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The Age of Discovery, Chapter 22: Microsia Aquatica Symbiotica

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“Stay with the ship,” I tell Barron Wolfe as Lyra, Gyro, Rand and I hop from Cyclops’ deck onto the lowest platform of the Microsian colony, the nearest thing to a dock that I have seen since our departure from Duckweed Base.   I tighten the strap of my satchel, feeling the weight of its contents resting against my hip.   I signal to Rand, indicating for him to lead the way.   To my right, there is no partition or seawall to prevent an accidental misstep and tumble into the enclosed sea, or to prevent waves from flooding into the city – an obvious contrast to seaside communities from our world.   But of course, there are no waves on this sea, and no tides.   Other than Cyclops the waterfront is devoid of other boats or vessels.   I reckon that if the Microsians make use of watercraft, such vessels would be submarine in nature, and are harbored below us, in some manner of underwater harbor.    The multitude of Microsians observed previously all along the waterfront o
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The Age of Discovery, Chapter 21: City in a Bottle

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Day 16: 1230 hours They are watching us! Lyra, Gyro, and Barron have joined me topside, but nobody has yet found words to adequately express any emotion, let alone a vague analysis of the moment.   We, my   crew and I, stand side-by-side, silently transfixed on a scene that I can barely put into thought, let alone language.   Could this be how British explorer James Cook felt, after Europeans had been crisscrossing the Pacific for a century, when he then discovered a thriving society, hundreds of thousands strong, on an isolated archipelago in the middle of that ocean? Not only watching, but evaluating us! The nearest platform of this incongruous micro metropolis, one built at the same level as the captured sea, is approximately two centimeters away.   The waterfront is lined with the bipedal forms, each seemingly identical to the next, an observation that I attribute to the effect of distance.   Below the glimmering surface of the miniature sea, ciliated or
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The Age of Discovery, Chapter 20: A Protected Harbor

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1115 hours... And then the faces recede from the light and vanish.   Only a solitary silhouette remains, standing at the center of where the multitude had been only moments before.   It is beyond slender, with unusually long limbs, and at the end of an extremely tall neck, an oblong head with enormous eyes.     Its right arm, for lack of a better vocabulary, lifts up from its side, extends ninety degrees from its body.   At the end of the limb membranous pseudopodia become finger-like appendages, coalescing into a pointing hand. “I think,” says Gyro softly, “is it trying to tell us where to go?” In an act so unhuman, yet so understandable, the shape thrust its fluid-like right arm further from its body, as if to emphasize its instruction to us. “No doubt about it,” I say.   “Gyro, turn us ninety degrees port rudder and follow the glass wall.    One quarter speed.” “Turning to two-seventy degrees,” adds Gyro. “Answering one quarter, as soon as I get do
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The Age of Discovery, Chapter 19: Faces in the Glass

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Day 16: 0800 hours... “It was your reflection in the porthole,” Barron Wolfe states with a dismissive certainty that I envy. “I wish that it had been,” I respond.   “Not only did it not look anything like me, it was clearly outside the ship.” “How can you be sure?” asks Lyra.   “I mean, maybe your reflection combined with the dim light in the cabin…” “Whatever, or whomever it was swatted a flagellating bacterium out of its way before it vanished back into the dark.   No, it was clearly outside.   But before it disappeared, it looked straight at me – into me.     And its eyes…”   I cannot find the words to finish my thought. “Some microorganism then,” theorizes Barron.   “But it couldn’t have been human – not without a helmet or suit.” “What about its eyes?” pressed Lyra. “They were piercing… penetrating…   curious and intelligent,” I tell her.   “But not…”   And again, words fail me.   “And Barron is right…eyes, but not human eyes.” “I’m sorry,” sc
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