A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09 in two copies layered on each other with eyes added
Now that Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Almira were married and enjoying their honeymoon, that gave my husband and I a little while to enjoy before I was called back as captain of the Amanirenas. That gave me occasion to immerse myself in life in the Ventana system where we had our home, not all that far from Sultruviam.
“But see, now that the frontier has expanded just that much,” Capt. Rufus Dixon, co-founder of Kirk and Dixon Shipping and Kirk, Dixon, and Oahuapedal Solutions, “humans have got to go learn the same lessons, over and over again.”
“True everywhere and at all times,” I said.
He and I were both looking at the manifestation of a lesson learned, the hard way.
Strip mining on Earth was a thing for a few centuries, despite the damage to the planet. It was wildly profitable, but, ultimately forbidden on Earth because of the damage, so, prospectors who did not care for such things began to look for planets where there was no one to say no.
But the thing is, just because you don't hear “no” in an Earth language does not mean “no” is not being said, or done.
A zoom of the above image ... they are watching us!
The above creature is a silicon-based lifeform, among the first of its kind discovered in the galaxy, and it is native to Bryyl 6, a planet with fabulous deposits of gems. The initial fleet survey for life, and sentient life, looks for carbon-based creatures, with the more recent addition that plasma-based creatures like Beamerlings, Ring Admirals, Flame Knights, Akhenatenites, and Guardians of the Sultruviam skies and waters do exist. But generally, creatures of that magnitude and size announce themselves, and, if they do, you as a human being are going to do exactly what they tell you that you are going to do in any system they are guardians of. A single angry Ring Admiral can knock your entire civilization back a millennia or so – two can do it easily.
Silicon-based creatures … we don't know enough to say … although silicon is among the most abundant elements in the universe (think: sand), but we do know on Bryyl 6, a whole bunch of strip miners who did not stop to notice the glorious jewels that were appearing in unexpected places except as something else to be collected ended up with their whole operation dropped all the way to the mantle of Bryyl 6. We had never seen “quickrock” as opposed to “quicksand,” but silica is just that abundant on Bryyl 6; liquefy all of it available in one locale, and there is nowhere to go but down.
“It is a good thing they didn't get as far as taking those things off-world yet,” my husband said to me. “Earth would not have fared any better, and if those creeping crystals ever realize Earth is humanity's headquarters … .”
“Oh, the consortium is shutting all strip mining down in the Bryyl system, because it's illegal anyway but it takes us a minute to catch up, and you know that if Admiral Chulalaagnkorn doesn't send a fleet ship over to enforce, folks think they can do what they want.”
“But, Khadijah, what is the flash liquefaction temperature on silicon, anyhow? That had to be a hot way to go.”
“Let me put it to you this way: there is a reason the gritty old admiral said to the press: 'Spared me a photon torpedo.” A photon torpedo is quite a bit hotter, but, in terms of the human body, close enough."
(Those of you who are Star Trek TOS and TNG fans will recognize this homage to both the “The Devil in the Dark” and “The Crystal Entity”!)