Timepieces

Mælorriad: The Colony

This story has been an ongoing project for several years now; it's always been on the back burner, as I've never really had time for it but couldn't bear to let it go. It's also the first story I ever wrote that was set in space! As it's part of a set, I'll be publishing the sequel stories later in this collection.

--OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION--

Department of Exosapiology

Astrophysical Verification Committee

Office of Interplanetary Anomalies

The following documentation takes the form of a typical report from the Department of Exosapiology. Approximately ten years before the report arrived at the Sector 55 branch of the Department offices, an archaeocultural exosapiologist was dispatched by order of an Intragalactic Exobiology Bureau representative to study ES-5110-Æl "Ældren" of the planet TR-9555-2 "Trillumadren", which gained representation as a participating colony in the Centennial District Evaluation a half-century ago. The exosapiologist in question, Saiga Mælorria, had worked in the Department for some years and had perfectly verified credentials; although at first the Department considered her report to be a sign of declining mental health, examination of her routine tests over the last several years showed her to have a perfect grasp of her wits. As such, the Department referred the report to the Astrophysical Verification Committee, which after investigation of the included material conferred it to the Office of Interplanetary Anomalies for the safety of spacecraft and exploration in the TR-9555 region.

--OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EXOSAPIOLOGY--

Correspondent: Saiga Mælorria

Location: TR-9555-2 "Trillumadren"

Subject: ES-5110-Æl "Ældren"

Day One

My name is Saiga Mælorria. I am an archaeocultural exosapiologist with a ten-year professional certificate from the Central Cælian Nexus of Exobiology. It's difficult to keep track of my age because of the nature of my work, but I believe I am currently about forty-five. In the larger scheme of things, my stage of life is entirely unimportant; I judge mainly by the increasing number of silver streaks twined through my hair. Judging by this method, I can approximate that I have been working at the department for almost twenty years. Any further specificity is for the Department to pinpoint.

I am not a professor. I don't sit in the stereotypical dusty room poring over reports and taking prints of ancient artifacts only to stand before a class and lecture a summary of exosapiology to a vaguely interested class. I am also not an adventurer. I don't planet-hop with the hope of discovering something revolutionary and incredible. I serve as a memorial for the lost cultures of the extinct. Sometimes, for instance on YF-6957-7, I find that the so-called exosapiological remains are merely remnants of a forgotten Cælian colony. Sometimes, like on FK-3695-5-2, I discover fragments of the lives of a society so radically different from our own that my discoveries become difficult to explain. I contribute whatever I can to the field, reminding my fellow Cælians of the perspective that is needed to appreciate the diversity of our universe. I don't feel the need to focus on the sensational; I am perfectly happy poring over the day-to-day.

Because of the way the Department structures exosapiology research, and probably more pressingly because of my value as one of the few sensible researchers in the department- those jokingly referred to as the "good olds" in the evaluations I've received- I may not be a planet-hopper, but I am at the very least nomadic. My first assignment was a five-year drawl on the remote, uninhabited and painfully hot reaches of LE-4795-1, trekking my way wearily through the endless sand dunes in the hope that I might come across one of the intricate ruins that the local townsfolk claimed to have seen on re-entry. Since then, my assignments have on the whole been quite a bit shorter, even down to the space of a week on the YF-6957-7 mare's nest.