Follow Up: Religion in Space

Hello Lovelies,

So, after some heated discussion with someone, I realized that I might need to add some clarification to my last post regarding religion in space. While I won't go into the finer details, the essence of the conversation went about like this...

"Why in the HELL are you talking about people's religions?! You have
 a writing blog! Stick to your stupid little stories and don't pick fights!"

While this is not the direct quote, this is definitely the gist of what started the conversation. With that said, allow me to clarify.

I run a writing blog. I live under the belief that any topic within human existence can be focused on in writing. How they are handled will naturally be up to the author and based on the author the approach can be well-done or it can be offensive. The existence of a subject should not be a reason to start a fight with someone.

The fact that Muslim individuals might face an odd circumstance based on a currently followed belief is not trying to pick on Muslims. The face that Christian individuals are currently the most commonly represented religions in most science fiction novels/books/movies is not trying to pick on Christians. Pointing out observations and considerations is not attempting to be bigotted. Only applying hateful thoughts to those works is.

With that said, allow me to answer the first part of the question, "Why?" Religion, at least within our current context, is a huge part of human culture. It exists. Whether you consider one, some, all, or none to be good or bad, it exists. And, as it exists, it very well may be a source of inspiration for some people in their writing. Personally, I haven't chosen to focus too heavily on the topic in my own writing because I haven't had a story come to heart that was inspired by the topic. But that doesn't mean if there's a potentially interesting idea I think it should simply be ignored.

In short, what I'm saying is to two fold. First, to the writers: don't censor yourself if you've got a story to tell and it might be a sensitive topic. People can and will find things to get angry about. Sometimes they're very justified. Sometimes they aren't.

Second, to those that were offended: I'm sorry you took it the wrong way. The act of addressing a concept, of talking about a thing that exists, is not hate. If I ever spoke in a demeaning or hateful fashion on this topic or any other, you're more than welcome to point it out. But the act of simply talking about a subject that some people aren't necessarily comfortable with, whether it's because you're for or against it, doesn't make that topic any less viable. Again, for the people in the back: acknowledging something's existence is not being hateful. So once more, I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye, but I don't believe in hiding from something like religion just because it's a touchy topic.

With that said, I'll get off my soap box. I'm hoping I didn't scare too many away, but I needed to say my peace. Whether it was meant that way or not, I don't take kindly to being bullied over what I originally thought of as a largely inoccuous and academically interesting concept.

I hope you have a pleasant day and will hopefully see you again soon.

