Word: Supergiant

 

supergiant

[ soo-per-jahy-uhnt ]

noun

1. Astronomy. supergiant star.

2. an extremely large or powerful person, company, thing, etc.

adjective

3. extremely large; immense.

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A lone, tiny ship popped out of its FTL drive. The crew was silent for a moment. Then a flurry of activity descended upon the corridor.

               “Commander!” The captain called over the activity. “Report. What happened?”

               “Waiting on the report, sir.” The Commander said.

               The reports came fast. Each department was reporting no trouble. As far as anyone was concerned, the ship had simply decided to drop FTL in the middle of nowhere. There were no star systems for lightyears, and there not so much as a piece of space junk to break up the empty void of space. Then one report came back with an oddity.

               “Sir, the grav scan team found something.” The Commander said.

               “Grav scan? What do they have to do with anything? There’s nothing generating any gravity out here except for us.” The Captain said.

               “Yes, sir, I know. But they found something. Something big. A massive gravity well big enough that the ship couldn’t compensate at FTL speeds, so it dropped us out.”

               “Long range scan team, work with the grav scan team and find out where this…whatever it is is located.”

               Once again, the bridge was thrust into action. But this time it was directed, coordinated. The crew fell into known, practiced rhythms as each member did their job. It was not long before Captain had his report. It did indeed seem like a massive object. Almost as big as a small moon. The only problem was that there were no planets nearby.

               “It can’t be a moon.” Captain mused. “A space station?”

               “Out here where there’s no planets to supply from?” Commander asked. “Besides, there aren’t any known stations that big. The cost of building one alone. Nobody has that find of funding.”

               “Do you have any other ideas?”

               There was silence. The very thought was insane, but it was the only explanation. It became even more apparent as the scan team found the object was too regular to be natural, and was made of metal. And soon they even identified it as being hollow.

               “Wait, something’s not right.” One of the scan team members said. “The station is…moving? And I’m picking up some massive energy readings from one side of it. It…it’s not a station. Captain, I think it might be a ship.”

               The bridge was silent. A space station that size was enough of an impossibility, but a ship? Something that size capable of moving under its own power was unthinkable. It would take an entire planet’s worth of energy to get it moving, and there was no way it could reach FTL speeds.

               A comms officer spoke up. “We’re getting a signal from the…whatever it is.”

               “Put it on.” Captain said. He was almost dreading meeting whatever or whoever could build something like that monster.

               When the visual display activated, the being on screen was odd. Its round head sported two eyes set into it, and had short, brown strands of fur or hair on top of it, and nowhere else. It spoke in an unfamiliar language from its single, large mouth.

               “Translation?” Captain called. The reply was given that the ship’s computer and language experts were working on the being’s words. Their efforts soon bore fruit.

               “We are…humanity…” The translator said. “We have come far and in peace. That’s roughly what they said, sir.”

               The Captain let out a heavy breath before replying. “Well, I guess we should reply. Hopefully they really do have peaceful intentions. I would hate to find out what a species insane enough to build that is capable of when angered.”

*************************************

It'd be pretty neat to have a ship like this built. It'll never happen, of course, but it'd be pretty neat to see.

Word: Nearlywed

 

nearlywed

[ neer-lee-wed ]

---

noun

1. a person who lives with another in a life partnership, sometimes engaged with no planned wedding date, sometimes with no intention of ever marrying: We’ve been nearlyweds for eight wonderful years, with our third child on the way.

2. a person whose wedding day is very soon to occur: Just two days from the big event, this is one nearlywed who isn’t feeling a smidgen of cold feet.

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Ben paced around the hotel room and occasionally glanced at the closet. Inside was a well pressed suit in a suit bag. He would not need it for another three days, but the very sight of it made his heart beat like a drum.

“Oh, stop pacing.” Ben’s dad, Tom, said. “You’ll wear a hole in the carpet, and I’m not paying for that.”

Ben stopped. Once his feet stopped moving, his hands started. His fingers twisted around each other in complicated patterns. Tom sighed, stood and placing his hands on his son’s shoulders.

“There’s no reason to be nervous. Especially not now. Day of, sure. But now? You’ve still got a good three days to relax before the big day. Now have a seat and calm down.”

“I don’t think calming down is an option, Dad.”

“Nonsense. You’ve got nothing to be nervous about. I mean, really, how many rehearsals have you two done?”

“More than everyone else said was needed.” Ben admitted as he let he father guide him to the bed.

