This post is for my friends who have seen my paintings on Facebook and have wondered what they are supposed to be. This is an excerpt of a story outline for something -- I'm thinking comic book series -- that is essentially going to be a space opera set in our own solar system.
Below is a monologue from one of the main characters, a Plutonian named Lahf. He has just rescued two Venusian troodons -- Ma'lak and her younger brother, The'rhn -- from a slave colony on Mars, and is now explaining to them how their people got to be on Venus. It's a pretty good introduction to the thing I'm trying to build.
Many epochs ago, when
our sun was much hotter, your ancestors lived on Earth. These Troodons were the
smartest species of a creature known now to Earth's current inhabitants as
dinosaurs. Your people are far more ancient and storied than you could imagine.
Your legends, your mythology, most of it is true. I should know. I lived it.
By the time of the
Great Meteor, Troodons were in the process of dominating Earth. They had
discovered agriculture and were settling into villages. They had developed a
written language and a means to print it. Combustible steam power was at their
fingertips. And rocket propulsion wasn't far away.
But then the meteor
hit. Vast populations of all dinosaurs, including many Troodon nations, were
destroyed in the initial impact; the radiation and nuclear winter that followed
claimed nearly all life on Earth.
Extinction doesn't
happen all at once, though, and a few pockets of Troodon civilization remained.
The total population may have numbered in the hundreds at that point, but the
tenacious creatures were searching for a way to struggle on, despite the
encroaching darkness and severe lack of food.
Mellik was a young shaman
and princess of the largest Troodon village left standing, Myr'Ahir'rr. She
knew the future of her kind, if there was any to be had, lay beyond Earth's
atmosphere. She knew about the experiments in rocket propulsion that took place
just after the meteor hit -- nearly a century earlier, at that point -- maybe
140 Venusian days or so. There must be a way, and she had to find it.
And this is where I
come into the story. My people have long watched over the Solar System from our
vantage points in the Kuiper Belt and at Pluto-Charon, and I had taken a
particular interest in the noble Troodon people of Earth. While most of my kind
felt the Titanians, inhabiting Titan and the Saturn moon system, were the
future of our system, I had faith that the Troodons had an important role to
play as well.
The first time I
appeared directly to Mellick, she gave me this scar behind my right antenna. I
was young then, only a few million epochs old; I had no concept of how the
sight of a big blue monster with no mouth would be taken by a Troodon. But I
was quickly able to learn her language, which truth be told is not much
different from your own today. In fact, evolution does not seem to have touched
you creatures. You are a bit taller than she was, though.
It took many
Earth-days, but I was finally able to earn the young one's trust. Mellik was nearly
two-thirds of the way to getting off Earth -- she had rocket technology, which
was surprisingly good given the circumstances. She knew how to make the ship
with the materials at hand --wood and tar were the primary ingredients, with
the tar effectively making the entire device airtight. She just didn't know how
to create a breathable atmosphere on board the ship.
She knew she had to
get as many of her people off Earth as possible, but she also knew that she
probably only had one shot at this. She had designed a ship, big enough for 100
Troodons. With size came a time issue though; this giant bus would take nearly
a year to get to where she intended to go -- Venus.
Back then, Venus was a
lot like Earth, with perhaps less diversity of animal life. Mellik only knew
that the planet was closest to Earth; I, fortunately, knew she had made the
right choice. Mind you, Venus was never supposed to be a permanent solution.
Mellik (and I) thought her people would be coming back.
Under my guidance,
Mellik was able to create a rudimentary atmosphere system for the cabin. Before
you take me for some unfeeling Wvurm, the thought did cross my mind to use Plutonian
ships to safely whisk the Troodons away. But even then, when I held a position
of power, I could not sway the Plutonian government to my side.
In all, only 94
Troodons were willing to take the flight. Most had no faith in Mellik's plan;
many wanted to stone her to death. The plan was simple: Mellik was to fly the
ship; I would follow in the Trilobite (Mellik's name for my ship; I kind of
liked it). The best I could do was help them along, but after a month I was
called away to urgent business in the Jupiter moon system, and Mellik was left
on her own.
Of the 94 on board,
only 40 actually set foot on Venus. Thankfully, Mellik was one of them. She had
grown to be special to me, and the thought of her death was unbearable. She
felt the same way, but we were unsure of what to do, for obvious reasons. She
and I would go on to have many more adventures together, but that story is for
another time.
As for how you two
wound up here, talking to me: A natural disaster may have destroyed your Earth,
but your people destroyed Venus. The troodontids' unfettered pollution
destroyed the atmosphere and forced them into the sky. The name of Mellik's
city should have been familiar to you: The city in the sky was named Myrr'harr, in honor of what is now
myth to your people.
That was over 1,000
Earth-years ago. And if your people do not find a way off Venus, they will
surely perish. But you know this much; it's why you were sent to the Red
Planet. Your people are weary of Earth, and for good reason. But Earth, and its
primary inhabitants, the humans, are going to provide on of the battlegrounds -- and the
army -- for the biggest war this Solar System has ever seen.
