Heat Death

by ScottTrek

The Thaw. Part 1

The crew chiefs were slowly making their way back to consciousness. Emphasis on the slowly.

Of the nine pods being defrosted four of the crew had managed to hit the release catches, though this was more likely from reflex twitching as the visible crew rolled around gargling and flapping limbs. Normally the defrosting sequence was a lot faster and involved a lot less drooling but to check for side effects Twilight had set the equipment for safety mode, at least until she’d woken up more of the medical staff. For such a long Cyro-sleep the crews brains had been steeped in drugs and deep rooted magic from the Tree so naturally they’d be more than a little out of it.

Twilight watched bemusedly as Interstellar Winds,the head of astrometrics and navigation, let out a massive yawn and, eyes clamped shut, began extending his left primary wing. He was a Greatwing pony so his wing stretched out and out till the tip was well passed the open door adjacent pod. There was crackle of stiff bones and the impressive wing structure swept backwards straight into the face of Araya Flux, his wife and Head of Science Division.

The petit unicorn let out a tiny drowsy “noooooooo” as the soft mass of feathers gently flumped into her face pushing her back down into the pod. After a few seconds the “Nooo” was replaced with gentle snoring and Stellar‘s secondary wings began fluttering contentedly having located his spouse.

“Those two are always funny.” Twilight giggled to Forge who had so far chosen not to comment on the delirious gaggle before him. “He’s not much more sophisticated when he’s awake.”

“I don’t know what she sees in him” Nocturne said looking on with a mixture of amusement and mild disgust as a large dollop of drool rolled down Steller’s chin. Umbra made a gesture at this this point but no-one was looking at him so his witticism was lost to the ages.

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Ember Glow dreamt of fire and darkness.

She had this dream often, in her dream she sat alone in vast blackness in front on a small candle. Strange things moved in the void around her, Faceless black things

While for many the thought of being alone in a strange place surrounded by goodness-knows-what things would have been frightening or at least unnerving, Ember was calm and content. The candle in front of her though small had a warm fuzzy glow to it that made her feel safe and she could sit and stare mesmerized by the flicker and undulations of the flames for hours.

While it was perfectly reasonable it be a little bit afraid of fire, Ember had never seen it that way. Obviously it was dangerous, possible one of the oldest primal dangers in the universe, but it was also one of the purest incarnations of life itself.

Without heat and energy from the stars life itself would have never sparked into existence in the primordial ooze and crawled its way to land. Without fire the most ancient ancestors of pony-kind would never have taken their first faltering steps towards civilisation. Millions of years later it would be fire from the stars that was harnessed to propel the first spacecraft from the surface of Chordata into the universe beyond.
So as Ember sat there watching her candle she wasn’t afraid. Oh sure she was still surrounded by formless, faceless, black things but they really weren’t anything terrible. She didn’t bother them, they didn’t bother her and sometimes they came over and sat for a while to appreciate the subtle beauty of the candle.

Today something felt different.

Ember shuffled in slightly closer to the candle as something approached. Unlike the things that normally lurked around her in this dream the figure had a form and a face. She felt like she should recognise the figure but she couldn’t focus properly on any of the features.

The figure walked up to her with a great big friendly grin plastered across its face and for a moment Ember wondered if she was getting worked up over nothing. The grin never wavered for a moment as the figure adjusted its clothes, hunkered down and blew out the candle.
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Comments

[Europa]

Incoming new character! Hope you don't end up having too many and we can't keep track of them...