Crouching low he looks around pensively, not blinking, just staring through the reeds. He shivers slightly in anticipation, excitement and fear. Everyone else can do this; every one of his dozens of brothers and sisters have been merrily, actively springing around for weeks now. He shuffles, re-balances, squats again, raises his little bottom up, sits down, shuffles, squats, re-balances, raises his bottom again, shuffles, then sits down again. ‘I can do this. It’s easy,

It is Bonn’s job to prepare his meals, with help from Puter, who has 10,000 recipes stored and the skills of old-world Michelin Chefs. Bonn always wears a mask when preparing BlueMelons and is heavily discouraged from eating more than a quarter daily. He has found Budda-finger Lemon look-alikes that, when dried, have a crisp umami flavour. They are carnivorous fruit-plants that drag small reptiles in with their tentacle fingers. The meat is often ScareyCat roasted in a pe

Bonn is growing into a tween as he manages an expanding farming settlement. Mother observes an uninitiated phenomenon. Bonn is silently reflecting with deceased sentient beings and softly pronouncing ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thank-you’. Database identifies this as developing ethics. History notes the ancient movement called ‘Religion’, that held widespread practice on Homeworld, insisted that a mono (or multi) deity initiated and imposed ethics on its practitioners. Now, a lone, uni

They stroll up the ridge. Cuddles is large enough to ride but he prefers to not burden her. Grumblebums are big and particularly angry beasts but Cuddles and her mum have uncharacteristically calm natures. She grunts and grumbles softly beside him. Her four eyes move both synchronistically and independently, if she senses danger, giving her a 270-degree visual range. They reach the top and marvel at the vista. This is their daily treat. Bonn tries, again, to instruct

Mother works on refining purple Wildgrass into harvestable products. Its tiny seeds produce drops of nectar, that BlueBow Butterflies love. For years, Mother has cultivated the germ embryo extract for a rich food-additive mixture. This gives Bonn tremendous nutritional energies. They have a corral to keep semi-domesticated Grumblebums, using sachets of spook grass to sedate them slightly but Bonn insists, eventually, they let them free to roam. Two stay around without s

At early morn, about once a month (homeworld time), the night sky would be almost dark. The trillion stars meet the BlueBow Butterflies as they rise from the grasses to blend like stars joining the celestial paradise. The air is a bit crisp, even chilly, and the translucent animals and birds meld into Bonn’s visuals. He normally couldn’t see them in daylight but at this precious time they blend and move like a slow trickle throughout the grasslands below their camp. Bonn

At waking time when all the suns were lowest on the horizon, Bonn would hear a musical note floating in his range as if flying by. It was always slightly flat then disappear like being tuned in and out. Puter said it was from a native bird with gracious wings, long tail and iridescent blue-purple-silver then invisible to Bonn’s visuals as the musical notes hit a higher octave. It wasn’t like a high-pitched squeak or siren but slightly flat warbling notes. Bonn rarely saw b

Since crashing on this planet, Mother has designed and implemented regulated daily resistive strength-based training to ward off atrophy. Since space-travel began, off-homeworld muscles shift from slow-twitch to fast-twitch reducing overall endurance and causing weakness. The ‘soft-suit’ has been used for centuries to help simulate homeworld gravity and Mother has been designing nutritional supplements to help reduce the catabolic processes that degrade muscle mass. By usi

Look out the window, no focus….just fog. Brain wonders, drifts. Memories, pictures, dance across, twist into one another. The carpet blends swayingly. “Oh, a button. How did it get there? What did it fall off?” Turning it over in his hand. The colour, the shape, but not what it fell off. “I wonder, know this button, it's off??….Ohhh, I can see it, I know this, I know its feel. Where from? I’ll have to check all my shirts and jumpers and, you know, stuff that has b

Living on a planet in the habitable zone of a three-sun system creates sunsets that blend different colours across the horizon. The suns are Bright Yellow, Red Dwarf and distant Blue Sun. They appear to be dancing, switching around each other in the sky, rarely standing in the same relative position and creating a perpetually shifting and switching dramatic sky. The planet acts as a buffered world where the large inertia of the oceans keep the climate safe and suitable for

