the best. No wonder the stupid things died out.
After about a year all our remaining life support functions had run out and we were on our own. That is the problem with storing everything in genetic code. Without the ship there was no way of renewing the sources.
There were a few more upsets. It was found that we could not all be the breeding containers so we decided to split again into two subspecies. One would hold the next generation and the other would keep the genetic instructions. This worked fairly well and allowed us to set up a defense system utilizing the gene carriers as they were not so weighed down by their responsibilities.
Those first nine years went well. The atmosphere of the planet began to clear and the temperature went up a few degrees so we thought it best to live above the ground. We had speed and were quite savage. Our defense system worked well and there were not many creatures around that could give us any trouble. It seemed that the committee had been right, we were on the road to becoming totally dominant.
We ought to have been a little sorrier for the poor old lizards. They never recovered after the crash had so devastated their world. A few of the smaller ones survived by going underground. This made them fair game for us during the hard times. It was easy enough to catch one, but a lot harder to eat it. The warm blooded furry things, a bit like mice, were the best food. Lots of energy in a small package. It sure beats the tinned stuff!
No sign of anyone coming home yet. I had to laugh when I saw the program about the comet collision in 2028. My lot thought I was choking and made all the right sympathetic noises. Of course, I couldn’t say anything!
A comet! Will it hit the Earth? Yes baby, it certainly will, but it ain’t no comet!
As soon as I saw it my genetic memory fired up and it was as plain as day that this was our people at long last. Lets hope they slow down this time. It was only a few days later that I realised what ‘2028’ meant to me. I would be dead. To get this close was the most vicious irony of all. Even five generations ago I would never have known anything about it. I ‘d have spent my time lounging around in blissful oblivion thinking I was happy.
They’re still not home. I’ll make them suffer when I see them.
I don’t know how the rescuers are going to find everyone. We have become scattered throughout the entire modern world. We will need all the parts to reassemble the whole. Our entire history on this planet is divided into micro bytes of information spread throughout the species. I don’t hold the record of what happened after our first years so when I came back into the system a few years ago I was stunned to find that we now numbered in the millions. We only get to meet on special occasions. It seems that the English group is especially isolated from the species, but I’m assured by the others that all the memory groups are still in existence. We still haven't recaptured the technology, but that was expected to take a long time. The important thing was the survival of the links so that when it became possible we could reassemble a species profile and all be united as one race again.
It must be nearly six o’clock. I’m really hungry. I’ll do for them when they come in!
I think that being dependent on others is the worst part of it all. We only get to meet when they take us. Its absolutely necessary for us to get together to renew the generations. Our genes need to be transferred because contained within the spiral is our memory. We use a sexual transfer, which I must say, isn’t that unpleasant, but all we really need is a fluid exchange to move the DNA across the race.
That’s their car now. It’ll take them about two minutes to get it into the garage then they’ll be in. No mercy this time!
“Come on in Matty, I’ll get the kettle on,” she turned to her friend as she opened the door,”Don’t worry about your shoes, I only take mine off as a habit!”
Matty came in.
“Oh what a cute little...........bloody hell , he bit my ankle!”
“Oh God, sorry Mat . I forgot about the Chihuahua. The little sod never used....Get off!.....to be like this. Get off Rocky! I think he’s getting old and crabby.”
“He’s drawn blood..... look......there’s a tooth mark in my leg!”
“Oh I’m so sorry Mat. Stand still, I’ll catch him and put him in the porch. Come here you bad...bad dog. Rocky......behave!”
Put me in the porch if you like. I got you though. You won’t be quite so casual about leaving me here all day tomorrow. Dominant species. Ha! You won’t be so dominant when my comet comes!
end.
