Day 5: Spaces Still Undone (original fiction)
LJ Idol Topic 3: Coprolite
Title and cut from Golden Skans by Klaxons
805 words
Mike loved his sister, he really did, but sometimes she infuriated him.
His mother had always laughed at how she didn’t know any two people who were so close and yet such opposites. In fact the only things they had in common, was their birthday and their looks.
Mike had always wanted to fly. He was always reaching for higher, wanted to go up, above, beyond. He’s always watched the stars, and the moment he found out he could actually touch them, he knew what he wanted to spend his life doing. Mike was an astro-pilot.
Kim, on the other hand, was a digger. She wanted to go down, deeper, below. She wanted to know the history of the world, but the history of Earth has been found, recorded and saved. So she went one or a million steps further. She searches for the history of other worlds. Kim was an astro-archaeologist.
They’d gone separate ways after moving out of their home, but they kept in touch as much as they could, and met up whenever they were both on Earth. So when Kim had told him about a desolate planet in a neighbouring galaxy, he couldn’t see a reason to say no.
He researched the planet as well as he could, it was so small that not much was known about it. The atmosphere was mostly clear and definitely breathable, and the terrain was mostly flat; perfect conditions to land and stay for a while.
They geared up together, and fought the entire time about what they need and what they don’t.
“It doesn’t even weigh all that much!” Kim had said waving the tiny hammer in front of him.
“You have six more just like it!” he’d replied.
“They all have different heads, idiot,” she’d yelled back, “maybe if you had a brain in yours you’d know what I was talking about!”
“Fine! But if we can’t take off I'm throwing that thing and all the others into a black hole!”
They did manage to take off, and the ride was mostly smooth sailing, right until it came to landing. They have been on this god forsaken rock for sixteen days now and he still can’t figure out why they crashed.
Most of the ship was fine, so all of their bits and pieces were still intact, but the landing gear had taken a hit, and something in the air was blocking their distress signal.
They’d fought about this too.
“If you hadn’t brought us here, we wouldn't even be in this mess!”
“Well, if you had landed right, we could have been home by now!”
Mike would spend his days trying to repair what he could, while Kim went and did her research. The planet was devoid of any intelligent life, but there were fruiting plants they could eat, and, along with what resources they had, they could survive for a while longer still.
They spent their nights looking at the stars, constellations they knew but now at a different angle.
“I’m sorry that we're stuck here,” she told him that night, “I didn’t mean for us to crash, I should have realised something was wrong with the planet when it had so little research done on it.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, “there was nothing to say it was dangerous.”
“I found something today,” she said.
He turned to look at her. “Really? I guess it wasn’t such a waste after all?”
She grinned, and held up what looked like a small bowl made of rock. “Signs of early civilisation,” she said, “it’s made of a mixture of mud, dung and plants, I guess to give it a-“
“Wait, wait,” he said, “say that again?”
“A mixture of mud, dung and plants?” she said.
“Dung?” he said in disbelief, “as in shit?”
“It was very common in a lot of early civilisations, even on Earth-“
“You're telling me we came out all this way, crashed my ship, for a bowl made of shit?”
She bit her lip and frowned. “It proves there was more than just humanoids here, it shows they were developing, and once I get this back to a lab we could determine what their diet was like, how long this has been here-“
Mike started to laugh, softly at first but ended up loud and echoing in the darkness. He clutched his side and fell backwards. Kim stopped talking and frowned at her brother.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“If you were anyone else, I swear, I would have killed you by now,” he said, rubbing at the tears in his eyes, “dragged me all the way out here for a bowl made of shit.”
“Lucky you love me though, right?” she said, grinning.
“To the end of the universe and back,” he said, grinning back.
Title and cut from Golden Skans by Klaxons
805 words
Mike loved his sister, he really did, but sometimes she infuriated him.
His mother had always laughed at how she didn’t know any two people who were so close and yet such opposites. In fact the only things they had in common, was their birthday and their looks.
Mike had always wanted to fly. He was always reaching for higher, wanted to go up, above, beyond. He’s always watched the stars, and the moment he found out he could actually touch them, he knew what he wanted to spend his life doing. Mike was an astro-pilot.
Kim, on the other hand, was a digger. She wanted to go down, deeper, below. She wanted to know the history of the world, but the history of Earth has been found, recorded and saved. So she went one or a million steps further. She searches for the history of other worlds. Kim was an astro-archaeologist.
They’d gone separate ways after moving out of their home, but they kept in touch as much as they could, and met up whenever they were both on Earth. So when Kim had told him about a desolate planet in a neighbouring galaxy, he couldn’t see a reason to say no.
He researched the planet as well as he could, it was so small that not much was known about it. The atmosphere was mostly clear and definitely breathable, and the terrain was mostly flat; perfect conditions to land and stay for a while.
They geared up together, and fought the entire time about what they need and what they don’t.
“It doesn’t even weigh all that much!” Kim had said waving the tiny hammer in front of him.
“You have six more just like it!” he’d replied.
“They all have different heads, idiot,” she’d yelled back, “maybe if you had a brain in yours you’d know what I was talking about!”
“Fine! But if we can’t take off I'm throwing that thing and all the others into a black hole!”
They did manage to take off, and the ride was mostly smooth sailing, right until it came to landing. They have been on this god forsaken rock for sixteen days now and he still can’t figure out why they crashed.
Most of the ship was fine, so all of their bits and pieces were still intact, but the landing gear had taken a hit, and something in the air was blocking their distress signal.
They’d fought about this too.
“If you hadn’t brought us here, we wouldn't even be in this mess!”
“Well, if you had landed right, we could have been home by now!”
Mike would spend his days trying to repair what he could, while Kim went and did her research. The planet was devoid of any intelligent life, but there were fruiting plants they could eat, and, along with what resources they had, they could survive for a while longer still.
They spent their nights looking at the stars, constellations they knew but now at a different angle.
“I’m sorry that we're stuck here,” she told him that night, “I didn’t mean for us to crash, I should have realised something was wrong with the planet when it had so little research done on it.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, “there was nothing to say it was dangerous.”
“I found something today,” she said.
He turned to look at her. “Really? I guess it wasn’t such a waste after all?”
She grinned, and held up what looked like a small bowl made of rock. “Signs of early civilisation,” she said, “it’s made of a mixture of mud, dung and plants, I guess to give it a-“
“Wait, wait,” he said, “say that again?”
“A mixture of mud, dung and plants?” she said.
“Dung?” he said in disbelief, “as in shit?”
“It was very common in a lot of early civilisations, even on Earth-“
“You're telling me we came out all this way, crashed my ship, for a bowl made of shit?”
She bit her lip and frowned. “It proves there was more than just humanoids here, it shows they were developing, and once I get this back to a lab we could determine what their diet was like, how long this has been here-“
Mike started to laugh, softly at first but ended up loud and echoing in the darkness. He clutched his side and fell backwards. Kim stopped talking and frowned at her brother.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“If you were anyone else, I swear, I would have killed you by now,” he said, rubbing at the tears in his eyes, “dragged me all the way out here for a bowl made of shit.”
“Lucky you love me though, right?” she said, grinning.
“To the end of the universe and back,” he said, grinning back.