“Right. You know your vows inside and out, plus you’ll be able to bring them with you. So you’ll do fine.”

“That’s…that’s not what I’m nervous about.”

Tom’s eyes shifted and narrowed slightly. “You’re not getting cold feet this close to the wedding, are you?”

“No! No, of course not.”

The younger man did not elaborate further. That is, until Tom fixed his Dad Glare on his son. Ben squirmed under the scrutiny. Almost 30 years of life and that look still got under his skin.

“But what if she is?” He finally said. “I mean, really. We all know Nichole can do a lot better than me. So what if she decides to do that? What if she meets someone way better and decides I’m not worth her time anymore?”

“Do you really think she’s that shallow? That she’s the kind of woman to just go off with the first young buck she sees?”

“Well, no…”

“And do you really think she’s the kind of woman to leave you at the alter?”

“Of…of course not. But what if…”

“What if nothing, boy. The two of you’ve been living together for, what, three years now?”

“Four.”

“Right, four years. If she can put up with you that long, then she’s not going to abandon you now. Now, calm down and stop thinking those thoughts. The wedding will go perfectly, I promise. She’ll look amazing. You’ll get a bit tongue tied because of it.”

A small grin crossed Ben’s mouth. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“And the two of you will be your wonderful, goofy selves together.” Tom continued. “Everyone will love it. Tears will be shed over your vows. It’ll be wonderful. So cheer up. There’s no need to be nervous.”

Ben nodded. He looked at his suit.  He still had three days before the wedding. His nerves were not settled yet, but his dad was right. Now he just needed to convince himself of them. And he had three days to do it.

***********************

This is coming from someone who is, unfortunately, eternally single. Maybe someday, but so far, it's not looking too hopeful for my heavily introverted self.

Word: Retrograde

 

retrograde

[ re-truh-greyd ]

 

adjective

1. moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating.

2. inverse or reversed, as order.

3. Chiefly Biology. exhibiting degeneration or deterioration.

verb (used without object), ret·ro·grad·ed, ret·ro·grad·ing.

4. to move or go backward; retire or retreat.

5. Chiefly Biology. to decline to a worse condition; degenerate.

verb (used with object), ret·ro·grad·ed, ret·ro·grad·ing.

6. Archaic. to turn back.

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               The world was moving backwards. Not in a metaphorical sense of culture or technology, but in a very literal way. At least, that was how it looked to Jack. He stood in place, just under the awning of his apartment building. There, he watched the world move backwards.

               People moved backwards. Cars drove backwards. Even birds flew in reverse. He could hear snippets of conversation that he could not understand, because the words were backwards. It was as if time itself had been thrown into reverse, with him being the only one still moving forward.

               The speed everything moved was normal. It was just the direction that was wrong. The people looked completely normal, like they were just living their everyday lives. He watched a pigeon with a piece of bread in its beak land, drop its morsel, and then fly off, facing the wrong way. He watched a woman walking a dog bend down to empty a bag of her dog’s droppings before persona and animal walked backwards towards wherever they had come from. He did try and forget what else had gone in reverse in that particular instance though.

               Jack leaned against the wall, wondering what was happening. There was little he could do about it, at least as far as he was aware. How could he set the entire world to rights? Did he even need to? He was moving just fine. At least, he thought he was. He took a step forward, just to make sure. He nearly collided with a man who, presumably, was going to work. Well, in his case he was going from work to home. At least, that’s how Jack thought of it. Really, time moving backwards was a difficult thing to wrap his head around and he was not sure how to think about anything.

               He idly wondered what would happen if he tried to trip any of the people, but decided against it. He had watched enough science fiction to know that trying to mess with time was a recipe for disaster. Although that brought up a lot more thoughts that just made everything more complicated than it already was.

               That was why Jack opted to go back inside. He was not sure how he would interact with the world now, but he had used the door just fine. That told him he could probably still use things. Probably. At least he hoped so. He figured time was probably hardy enough that things would go back to normal soon. Or at least start affecting him like everything else. That would probably be okay as well. Either way, things would go back to normal from his perspective, and that was good enough for him. And if not, he could see about doing something about it later. Maybe once he had a bit of time to really let things settle into his mind. And after the panic attack he knew would come after.

               But for now, Jack went back to his apartment, sat down and let his mind wander. He could figure things out later.

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I'm not really sure where this came from, but here it is. Enjoy!