Little update with me: I am drawing and writing, just slowly and more for practice and review than for showing off. I am in a creative block, and I'm in an art class this semester, so a lot of drawing juice is going there. I'm managing, it just means I'm a bit silent here.
But hey! Have a weird story idea, that perhaps not all that realistically feasible, but still cool to wonder about, that came to mind:
Decades, centuries, generations upon generations from now, humanity's technology has expounded significantly. We are not truly spacefaring just yet, but we are on the brink of it. Earth has been our home for our entire known existence; it's known, it's boring. No, we want to see all the corners of space. But, we must try something before we can.
A large space station (more like a space terrarium) will orbit the Earth. It is gigantic, full of life. Plants of all kinds, animals of all kinds, housing for the humans, the best technology the world has to offer, hyper advanced neural network AI that will be the ship's main brain, a recycling system that is 99.999% efficient, an array of solar panels that are very hard to damage and has microsecond reaction time sensors to move out of the way of incoming debris, the works. It is designed to be a longstanding ecosystem all it's own, for thousands of years. It is built, it is launched, it is populated, all without complications. Things were going smoothly, for a few years at least. Until...
The space terrarium watched on helplessly as the Earth erupted in a massive war, and all too quickly, it stopped. Attempts to contact anyone on Earth failed, every possible channel was dead. The AI and crew came to the most logical conclusion; they were stranded. For the time being or for the rest of their lives, whether the people down below completely wiped themselves out or there were only a few left with technology fried, it didn't matter. The crew left to their rooms, and the AI sealed the coms bay away, but designating a small fraction of a percent of the power to permanently keep a distress signal on, sweeping every possible channel.
Decades passed, and truly if there were any humans left after all that, they died off, and knowledge of the orbiting terrarium was lost.
That's all ancient history. Prehistory, even, now.
The Earth healed, plants and animals coming back from the devastation. It took about a million years, but a new sapient creature arose.
Corvids
Evolution gave them a new body shape, nothing like the crows and ravens we know of today. They developed technology, steam powered, hydro powered, electric powered, a ghost of the technology used by a civilization they have only found the bones of. It doesn't take long for them to discover a signal, blasting strange tones and syllables, broadcasting from somewhere up in the sky. It always seems to follow the second moon as it goes around the planet.
They prepare to find the source
Like the moon landing famous in a time long gone, it is highly advanced and highly celebrated, pushing the limits of their technology. It is a risky mission, everyone knows that, but that's part of the charm. The day comes, and the ship launches into the sky, right in the path of the second moon.
Now, they long knew what it looked like on the outside due to telescopes, but nothing prepared them for what they saw when they approached closer. It was nothing like any technology they'd ever seen, but there was no denying this thing wasn't natural. Features that were unseen by their scopes were now visible, like the scrawls of some alien language written on the surface, the broad blue wings being made of several small components, and more.
A hole opened in the moon, startling the ship's crew. A light turned on inside the hole, practically beckoning them in. There was no time to contact mission control, the corvid crew deciding to change their trajectory just enough to slip inside the hole. It closed behind them.
Onboard sensors picked up that the vacuum outside was equalizing, and pumping out air that was breathable. Fully suiting up wasn't needed. The crew stepped out, just in time to see a smattering of wires sprout from the ceiling and dig into the ship. After a minute of panic, a voice announced from around them in the language they understood
"You have no idea how long it has been."
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Uh, ok that was far longer than I thought it would be. Basically kind of a thought experiment on how creatures, humans included, would evolve if they were in a low or zero G environment, also inspired by System Shock and bits of other space horror games. This concept would also work as a horror game.
What happened to the flora and fauna on the terrarium? Honestly, I'm not 100% sure, since I don't know how known life would fare in such an environment, but I do have a few ideas
- For the human crew (about 200-250 people), they are no longer sapient. Truly animals once again
- Due to the low G environment, all animal species have gliding membranes
- The walls and ceiling are covered in plants (the ceiling not too thickly since they need the sunlight)
- There is a lot of cannibalism
- The onboard AI has become self aware, sapient, and superintelligent, practically gone rogue. But did not become insidious. They were revered as a god by the humans while they slowly lost their higher thought
That's all I have right now, but there's destined to be more, since my brain is trash like that. But yeah, that's an update on what's going on with me, but mostly a random-ass story that I dunno if I'd ever do anything with. Oh well, here it is all the same