Mother is concerned about Bonn’s aloneness. He is acting like Mother’s son with Puter, as Mother’s mobile presence. Puter’s ambiance and ready assistance transfers to Bonn as a big brother; an assistant, perhaps even a mentor. But, when Bonn needs to discuss hard concepts, he sits in the Pod and speaks directly with Mother’s screens. Puter assists with concepts but Mother keeps Puter silent if Bonn speaks directly to the screens. Mother understands the nuances between Mot

Someone once said 'It’s all about the dash'. Where or when you start is not important, ‘starting’ is. You wonder at tombstones of who you loved or knew or never heard of as you wander through a graveyard interested and ghoulish. You compare their time with your inevitability and are silently grateful that you’re still above ground. You imagine what their life was like; if/how they loved, laughed, soared, sunk or hated. But a part is NOT written in stone? Their story, the

Mother’s Pod Replicator produces most fruits, vegetables and living matter like Homeworld. But Mother is well aware Bonn needs indefinables only nature can produce for his DNA. So, it is with spices. She, by extension Puter, seeks planetary substances that very closely match her compounds. The tiny red berries contain a black stone that, when dried and crushed, have a spicy pungency that made Bonn sneeze but, more importantly, added to the flavour of the many foodstuffs s

The encampment expands with each period (homeworld duration as used by all cosmic travellers for time progression). Because of the three suns’ influence on stabilizing climate, it is much harder to estimate seasons on this planet. Mother has quantified this planet is smaller than homeworld with way less gravity; hence Bonn’s ability to leap great distances; seeming to ‘fly’ off tall cliffs; having much greater strength than his body was designed to experience. He has, quit

“I want to help. Since we landed, when I was a little boy, I know you have made this as comfortable for me as you can. You Puter are Mother-roaming beyond the pod. You and Mother have built a very reasonable fort-home with laser protection, alarms; long-and-short-range armed defences plus exploratory and inventive initiatives. You’ve made gardens for food and process clothing from the ground’s chemicals, flora and fauna.” Bonn exploded in a swirl of arms. “I have done

Daniel twitched just slightly as he sat waiting for her. She was a bit late having to finish her chores on the family station. Penrose was the largest property in the area for her family had been in this region since the mid-30s. It had grown decidedly since her grandfather first posted as his squat with only a handful of sheep and sheer bloody-mindedness. His people had been here forever but the family spoke about how their grandfather had been a breaker on cattle propert

Tiny creatures wriggle beneath Bonn’s feet. Brown; deep maroon; iridescent blue that turns invisible. “Puter, how does this happen?” “Its blue sheen/scales leave your visual range. It is well seen through ultra-violet. A mechanism to survive and hunt in the soil” Puter proposes. “There is so much loss with my senses that is there for you to see” Bonn quips. “Yes, I sense night waves I know you can’t see. Solar UV and IR radiation. There are creatures roaming this

The circumstance of his predicament was judgier than his preoccupation for procrastination and protestation. Not knowing his own level of self-importance and ability to talk absolute bull shit, he looked upon the other occupants of the life raft with derision and disgust just as he struggled to understand their predicament. The land, just peeking over the horizon, was coming closer with every stroke of the oars as they pulled in unison. Well, one side pulled in unison whilst

The philosophy of judging is to project or reflect values and limitations. Perspectives emphasise the ethical responsibility to be accurate and fair while not criticising others. It’s important that decisions are based on facts and ethics; not subjective unfounded feelings. But subjective feelings seem to be the essence of Bonn’s species. What makes them different is subjective feelings. To build a highly effective and efficient machine, an android, one that is even five

The species is very curious. It’s easy to ‘create’ beings from silicon and plastics. Pod’s Quantum systems with replicator, can supersede a flesh being. One that can out-smart, out everything the carbon-based muscle-and-blood-bags. But doesn’t make them a ‘being’. Bonn doesn’t have a ‘friend’ and he needs one. The physics ‘essential’ to produce a replica is easy from minerals on their planet but there is something missing. How do you make a spirit, a character, a being