I was on a train recently and wrote this short sci-fi story. Hope you enjoy it.
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Another world, not your own.
Lilac suns glittering endlessly across diagonal horizons, but you're having a sandwich.
As you sit in the waiting area for your first p-planet jump, the food cart rolls by. That looks good but i'm already eating. You finish your albert einstein sandwich and turn on your flux. The usual; The seven realms have reached an agreement on something or other. The Elders open a new school for gifted beings. The middle east peace corps watch a wing-hockey match on Ravos. You're not doing any of those things today. you have been selected to join a delegation to welcome beings that are visiting the galaxy for the first time (that they're able to recall). Compatibility tests were conducted and you were selected. Obviously, you could have declined.. but it sounded interesting and also fun, or at least alright. You scored quite high on thought regulation and general ease, which come in handy when greeting empathic races. And this empathic race, as yet unnamed in your languages, is apparently very highly sensitive. Never jumped before with the latest tech. Supposedly, this time, instead of imploding and then exploding to get where you're headed, you're going to be "projected" holographically to your destination, but you're still physically going there.
Ever since they discovered this holographic universe business, there have been commercials for everything everywhere and everywhen. Someone decided to put a stop to it when a commercial for the Sony Meglavultoid appeared in one of the timestreams of what was once called "Mississippi" but in the year 1679. A Lot of people were confused, but time keepers handled that fiasco, and it's been overseen much more since. You remember having a good laugh about it. After all, no one really gets hurt. Just a few knobs turned in the wrong direction. Or maybe the right direction ? Who knows.
The being at the jump station is a purple baby, from the race of Cherafin. A race of hyper-intelligent, human-baby-looking beings. They come in four colors; Pink, green, transparent-turquoise and Purple. With the transparent turquoise subrace preferring mostly to stay close to their mother system, as they tend to be more shy. You've only ever seen them in holos. Could be neat to actually get to see one for reals. But the purple one, being hyper-intelligent, picks up on this thought of yours, from observing your body language and extrapolating. It thinks a thought into your head that means something like: "There is only one baby", smiles, and points you to the jumpspot with two fingers of an open hand. You step on. A surface tells you to blink and think of the name of your destination at the same time. You do. After blinking you're there. Another surface asks you to confirm arrival by blinking twice. You blink twice.
________________________________________________________________________________
Another world, not your own.
Lilac suns glittering endlessly across diagonal horizons, but you're having a sandwich.
As you sit in the waiting area for your first p-planet jump, the food cart rolls by. That looks good but i'm already eating. You finish your albert einstein sandwich and turn on your flux. The usual; The seven realms have reached an agreement on something or other. The Elders open a new school for gifted beings. The middle east peace corps watch a wing-hockey match on Ravos. You're not doing any of those things today. you have been selected to join a delegation to welcome beings that are visiting the galaxy for the first time (that they're able to recall). Compatibility tests were conducted and you were selected. Obviously, you could have declined.. but it sounded interesting and also fun, or at least alright. You scored quite high on thought regulation and general ease, which come in handy when greeting empathic races. And this empathic race, as yet unnamed in your languages, is apparently very highly sensitive. Never jumped before with the latest tech. Supposedly, this time, instead of imploding and then exploding to get where you're headed, you're going to be "projected" holographically to your destination, but you're still physically going there.
Ever since they discovered this holographic universe business, there have been commercials for everything everywhere and everywhen. Someone decided to put a stop to it when a commercial for the Sony Meglavultoid appeared in one of the timestreams of what was once called "Mississippi" but in the year 1679. A Lot of people were confused, but time keepers handled that fiasco, and it's been overseen much more since. You remember having a good laugh about it. After all, no one really gets hurt. Just a few knobs turned in the wrong direction. Or maybe the right direction ? Who knows.
The being at the jump station is a purple baby, from the race of Cherafin. A race of hyper-intelligent, human-baby-looking beings. They come in four colors; Pink, green, transparent-turquoise and Purple. With the transparent turquoise subrace preferring mostly to stay close to their mother system, as they tend to be more shy. You've only ever seen them in holos. Could be neat to actually get to see one for reals. But the purple one, being hyper-intelligent, picks up on this thought of yours, from observing your body language and extrapolating. It thinks a thought into your head that means something like: "There is only one baby", smiles, and points you to the jumpspot with two fingers of an open hand. You step on. A surface tells you to blink and think of the name of your destination at the same time. You do. After blinking you're there. Another surface asks you to confirm arrival by blinking twice. You blink twice.
