Icicles cling permanently to the outside of the dome. In a room 75,000
feet high in the Central Government complex, they all sat dyed deepest purple
by the sun, with every garment tinged by the ink stain Witch in the sky, Violet
hair and skin, mirrors for eyes, she was stirring her cup of crap dreaming like
all of us do of other things, as people talk without really listening to
themselves, if ever some quisling benefited, drowning in a sea of paper, of
meaningless data.
They did pay her to pass on this slush to the public at large, to give
them hard evidence that they are somehow participating in the decision making
process she knew well that by telling people about what was happening they
found themselves quite regularly under the illusion that by the basis of having
an opinion on a matter that they had some sort of right, and if gathered
together could somehow influence this process.
She knew their lies, propaganda and manipulation. This propaganda they
fed the people so they would not know the true extent of their powerlessness. In
high places they sniggered and whispered the tax-profits must flow, to pay for
us. And to the people they throw scraps of things to ask if they are doing
well.
She would not curse them as corruptible rather non-corruptible in that
the malice of their spirit was pure self-interest and this could not be
diminished. She knows that they must always strive to control us, and to herd
us into the ballet box to sign your name next to theirs’
. She was a consumerist, she only wanted things that made her happy, If
this information is somehow some sort of threat to her what She likes, what she
consumes, what she objectifies, she does not care about that knowledge. This
only presents her with a better opportunity in allowing those who undoubtedly
possess some ability to acknowledge her needs and her desires.
Fans whir, and she watches the events unfold, words and numbers, favours
and gifts granted the great and good that plot the lives of us unaware,
oblivious almost to, unaffected in the extreme, by any who happens to be
watching them, finding themselves almost
surprised that they are being played attention too. Still darker matters, are
by course not discussed here, only the plain facts of day to day and what is
true and fair of course, and then we all shout fore, and hurrah.
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“We are swimming in a sea of gaseous”
The third segment of the fifth division in the council of the third
trade federation was meeting at 90,000 feet, to discuss the coming quotas and
deals, and alongside them the Quasar. Religious Scientists, who study Physics
and the Universal Oblivion to bring them closer to the true essence
On several previously inhospitable planets attempts had been made to
begin the process of terra-forming a planet. The process was in its preliminary
phases, but they need Oxygen and materials. This was good news for the trade
federation as it meant more shipping tariffs. On several planets in the Dargo
cluster small domes had been built and working population of five hundred to a
thousand attempted to begin a desperate process.
The science has not been tested but the planets are going to be seeded
with a Nitrogen atmosphere then oxygen is going to be added this will hopefully
create the conditions for these planets to accumulate heat and be able to
support running water. We still have soil samples preserved from the Old earth.
The process is designed to take nine hundred years. The costs are enormous.
There are many who think that this is a ‘white elephant’ that resources,
especially oxygen should be preserved.
It was always item one on the agenda, new ice deposits. Our reserves are
diminished, and depleted. There are no new deposits within a one year journey flight
time they sometimes talked of building a machine and sailing in some random
direction in the hope of finding a new rock to cling to. They talked of
expeditions, but what with the cost in oxygen and the length of time any signal
sent could be detected and in what time zone that signal would be detected,
they decided against this as nothing other than a last resort.
New schemes were also being developed to suck the gas out of gas giants
in order to transform their gases somehow into oxygen; more likely fuel for our
escape ships
He made a mental note to mention
this to the appropriate concerns. Yes we can send out probes but what with a
five hundred errors per journey per average can we ever trust what the sensors
say. Yes we know that the Scientists have results from sensors saying they have
found water, but in what time zone, and as the result of which fault? Is it a
smudge on your oscilloscope again?
We have a thousand years to discuss these things, if the population
remains constant, and dome diffusion rates on Experimental Material Jiao- 536b
continue to be maintained.
‘I will certainly be dead by then, and what if material wealth does not
trouble me to implant myself to some uncomfortable ship on a ruin to nowhere
when I can join in the worldly comforts of my high rank in society. Live in
comfort now, death will come soon enough’
In tumbling meetings like these, he tried to suppress a yawn, blinking
at some indifferent interest. All he really needed to get by was to keep
looking at the screen. A spokesman for the Inevitability of Finite organisation
was arriving at the only conclusion which could be reached, that life on the
asteroids was not sustainable. They were arguing for continuing the vital
distribution of resources to the research and development of the planetary
colonisation board. Several planets had been found………..
He had heard this before and he never quite believed it. He knew that
they had almost five thousand years worth of present and future supplies of
Ice. The money should be used to find more advanced propulsion technology. This
was a large asteroid belt; surely there was more ice to be found. He felt sure
that the process of terra-forming even part of a planet was far too complex and
likely to bring about the demise of their ever fragile existence on the
asteroids.
He can see orange flares reflected far away from an arc in the curvature
of the dome as near distant ships charge their engines. They slowly become
visible as they move to dock; they slip into the meagre atmosphere of
Cassandra’. Still the mind tended to wander to distant windows as the chatter
droned on…….
The mercantile corporations freighters had arrived gigantic translucent
rectangles, hovering beyond the tip of the dome, huge banners hung from their
sides, twelve suns and five Gas Giants. A gesture of the grandiose and
grotesque designed to impress and awe the ignorant. The Seventeen houses of
Sand supplied the huddled masses using greenhouses and menageries; orbiting farms,
algae silos from the underground farms on Alamosa, and variety of fish from the
Sundry of Quokkas.
The quality of the produce could never match any expectations of quality
or taste, the food was cheated of its true flavour by excessively cloying radiation,
they were the houses of Sand, for most had lost interest in food, and preferred
to tune into the spheres.
He was tuning out; he was not listening to what the other man was
saying, he was perfectly sure it was fairly similar in tone to what he had
said. Undoubtedly the women after him would say something almost similar and we
would go on until it was his turn to say something similar again.
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The Quasar were needed here, some lived in awe. On these marooned
Asteroids they had found ice and made their dwellings on rock and persisted for
long century’s dark as the night and universe. Perhaps we had evolved into some
new life form that floated rather than walked and choked in the meagre light,
and huddled together at the schism of draughts and pale sunless skin. They remembered
and celebrated a bitter exodus of millennia, from where memory fades further
still to memories of earth, the blue sky and the one yellow sun- Where the deep
oceans swelled.
They were worried about something. They had left 38,000 cubit hours ago.
It was a scramble, firing transparent pods into space; such damned unreliable
behaviour was to be expected from the Quasar. What pervaded these people for who
sense and reason was not the highest form? He understood rational consumers of religious
social goods, and had a great belief in the true purpose and sense of the
Quasar as a spiritual aside to the cause and effect of everyday life, a cathartic
for the deep depression that lay upon these people.
Since then he had heard nothing in reply to his urgent messages. The new
cycle had begun but still the people were feeling slightly perturbed by this. It
weakened his position as he cursed under his breath in the tone of the mockers,
the drunks and cynics.
“Orange Papery”
Truthfully, his percentage was good, but when they meditated he could no
longer claim such a large share of the tax profits for this month. He wonders
if the Quasar would be penniless beggars if it were not for him and his
organisational flair for business.
He murmurs to himself “Lest the planet evolvers drain all the oxygen
from Cassandra to help their stunted little cities”
.MOV)