Xenophobia - Chapter 22

    Darrian started to respond, but stopped.
    He looked from face to face, considering what had just been said. He had felt like something was odd about not being able to find any info on the Guillae; but the information had been altered? Even then, he had never thought about looking into the old judge.
    He simply didn't know what to say.
    After a moment of staring blankly at the other ambassadors, Illiquina decided to break the silence.
    "Let me ask, Darrian: what do you know about the old judge?"
    "Well..." he started softly, racking his memory. "I know he's supposed to be many hundreds of rotations old. He was created by the Merrenians at the conception of the Consortium to help deliberate, translate, and navigate the political situations that would arise from multiple species interacting."
    He thought for a moment before adding:
    "If I remember correctly, he was one of a dozen or something like that? There used to be a lot more but now he's the only only left over."
    Illiquina nodded in agreement.
    "Picture perfect to his archive entries."
    "Are you saying that's not the case?"
    "We don't actually know." A'alan't 32 stated.
    "All we know is that the information was removed." Illiquina added before glancing at A'alan't32. "We're hoping that the Bivvie might have record of something additional but..."
    "But it's not likely that the old judge was heavily documented. At his conception, he was little more than a worker drone for the Consortium and likely didn't garner attention." A'alant 32 finished.
    "So, in short, we have no idea what dirty secrets that thing has." Ferris growled in annoyance.
    Darrian considering asking about the Guillae when the question occurred to him that he should have asked right away.
    "How do you know any of this?"
    "Well. I mean it makes sense if you think about." A'alan't 32 said. "Why would the Bivvie care about a random robot drone? Particularly when-"
    "No." Darrian said, cutting her off. "I mean how do you know there was some kind of alteration?"
    Everything they were saying felt right. Felt correct in lieu of this nagging feeling that something was wrong. But he couldn't let himself fall prey to wild speculation.
    The other ambassadors glanced back and forth between each other before Illiquina responded.
    "It's in the code." she said simply with almost a confused tone.
    "Code?" Darrian asked perplexed. "What code?"
    Darrian stared at Illiquina, perplexed. She wore a similar look of confusion, as if she didn't understand the question.
    "She means the code for the archives." Ferris offered.
    "I...don't know what that means." Darrian stuttered.
    "Come here." Illiquina said, motioning him closer to him.
    Darrian stepped closer and only then realized that Illiquina was holding a small, strange-looking datapad in one hand. It was notably slimmer than his own work pad and it seemed to be rimmed with small tabs and nobs along the outside edge that could be manipulated.
    Illiquina tapped the screen and brought up an image that she offered up to him.
    The image didn't make any sense to him. It appeared to be nothing more than a random assortment of letters, numbers, and symbols. Here and there he saw things that might vaguely represent words, but all together it proved little more than gibberish.
    "I don't know what this is, Illiquina." he stated with unabashed honesty.
    "You and me both." Ferris offered.
    "Aren't you Merrenians supposed to be experts in robotics?" Illiquina said with a huff. "How is it you don't know coding?"
    "The smart Merrenians make it easy for us dumb ones." Ferris said with a smile.
    "What he said." Darrian said, pointing at Ferris.
    Illiquina let out a soft growl of annoyance before pointing to the a certainly clump of letters and numbers.
    "Here." she said. "Do you know what that means?"
    Darrian offered a little shrug of confusion.
    "THAT!" she said with a sharp tap. "Is the file having to do with the Guillae."
    "Okay..."
    Illiquina huffed again but decided to try a change in tactics.
    "When did the old judge say the Consortium encountered the Guillae?" she asked.
    "Couple hundred rotations ago?" he offered while looking to Ferris and A'alan't 32, who both nodded in agreement.
    "Couple hundred." Illiquina confirmed before pointing to another blotch of numbers and letters. "Than why would all of the data have been removed and then edited twenty rotations ago?"
    Darrian stared at the stream of logic on the screen blankly. He tried to make sense of what she'd said. What he was seeing.
    "It says that?" he finally asked.
    "Yea." she said with a nod. "The data for the Guillae was actually very bloated. Huge in size. All of the sudden, about twenty years ago, it was all deleted and reduced to a fraction of a percent of the original information."
    Darrian considered that for a moment, not sure what to say.
    "Something similar happened with the old judge." she continued, moving further down the stream of information and pointing to another batch of code. "Here."
    "It was edited twenty rotations ago?"
    "Not for the judge. His information changed about forty six rotations ago. Just like the Guillae, his file was outright deleted and then edited to a notably smaller portion of info."
    "Maybe it's some kind of coincidence?" Darrian asked. "And maybe some kind of data loss or something forced them to rebuild the archives?"
    "If that were the case," Illiquina said with an annoyed tone in her voice. "Than I wouldn't have record of it in code."
    "Whatever happened or why," she continued. "Someone actively changed the information on the Guillae and the old judge. Removed information. And I wouldn't doubt that they changed it to meet some hidden agenda."
    "But...why?" Darrian asked, his head swimming.
    "That's what I hope we'll find out." Illiquina said softly before glancing at A'alan't 32.

===

Next Chapter
Previous Chapter 
Start at the Beginning

===

Xenophobia - Chapter 7

    “Mars?” Darrian asked.

    “Right. We believe it was named after one of the fictional characters that the humans have killed each other over.” responded Cherryl.

    “So what’s its actual name, then?”  inquired Cagool, the Yool ambassador.

    There were a few sidelong glances and a look of distaste from some of the politicians. It was rarely considered acceptable to simply dismiss another race’s opinion during open discussion. Even something as simple as a name for a planet deserved respect. Unless there was a population on “Mars” currently, the human name should have sufficed for it. To simply dismiss it was to act as though the species wasn’t sentient and didn’t deserve consideration.

    Apparently, this convention was lost on Cagool. Whether he didn’t care or didn’t realize it, he seemed to ignore the uncomfortable silence.

    “Well. The planet’s p-previous name was Muspel II.” Stammered Cherryl, obviously nervous and trying to maintain respect towards the humans naming conventions. “It was one of two planets in the system that the Guillae had populated.”

    “Had?” emphasized Ferris.

    Cherryl nodded in response. “Correct. The Guillae used up the majority of the natural materials on the planet and vacated once the atmosphere began to dissolve.”

   “Back up.” said Darrian. “Who are these Guillae? I’ve never heard of them. For that matter, if AV32- sorry. Earth. If Earth is part of this Muspel system, then why didn’t we know about it previously?”

    “The Guillae are a species of floramorphic hybrids. They have a tendency of wandering galaxies and sending a large spore filled with their ‘colonists’ to any planet they deem useful.” The old judge rattled off.

    “Floramorphic?” asked Darrian.

    “Plant people.” whispered Ferris.

