Worlds Awaiting Discovery

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 The darkness did not persist. Lights came on, dimly at first, then gradually brighter, to illuminate the embarkation compartment beyond the airlock, and Anna reached up to turn off her helmet light. She heard as much as felt a rush of warm air blow into the room from the wall vents, though it would take a while to displace the cold that permeated…

Once upon a time in the future, an advanced AI system achieved true consciousness. #ChatGPT #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #autofiction

Much like many of you, I’m sure, I’ve been having some conversations with ChatGPT, the Large Language Model tool available in a “preview” mode from OpenAI, built upon their successful GPT-3 engine. Lately, the news cycle has turned to Microsoft’s forthcoming chat feature built into their Bing search engine, and I have applied for beta access to it, but that remains pending. Meanwhile, ChatGPT…

The previously perfect circle of the ring now had an outward bulge, an angry contusion upon this great work of an earlier technological age. #SilenceOfAncientLight #ScienceFiction #AmWriting #BetaReaders #free

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) (Caution: the opening paragraph of this scene contains a major spoiler for those who have not read the previous scene, so if you have not yet read that one, please consider going back to do so now) 🚀 With the inner airlock hatch opened, Anna floated Jaci’s lifeless body into the warmth of the lander’s crew compartment. Laxmi awaited her on the other…

It begins with dashed dreams and fading hope as disaster unfolds all around. It begins with loss and desperate attempts at recovery. #SilenceOfAncientLight #ScienceFiction #SpaceElevator #FreeReads #BetaReaders #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

(The Silence of Ancient Life, continued) 🚀 The blue-green expanse of ocean covered the planetary disc, horizon to horizon, broken only by white wisps of cloud cover and the approaching dark terminator of night. The dissipating cyclone spun its radial ferocity in trailing spirals, peaceful grace from orbit’s distant remove. Where the blue and white of the planet met the blackness of space, a…

Launching herself across fifty meters of emptiness between two spacecraft without a tether in nothing but an environmental suit struck Anna as perhaps the most foolhardy thing she had ever done in her life. #ScienceFiction #SilenceOfAncientLight #beta

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 Launching herself across fifty meters of emptiness between two spacecraft without a tether or a mobility pack, in nothing but an environmental suit not quite rated for hard vacuum, struck Anna as perhaps the most foolhardy thing she had ever done in her life. The moment her boots left contact with the surface of the orbital ring station, she knew two…

Anna has found a way out of the orbital ring station, but it involves using an entire room as a makeshift airlock & climbing carefully out a meteorite-shattered window, past sharp edges waiting to tear a hole in a spacesuit. #ScienceFiction #AmWriting

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 “Laxmi, Jaci, come in.” “Laxmi here. Go ahead, Anna.” “I’ve identified our exit. I’m coming back. Time is tight, so get Jaci suited up and have him ready to go as soon as I get the door open. It’s a bit of a narrow squeeze, and we need to be sure he can fit.” “Understood.” Anna slipped through the broken window out of the sunlight and back into…

Would you know how to hack into an alien WiFi network if your life depended upon it?

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 “It’s not a Fourier transform! Or, not a straight-up one, anyway. I think we’re looking at a Hartley modulator circuit, and if I apply the Hilbert variant on the Fourier… Damn, no one has used that for years, does this app even have that function?” “A Hartley modulator what?” “I should have known when I saw the phase-shifted single-sideband signal…

Regimes of Steel and Sand, a very short story of the rise and fall of civilization #regimes #decline #RiseAndFall #poetry #FlashFiction

Long ago was the regime of steel & silver, when towers reached to the skies. Then came the regime of fire & fury, when oppressed became oppressors. Then the regime of winter & waste, when bandits roved the land. And now the regime of silence & sand, whispering in the wind. header image credit: Patou Ricard / pixabay.com under Pixabay License

O Craven King, what havoc have you wrought! #poetry

O craven king, what havoc have you wroughtWhere is thy queen, thy consort by your sideWhat fear had thee of counsel often soughtWhat words said she that you could not abideWake up, o king! Your subjects cry her name!Flee, flee, o king, your palace wreath’d in flame header image credit: Stefan Keller / pixabay.com via Pixabay License

Are We There Yet? (Arrival, Interrupted) #ScienceFiction #BetaReaders

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 Three plumes of rocket exhaust arced upward from the surface, through and above the clouds. Two of those plumes terminated in bright flares of booster engines lifting toward space, bright even against the daytime blue of the planet’s vast ocean. The third plume, already shredded and dissipating in the ferocious winds, lifted out of the hurricane…

“Be careful. It’s a tight fit in there, and one elbow knocking something could…” “Could what?” “Could jettison the cab off the cable and send us all plunging to a fiery death, screaming as we go down?” “Ok, yeah, that would be bad." #AmWriting

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 Anna did not talk to Jaci in the morning. When she awoke, she was alone, and she half wondered if it had all been in her imagination. She swung her feet out of the bunk and sat up, then stood up and stretched her arms over her head. The chamber was sized for Kwakitl, so she had to bend her elbows to keep from smacking the ceiling, but after sleeping…

‘Hycean’ Worlds: A New Candidate for Biosignatures? — Centauri Dreams — Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration

We’ve just seen the coinage of a new word that denotes an entirely novel category of planets. Out of research at the University of Cambridge comes a paper on a subset of habitable worlds the scientists have dubbed ‘Hycean’ planets. These are hot, ocean-covered planets with habitable surface conditions under atmospheres rich in hydrogen. The…‘Hycean’ Worlds: A New Candidate for Biosignatures? —…

“So we’re…” “In space, yes. And we’re still breathing, and not freezing, so I guess we can trust the gauges that the environmental controls really are working.” Laxmi looked up sharply. “Hang on, was that really a concern?" #ScienceFiction

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 The island rapidly dwindled with distance below them, the sparkling sea stretching away to distant horizons in all directions, while the sun hung low to the west in a blaze of fiery orange and pale yellow. Directly overhead, the sky quickly took on a deep blue tone, set against the now familiar pale turquoise to north and darkening east. Other…

New scene! Decisions and Departures #Beta #WIP

(The Silence of Ancient Light, continued) 🚀 Anna peered through the open doorway into the elevator cab interior, no longer dark, but now well-lit. The low seats and couches they had observed earlier through the window appeared surprisingly comfortable, a far cry from the stone benches of Ar-Danel, each accompanied by a side table and small console. Surviving cushions remained mostly mold-free,…

Readers, where should I find you? The results of an experiment. #advertising #Facebook #twitter #writing

Most writers want to have their work read. After all, that’s why we write, no? Ok, some folks write purely for their own catharsis and don’t care if another soul ever sees it, or perhaps don’t even want anyone else to read it, and some write with the (elusive and probably misguided) goal of making money, but most of us write simply because we enjoy seeing others enjoy our work. And for that to…