The mystery of it had called her to the alien waters. Three years of graduate studies to be completed aboard The #Seraph orbiting #Jupiter with twice monthly expeditions to skim through the thin atmosphere clinging to the moon of #Europa and conduct research on her cold, watery surface. The romance of finding not only an entire evolutionary tree of life there, but one with which they could communicate, the romance of that made it so much more than school. Of course, bestowing the title of life upon a silicate-based species that for all indications more closely resembled humanity's computers or #robots was a stretch for her carbon-based analog-thinking biases. But by all indications it had evolved that way, as self-replicating computational units akin to cells that fed upon the electromagnetic charge of the moon itself and bathed in its saline seas. Three years of graduate studies had become an opportunity to change the very understanding of life itself and the Europan skimming expeditions had turned into envoys of communication, then diplomatic outreach, and ultimately expeditions of cultural exchange. That she fell in love with a Europan resident in the process was mere accident.
[ 194 words | 2022-12-01 ]
Daily story prompt for 28th of March 2024:
Write a science fiction story about an alien that has killed an out-of-control monster.
nvl-grm