[Phase 2]: Space… “the final frontier”

Description

Writers can be verbose at times. Sometimes it helps a story and sometimes it doesn’t. An egg can be the very lifeforce brought into this world by a chicken with her own backstory unbeknownst to us with its whole heart just waiting to come into the world and set it aflame. Or it could just be an egg.

McCoy once described space as “disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.” Janeway described it as “…it means nothing, a vacuum between stars and planets, but by the same token it means everything. It’s what connects all our worlds.”

Give us your best description of Space. There is no limit to the amount of words you have to use. You can write it from a character’s POV or just describe it yourself as you would for a paper in school. Don’t be too scientific, we’re writers after all, strive for beauty.

Criteria

  • Entries will be judged by myself and placed based on creativity and use of language. There is no right or wrong description of space, just write your heart and we'll be sure to share some great entries.
  • Don't plagiarize.

Winners

Submissions

User ID Content Date Entry
Evelyn Sommers 2446

Evleyn sat by the window in her quarters. Only a small sliver of space was visible as one of the base's many water towers obscured the view. Even so, she admired the tiny view of the void. From her PADD, she began to write.

“There is a melancholy about space. It’s not the cold void or the empty darkness. It’s not even the vast distances between celestial objects. A vacuum is quantifiable and even purposeful. No, what I find tragic is the beauty that we miss due to this vacuum.”

“Contrary to what people believe, sound does exist in space, but we can’t hear it. Sound travels by vibrations within air or water through molecules and atoms. Space is a vacuum with no such elements to permit sound waves. It’s a shame as space itself is a symphony.”

“All objects create their own frequencies and as such, their own sound. Fortunately, these sounds can be decoded and formed so we can hear them.”

“Earth is like a chirping bird on a synthesizer or the chatter of everyone arguing, just sped up. Mars is a rumble, like the drums of war. Fitting. Jupiter is a hiss that rises and falls, then fluctuates much like its many storms. Saturn is ghostly, a haunting hiss reminiscent of one of those old scifi movies. Uranus is like a blustery wind from far away that morphs into inferno.”

“Neptune is a quiet hiss, calming, like the ocean on a windless day. Pluto is funny. It’s like an old TV with bad reception accompanied by a Phillip Glass soundtrack. And space itself, it’s a hiss too with highs and lows and loops and spins, like an old psychedelic song from the 20th. The most amazing sound is that of the creation of our universe itself, well, very close to it, cosmologically speaking. It starts with a high pitch whizzing that becomes lower and lower and lower until it’s undetectable. The sound comes back to a high pitch with a thumping in the background and fades away again.”

“So, yeah. We can hear the planets with computers, but the stunning display of color and life will be forever silent to us in real time. It is sad, but it’s also beautiful just knowing how cool space sings.”

2022-06-26 23:55:38
Thelor ch'Idrani 2109

Space - A Haiku

Dark, yet full of light
A place of contradictions
Endless and empty

 2022-06-26 16:48:04
Grigor Eisenberg-Sloane 102

Space is empty.

These words had been echoed in countless variations over the decades. Mostly void, partly stars and other things. Island specks of gas and rocks floating in the vast, infinite nothingness of the universe. With one outstretched hand, he could reach out and block out the light of thousands of stars if he so chose. Such tiny, insignificant specks of nothing in the greater nothingness of space.

One of the stars moved slowly in the distance and grew brighter. Idly watching its motion, Grigor saw it grow larger against the unmoving pinprick tapestry behind it. The tiny mote of light soon became another starship on approach. In some back corner of his mind, the specifications of the vessel ticked off. Class, length, beam, crew complement, cursory analysis of appearance and performance from this docking approach. An explorer vessel that had been out in the frontier for several years already, now come back briefly to exchange crew and supplies.

It was now close enough to properly dock and close enough for Grigor to see through the lit windows of the secondary hull. A few crew members moving. A few plants and lit computer panels. Mostly empty like the space it flew through. Small details on the hull told little stories of where this other ship had been. Patches of discoloration from nebula encounters. Some scorching around the edges of hull panels replaced due to battle damage. A few lines that didn't quite line up correctly thanks to some powerful gravitational influence on the spaceframe. Little stories of what could be found in the emptiness of space.

