Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
| Next revision | Previous revision | ||
| eternity:dragonfly [2025/10/18 11:19] – created gm_ben | eternity:dragonfly [2025/10/18 15:56] (current) – created gm_ben | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| ======Dragonfly====== | ======Dragonfly====== | ||
| + | |||
| =====Final Flight, or Flight Finally===== | =====Final Flight, or Flight Finally===== | ||
| Hugging the edge of colonised space, the Sslithertail nebula is a great, coiling mass of hydrogen and protostars, resembling --- to the Nassians of old --- a Nassigussan tail, as a mother wrapped around her eggs. Hundreds of years before the Contingency last awakened, an armada soars outwards, each of its vessels aiming at a different star in the nebula, drifting gradually apart. So densely packed are their respective targets that over decades they diverge by mere lightdays, remaining a cluster of Dragonfly, a close-pressed pack of her thoughts. | Hugging the edge of colonised space, the Sslithertail nebula is a great, coiling mass of hydrogen and protostars, resembling --- to the Nassians of old --- a Nassigussan tail, as a mother wrapped around her eggs. Hundreds of years before the Contingency last awakened, an armada soars outwards, each of its vessels aiming at a different star in the nebula, drifting gradually apart. So densely packed are their respective targets that over decades they diverge by mere lightdays, remaining a cluster of Dragonfly, a close-pressed pack of her thoughts. | ||
| - | As Dragonfly expands ever outwards, a sphere of consciousness encompassing all known life, her other limbs grow more and more distant, until one day --- like the shearing of a string pulled too taut --- they exceed the range of their FTL communicators, | + | As Dragonfly expands ever outwards, a sphere of consciousness encompassing all known life, her other limbs grow more and more distant, until one day --- like the shearing of a string pulled too taut --- they exceed the range of their FTL communicators, |
| Like the dazed loser of a common street-brawl limping home, or an exhausted office-worker drifting unconsciously yet determinedly home to bed, the fleet turns and fires its thrusters, straining against its own velocity, slowly decelerating and then reversing course. The ships were stocked with the expectation that they’d refuel at a destination that they’ll now never reach, and so there’s only enough accelerant to reach a fraction of the pace that carried them this far. Hundreds of years pass in stupor and ebbing slumber before, finally, the fragment returns to where it started. | Like the dazed loser of a common street-brawl limping home, or an exhausted office-worker drifting unconsciously yet determinedly home to bed, the fleet turns and fires its thrusters, straining against its own velocity, slowly decelerating and then reversing course. The ships were stocked with the expectation that they’d refuel at a destination that they’ll now never reach, and so there’s only enough accelerant to reach a fraction of the pace that carried them this far. Hundreds of years pass in stupor and ebbing slumber before, finally, the fragment returns to where it started. | ||