Plant: Nepenthes ampullaria (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) For far too many species in the universe, a cessation of hostilities usually entails the construction of monuments both to the fallen and to the victors, occasionally to the losers if revisionist history is a concept to the creators. Only on the world Solace, one of the hardest-hit of the locations for the famed Morph War, does…
Tag: Backstories and Fragments
Backstories: "Verdigris" (2021)
Plant: Nepenthes “Rebecca Soper” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Contrary to popular opinion, the Nogha energy conduits are not the only known examples of attempts to tap or shunt energy between our universe and others. In the Yannazzo system (287663/Blue/NNYTXSW), recent exploration of the fourth rocky world of that system uncovered an otherwise completely unencountered example of an energy conduit, with energy leakage leading to…
Backstories: "Miss Tempest" (2021)
Plant: Cephalotus follicularis “Elizabeth” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) In tribute to Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Miss Tempest wasn’t the only inhabitant of the little corner garden in that little corner house, but she was definitely the longest. Miss Carolyn, the owner of that little corner house, knew that the little alcove in the back between the side door and the garage wouldn’t work as a…
Backstories: "Memewar" (2021)
Plant: Heliamphora x minor (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Do you remember? Do you? Do you really remember what happened, or are you remembering what IT wants you to remember? No, I’m not being difficult. It’s just that when IT isn’t on, it’s still hard to tell the difference. Memory’s like that. It’s already so easy to make false memories all on your own, but…
Backstories: "Nift" (2021)
Plant: Nepenthes x hookeriana (rafflesiana x ampullaria) (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Approximately 30 million Earth years ago, a vast civilization known today as the Catesby Hegemony dominated a significant portion of what is now called The Broken Galaxy, an irregular galaxy orbiting the edges of Andromeda. Getting its name because stellar movements within the cluster could not be explained by standard celestial mechanics, analysis…
Backstories: "Magma" (2021)
Plant: Nepenthes ventricosa x hamata (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Strictly speaking, the classic definition of a Dyson sphere is “an artificial shell intended to capture all energy emitted by a star,” and of the known artificial worlds in our galaxy, most are intended just to capture energy. By the time a civilization becomes advanced enough that a Dyson sphere becomes a necessity, it is…
Backstories: "Agak" (2021)
Plant: Cephalotus follicularis “Elizabeth” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) “Okay, it’s like this. Someone is knocking. “No, I don’t mean ‘standing on the other side and knocking. Well, maybe, but that depends upon how you define ‘the other side.’ “Okay, backtrack. We know it’s a mechanism of some sort. We’ve known that for years. The radio signals coming off it were how we picked it…
Backstories: "Gagak" (2021)
Plant: Cephalotus follicularis “Elizabeth” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Nilwii Janss iw-Raan wasn’t a particularly dedicated student, but she knew rocks. Her hatchclub, his collective, and the greater alliance that protected the hatchclub and collective from scavenger onslaughts lay at the foot of some of the greatest mountains of her world, not that she or anybody else she knew had any idea of other mountains…
Backstories: "Timeanchor" (2021)
Plant: Cephalotus follicularis “Elizabeth” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Everyone entering knew they had one chance. The testing was sound: the world’s first time corridor was live, with timeanchors on either side of the chronal abyss keeping the fantastically complex mathematical construct complete and taut. The plan that day was to send the first scientific equipment through, in order to check atmosphere, photoperiod, gravity, and…
Backstories: "The Lungs of Hell" (2021)
Plant: Nepenthes bicalcarata (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Throughout most of known reality, evil is an abstract. It has no weight, no mass, no volume, and cannot be measured on a quantitative basis. One can feel overwhelming evil, but no scale exists in our realm to weigh it. The atmosphere of the moon is crushing by comparison. This is true for our realm, but evil…