Grigor examined the ship until it detached and departed, turning back into a star among many in the distance. Once more the tapestry of tiny specks against an infinite void was all that he saw through the window. Great, vast emptiness. And yet...

No, not empty.

Full.

A touch of a smile creased the corners of Grigor's mouth as the thought changed in his mind. Not empty at all. Yes, distances were vast and the universe was a twinkling tapestry of sparks, but it was full of those sparks. Tiny lights that were not so tiny when you were in orbit around them. Worlds full of people. Even the void itself was full of particles popping in and out of existence in the diffuse miasma of hydrogen that spread out between stars.

From here space might look empty. Might seem empty. But that's all it was. Perception and perspective. If space were truly empty, nobody would be out here. That explorer would not be pushing the charted boundaries forward. There would be no need for Starfleet.

Reaching forward, Grigor placed his hand against the cold surface of the window, blocking out thousands of tiny sparks. How many lifetimes could be spent just in that area of 'emptiness,' he wondered. How many lives lived, how many wondrous things happened that would never be known except in remnants or to those who watched the universe from a more encompassing perspective than his own?

Space is empty. But those tiny, insignificant specks floating in that infinite void were not.

2022-06-25 22:51:33
Erill'Yun Mek 2187

Every time I thought of space,

It seemed a most depressing place.

Big and empty. Nothing’s there.

(Well maybe the odd solar flare.)

So why explore? Why take the risk?

If I were you, I would desist.

There really isn’t much to see,

I’d stay at home and drink some tea.

I thought this once. Can you believe,

That one could be oh so naïve?

That was before I met a Q,

And through the galaxy we flew.

Through nebluae and ion storms,

Past worlds and stars, in all their forms.

I must admit I felt dismayed,

But space was great. And so I stayed.

2022-06-22 07:19:12
Andreus Kohl 2374

"Space is like fried chicken. Or rather, space is the fried batter around the chicken pieces, " said Lieutenant Kellin Rayco. "Fried chicken has its hazards. Hard vacuum will stop your heart, just as soon as high cholesterol. And the best fried batter has some raggedy edges, like the subspace phenomenon we crunch through on starships. Space is all around us, holding tight all our chicken juices within our planets and starships. Most people live their lives thinking it's all about the chicken --on the planets where they're born-- but we in Starfleet know all the flavour is in the fried part, out here in space."

 2022-06-20 20:08:03
Alexandra Sudari-Kravchik 2121

Space,
the void between the interesting places in the universe.
Space,
the vacuum that nature abhors,
yet life, uh, finds a way.
Space,
literally a whole lot of nothing that so many are willing to kill over.
Space,
the great adventure.
Space,
the final frontier…

 2022-06-18 16:26:03
R’Tor 2309

As I lay here blackness envelops my eyes when a final thought enters my mind.

As a child I would stand upon my tippy toes and reach upward toward the stars. I feared for no warmth could be felt from those light above. They seemed so far away, but I was determined that I would be there one day.
As sun light fades, I am breathless in the arms of my lover. When I look skyward ecstasy fills me and I smile, because great wonders must exist in the great above.

As a breeze caresses my naked skin, I shiver and wonder if those planet and galaxies that dance alone feel the cold that envelops me.

As heroes and stories fill the heavens, I throw off the blanket of longing and despair. For those adventures suggest we can all leave something behind.
As each day passes, so does life itself. The sun comes up and the sun goes down. The entire time one moment is leading to the next. One day starts, but there will always be an end.
As my skin wrinkles, I look back upon my life like a fine summer night.
I have studied the eve and know the path our celestial neighbors hold.

As my final though begins to pass, I hope that I not be forgotten in the dark, but I can let go and perhaps I will shine like the stars above. No matter what I recognize space as being something that is around me, inside me, and beyond.

Space is that place I love..

2022-06-17 06:22:38 View Image

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