#scifii

Classic, modern day religions have faded and some even merged into alternative beliefs. However, one core western religion from Earth still held strong within some colonies and flotillas. That religion preached of one god; God, who created everything and who’s son walked among humanity.

In humanities great expansion into the stars, a small group of explorers slept for centuries and woke to vastly different stars around them, in distant galaxies. They visited worlds with indescribably alien landscapes and fauna. And while many of these worlds could sustain life and allowed for humanity to flourish, no other sentient life was ever found on these distant worlds.

That is until the small group of explorers found a relic, an ancient structure both beautifully ornate and gigantically monolithic. Small carvings we’re edges into the structures core material - it told the story of the Old Testament of the bible. The garden, the apple… it was all here. It took these explorers tens of thousands of years to reach this place, but here it was, something so familiar to them.

They found an opening, large and brutalist in appearance, carvings showed primitive humans and even suggested that evolution was a part of a greater plan. Further still, the story of the son, the crucifixion and rebirth are told in detailed carvings and then continue into human advancement. Technology. Space flight. Expansion. Discovery. The final carving depicts these very explorers, stood before the very door where they are now. All of this was, all of humanity was predestined to walk this path. But now… no more carvings to tell the tale.

The explorers slowly push open the large slab like door blocking their path. Inside is utter darkness, a dark far deeper than that of space. No light has ever been here, no light will ever penetrate the walls. Dimly lit by their gear, the explorers venture in, the walls are now smooth, un-etched and simplistic. The divisions in the stone begin to stop, and walls turn into blank, repeating surfaces with no way to discern differences between the last section of wall and the next.

They walk for days, weeks, months and eventually the walls open out onto a gargantuan circular room. Small star like dots can be seen all over the room, helping gauge just how large it is. Hundreds of human cities could fit under its dome like roof. It would take decades to walk it’s circumference. But in front of them was something more startling and worrying than anything else they had ever seen.

Slumped over, twisted and long dead. A huge creature with human like features but very much not human. It’s scale was like nothing seen before. It’s finger tips would have been large enough for entire colonies to spring up on. But whatever this creature was died long long before these explorers could ever arrive. The body didn’t seem to be decaying but was clearly withered and old, beyond human comprehension. The explorers noticed two large holes that pierced the creatures gigantic human like hands. They studied the creature for a while and took as much evidence as they could.

It’s dark, elongated, bulbous eyes were cloudy. It’s skull was long and stretched. It’s body twisted around a pillar which it’s self seemed to grow out of it. Ribs seemed to protrude in different directions and create a fin like row of spikes along it’s back and up to its shoulders. It’s legs weren’t really legs at all, but long tendrils which split into hundreds of tentacle like appendages, all which drooped lifeless below it’s slumped torso.

The explorers chose to explorer some more of the immediate area before they left with their findings. Sculptures which looked like phases of human designs, some initially very similar to the large creature and some which looked like modern humans, were grouped together. There were thousands of them. All in different states of completion. Along side them other statues and sculptures, dinosaurs, birds, dogs, fish and other unrecognisable creatures… all made from the same material as the structure.

After a few more days, the explorers decided to take the long journey back. They were unsure how much time had passed but they knew their food and water wouldn’t last much longer.

After a while, they were back outside, the structure cast a shadow over them as the local star danced light around it from directly behind its geometric edges.

The explorers returned to their vessel but it was rusted and had aged massively. As if it had been left to rot for decades. They climbed aboard and all the systems were out of power. Doors had to be pried open. One of the explorers did tests on the metal to see if they could figure out how long had passed since they entered the structure. While others, tried to use their personal, almost depleted supply of energy to jump start the systems.

Nothing was working.

Tests were taking more time.

Soon there supplies began to run out.

Energy was siphoned and depleted.

They have what they could to the scientist among them. Until they were all that remained.

In their waning hours, the test was completed… and the reason it took so long to calculate the age of the ship now was clear… it had been over 2 millennia. The metal was held together at a molecular level by an unknown element which time had not yet broken down.

The last of the explorers sat, contemplating everything they had discovered, what it all meant… and how they would never be able to tell anyone about it. If anyone was still out there after all this time.

« Orange, really? Ugh… »

Such Sweet Sorrow, Star Trek: Discovery, 2.13

Do you like miniatures or Tabletop RPGs?

Pick your preferred RPG miniature! Greetings, fellow travelers! Our Kickstarter page for the novel Bound for the Styx now has over 90 followers, and I said I would offer a new miniature to join Igraine on your tabletop adventures if we reach 100! Quite frankly, I think it's incredible we managed to get this many!

Because we launch our KS on March 1, I want to make haste to get the process started. So, here is a poll in which you can vote on your preferred character design. Each will be an ally of Igraine in Bound for the Styx. Cast your votes in below!