    “Once they land, the Guillae tend to be both a blessing and a curse. Their cities and technologies are all biologically based. No mechanics of any kind to speak of. Because of this, every part of their society tends to blend with the given planet and give birth to a host of new life. The planets tend to flourish for a few rotations, at which time the noxious gasses that the Guillae naturally give off have done their damage. The atmosphere tends to burn off and the Guillae take off for other planets elsewhere.”

    “That sounds horrible.” said Illiquina with a shudder.

    The old judge nodded his agreement.

    “Many people in the scientific community tend to have mixed emotions about the Guillae. On the one hand, their very presence on a planet can do fantastic things. They promote untold numbers of species to come to fruition during their time on a planet. However, because of their genetic makeup, the Guillae tend to do permanent damage to any world that hosts them. Mars is just such an example.”

    "A telltale sign that the Guillae have been there is the landscape tends to take on a reddish hue of rust. It has something to do with the gasses the put off."

    “So what was Mars like?” asked A’alan’t 32, the rather quiet Bivvie representative.

    Darrian couldn’t help but smile as he realized that both A’alan’t 32 and the old judge were outright ignoring Cagool’s rudeness earlier by using "Mars" as the planet's name. On top of that, the Yool definitely was taking notice as he was sitting there looking rather annoyed.

    “Actually, Earth and Mars weren’t unlike each other in overall design.” stated the old judge.

    The holographic imager in the middle of the table gave birth to a spherical planet that was indeed very similar to the planet the humans occupied. It was covered in giant splotches of greens and blue with speckled browns and reds here and there.

    “Is that water?” asked Darrian in surprise as he stared at the image.

    “Yes, it is.” responded the judge. “Much like many species in the galaxies, a plentiful water source is what drives the Guillae to populate new worlds.”

    “It’s quite pretty.” Observed Ugul.

    “I must agree.” said the old judge. “At least until the Guillae showed up.”

    To Darrian’s surprise, he watched the image before him morph and change. He watched as a sudden green spot appeared in one of the planet’s oceans. Perhaps the spore the judge spoke of? It began to boil and spread green through the waters until it reached land. There, rich emeralds seemed to entangle and overtake the verdant hues that had already been present.

    “As you can see, the introduction of a Guillae spore can have truly amazing effects…”

    As they continued to watch, the entire planet soon completely turned a rich emerald green. All of the browns, reds, and blues seemed to fade away. For a moment, the planet simply rotated there like a spherical green gem. Then, without warning, speckles of dusty red appeared and spread with frightening speed. Within seconds, the entire planet was the heavy red of rusted iron.

    “…as well as devastating.” finished the old judge.

    “These observations were taken over the course of seven rotations and occurred thirty two rotations ago.” added Cherryl.

    “That’s all well and good, but I have to agree with Darrian.” said Juag-e with obvious tension. “Why the hell haven’t I heard of this species before now?”

    “The Guillae are a nomadic race.” stated the old judge. “They come to a planet, use it up, and leave it a rotted, rusted husk of what it once was. While the species is sentient, they don’t seem to operate with the same drives or capacities of other civilizations.”

    “Frankly. They’re too alien.” he said with a hint of disgust.

    Darrian felt a tinge of surprise. It was rare to call any species alien. In a galaxy filled with so many different types of life, singling one out as an “other” was bizarre.

    “As such,” continued the old judge, “The Consortium made agreements with the Guillae some fifty rotations back that they would not bother each other. The Guillae can continue to wander out further and further away from us and none of our planets are at risk from their colonization. In exchange, the Guillae can do as they will without Consortium interference.”

   There was a long moment of eerie silence. Darrian couldn’t help but feel nervous thinking about these Guillae. While the humans were erratic and warlike, monsters by many descriptions, they were still frighteningly young with the potential for growth. They still had time to grow into something better. This other species,however, was so different and almost accidentally dangerous that the Consortium did not bring them into the fold but rather insisted they not even engage within their sphere of control.

    He couldn’t decide which was more unsettling.

   “While I'm sure we all appreciate the monster story,” said Ferris. “I think we have gotten a little off topic.”

    “R-right.” Cherryl said with another little nod.

    “What are we going to do about humans attempting to reach Mars?” asked the judge.

===

Next Chapter
Previous Chapter
Start at the Beginning

===

Two Sentence Horror Story - 10.20.15 - "No Strings on Me"

"My uncle is the best Ventriloquist I've ever seen. Half the time
the puppet seems like it can walk and talk on its own without
him even being in the same room...or awake..."

Two Sentence Horror Story - 10.09.15

I was awoken by the sound of someone knocking

on my window, asking to be let in. It was only as I

started to get up that I remembered I lived on

the 13th floor and didn't have a fire escape outside.

Photo Source: 

28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition)