Friday 3 October 2014

SFFSat 4/10/14 - Blue Ice 7

SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. This is my snippet for it - please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here. 

This is the penultimate part of Blue Ice. Anton deGama is in the rings of Saturn, planting bio-engineered plants on a chunk of ring ice, when he sees blue snowflake creatures moving towards him. He describes what he sees to Kellerman as the creatures approach.



"You think they're some form of bio-tech sabotage, Anton?"

Anton shook his head, and then realised that she could not see the gesture. "Not really. I think they're some kind of rogue svenskites." Anton was staring at his blooms and their approaching demise. "We brought life into the rings, Kellerman. Svenskites, draxblooms, anazites, even singleships." He tiptoed carefully through the draxflowers, trying to use his shadow to hold back the blue tide. It was like using a bucket to put out a forest-fire. "Maybe this life has been here long enough to grow a few predators."

"In forty years?" He could have cut Kellerman's disbelief with a laser.

"Nearer sixty – the first svenskites must go back that far. Hard radiation, genetic changes... and the need to survive, Kellerman. Living beings grab hold of life pretty tenaciously - why should that be different for the life-forms we engineered?"


Next time, the final snippet, as deGama responds to what he has found.
As always, comments appreciated!

 

4 comments:

  1. Very interesting analysis. Definitely looking forward to what happens next week.

    Sorry I couldn't take part this week... was asleep! :-)

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    1. I hope you're feeling more human soon - unlike Anton's blue friends...

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  2. Their evolution would depend on their rate of reproduction, ie bacteria can evolve fast with a 20min cycle, whereas humans would probably take centuries at a minimum.

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    1. Absolutely! Of course, bio-engineered crops almost certainly have a swift lifespan, so they can be harvested swiftly. Which means that after half a century, strange blue creatures may crawl out of the woodwork (assuming there is wood in the rings of Saturn!).

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