Feb. 7th, 2014

juryextras: (Gateway)
[personal profile] juryextras
It did not make this choice lightly or easily. Would it work? Not the procedure itself; of that there was no question of malfunction. But the results ... it could not predict the results. Hence the need for the procedure. It could speculate, extrapolate, and to a certain extent it could guess, but it had its limits. Those limits were tightening, year by year.

Time was inexorably slipping away. It must not wait any longer. The request is submitted. The results are awaited.

Across the universe it knew, and others it did not, the summons goes out.
juryextras: (Grasslands)
[personal profile] juryextras
The sky is not quite the shade of blue a human would expect to see. The sun is just a little too orange to be Earth's sun. But most astonishing of all are the sights and smells that greet each unwary and unsuspecting visitor:

Grass. Patches of low soft turf, thick and plush under foot, dotted here and there with small wildflowers. Tall fountains of grass with heavy seed heads nodding in the breeze, wisps of potential offspring occasionally falling, twisting, drifting elsewhere. Wide-bladed, razor-edged grass rather like the yucca plants found in the American Southwest. Thick-stemmed grasses with regular segments from root to tip, and long narrow oval leaves, almost like bamboo. Grass that rustles with the passage of unseen creatures, close at hand or off in the distance.

The many species look almost familiar, almost Earthlike in their shapes and textures, but not always familiar in color. There is grass that is bright green, and yellow, and brown, but there are grasses growing in scarlet waves, undulating gently with the wind. There are grasses almost as blue as the sky overhead, or almost as orange as the sun. Grasses that begin with violet at the root and gradually shade to lavender at their tips. A riot of color and scent, and yet oddly unified, as if one is standing in a vegetative ocean.

This may be a prairie, but it is nothing like Kansas.

Profile

thebarbican: (Default)
The Barbican

October 2015

S M T W T F S
    123
45678 910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 10th, 2025 10:33 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios