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Story and setting (C) Psion 2022A short flash fic of Bertha Driver visiting a lost human colony and basically being a teddy bear hugging everyone in sight. Enjoy.Tales from the Orion Commonwealth: Miracle on New Hope
By Stephen Landis
An Orion Commonwealth Story
All Rights Reserved
Bertha Driver sat in blissful contemplation as the ship began to orbit the planet, a temperate world lazily rotating around a yellow star. The planetary axis had tilted, it was currently the winter season on the planet’s northern hemisphere where the humans had built their colony. This was the planet of New Hope, a lost Sol Federation colony that had been cut off from the rest of the galaxy during the humans’ war with the Bre and was only recently rediscovered by a Sol Federation deep space exploration vessel. Most of their infrastructure had collapsed or was otherwise in bad shape after being cut off from the rest of the galaxy for so long.
The Orion Commonwealth was happy to help their human allies rebuild their lost colony world, Bertha was one of several Commonwealth specialists on this ship volunteering to help with the reconstruction. On reflex, she started checking her gear one more time. Azure smart goggles cast everything in a faint blue tint as the digital glass projected status reports onto her heads-up display, she flexed her fingers inside of her constructor gauntlets as the smart goggles connected with the gunmetal gray gauntlets and reported back on the universal constructor nano-hives within. Diagnostic scanners, disassembler swarm nodes, fabricator swarm nodes, everything in her bulky gauntlets was working as it should be. Feedstock reservoirs were topped off, and her hover suit was also working as it should.
Mentally thinking the activation command, she willed her suit to life. The integrated anti-gravity emitters switched on and Bertha began to float around her small quarters as she checked her room one more time before hovering out the door and into the ship. A well softened member of a collective of engineered creatures created to be living plushies for the decadent and long-vanished Forerunners, the hover suit was a necessary tool for Bertha to remain mobile and one she maintained with the same care as her constructor gauntlets. With anti-gravity field integrity minimized to a small status in the corner of her HUD, Bertha hovered into the ship’s common room to meet the other volunteers that would be accompanying her down to New Hope.
Soon the others gathered into the room, bringing tools or medical equipment, and all the volunteers chatted among themselves as the Pacifier accompanying them carried a small pile of freshly replicated hats and started handing one to everyone. Bertha wordlessly took the garment and looked at it before putting it on over her short blond hair. It was a nice enough hat in her opinion, of a simple triangular design, made with a bright red synthetic fabric and adorn with white fuzzy trim and a ball of white fibers on the top. The fit was perfect thanks to the Commonwealth’s mastery of elastic fabrics, and her ears fitted through slats in the brim. But she still couldn’t figure out why they were being given these hats.
“Is there some cultural significance to this hat?” One of the other volunteers asked.
Pads, the Pacifier handing the hats out, smiled and looked up. “Oh yeah, there’s supposed to be a big human festival going on in the colony around this time. Dates back to an ancient winter solstice celebrations from their home planet. Celebrated with singing, food, gift-giving, food, family gatherings, more food…”
“I thought the humans didn’t like eating like we did?” Bertha asked.
“They don’t but apparently this holiday and some ancient harvest festival celebrated a month before it are the two exceptions.” Pads replied, smirking at the thought of food.
Bertha looked back at Pads with a skeptical glance. The Pacifier assigned for their protection was a good shot with his stun rifle and as handy with his tools as the rest of them but she often questioned just how well he really understood human customs and holidays. Still, since it was still the cold season in the colony when they arrived, it probably wouldn’t hurt to look appropriately festive….
Landing on the planet without incident, Bertha hung back behind the others as she looked at the colony and the colonists gathering to meet them. New Hope was a lightly colonized world, the small city in front of them was the only settlement on the planet, and the small crowd of humans gathered to try and get a glimpse of them was every bit as harried as Bertha expected from a colony that lost with the rest of the galaxy at large. Clothing was worn down and clearly patched over in places and the wearers were clearly dressed in layers instead of using self-heating smart fabrics.
The colonists regarded the Orion specialists with a suspicious look in their eyes, a few humans in the back of the crowd whispered to themselves, and children hid behind their parents as they looked up at the alien visitors. Bertha smiled warmly back at the smaller humans and waved as the leader of the greeting party stepped forward.
“Well, the home world wasn’t kidding when they said it would look like a freighter dumped a cargo of plushies on us. Is everyone in the Orion Commonwealth an uplifted Earth creature created by the Forerunners? And what’s with the Santa hats?” The leader asked, clearly fighting to be polite. “Samuel Watson, governor of New Hope.” He added.
Pads looked at the others, Bertha rolled her eyes. They planned out everything except who was going to speak for the group to the humans. Seeing no one else coming forward, she floated to the front of the group, getting no shortage of disbelieving looks from the humans at the sight of the big hovering black bear with blond locks peaking out from under her hat. “Bertha Driver, Constructor and nanotech engineer of the Orion Commonwealth. A pleasure to meet you governor. To answer your questions, yes we are. The Forerunners seeded quite a few planets with life engineered from Earth DNA samples. As for the hats… we were told there was going to be a holiday festival and-”
“Christmas was a month ago. Whoever told you didn’t calibrate their chronometer correctly.” Samuel interjected, causing several of the Orions to quietly glare at Pads. “Still, it’s the thought that counts. Thank you.” He added, his demeanor warming up by a few degrees as he looked at the group with Bertha. “Three bears, two canines, and a beaver?” He asked, counting off Bertha, Pads, and Dr. Herqulean, the Glabjaw brothers, and Emila Blenda.
“Yes.” Bertha replied, fighting the urge to bite her lip in impatience. Making small talk with non-Orions was not one of her strong suits. And the humans were so fussy about… Bertha decided it didn’t matter. She leaned forward and scooped the governor up in a squishy hug, causing the smaller human to slowly sink into her. “Merry belated Christmas Governor!”
And so began the Orions visit to New Hope...
Story and setting (C) Psion 2022A short flash fic of Bertha Driver visiting a lost human colony and basically being a teddy bear hugging everyone in sight. Enjoy.Tales from the Orion Commonwealth: Miracle on New Hope
By Stephen Landis
An Orion Commonwealth Story
All Rights Reserved
Bertha Driver sat in blissful contemplation as the ship began to orbit the planet, a temperate world lazily rotating around a yellow star. The planetary axis had tilted, it was currently the winter season on the planet’s northern hemisphere where the humans had built their colony. This was the planet of New Hope, a lost Sol Federation colony that had been cut off from the rest of the galaxy during the humans’ war with the Bre and was only recently rediscovered by a Sol Federation deep space exploration vessel. Most of their infrastructure had collapsed or was otherwise in bad shape after being cut off from the rest of the galaxy for so long.
The Orion Commonwealth was happy to help their human allies rebuild their lost colony world, Bertha was one of several Commonwealth specialists on this ship volunteering to help with the reconstruction. On reflex, she started checking her gear one more time. Azure smart goggles cast everything in a faint blue tint as the digital glass projected status reports onto her heads-up display, she flexed her fingers inside of her constructor gauntlets as the smart goggles connected with the gunmetal gray gauntlets and reported back on the universal constructor nano-hives within. Diagnostic scanners, disassembler swarm nodes, fabricator swarm nodes, everything in her bulky gauntlets was working as it should be. Feedstock reservoirs were topped off, and her hover suit was also working as it should.
Mentally thinking the activation command, she willed her suit to life. The integrated anti-gravity emitters switched on and Bertha began to float around her small quarters as she checked her room one more time before hovering out the door and into the ship. A well softened member of a collective of engineered creatures created to be living plushies for the decadent and long-vanished Forerunners, the hover suit was a necessary tool for Bertha to remain mobile and one she maintained with the same care as her constructor gauntlets. With anti-gravity field integrity minimized to a small status in the corner of her HUD, Bertha hovered into the ship’s common room to meet the other volunteers that would be accompanying her down to New Hope.
Soon the others gathered into the room, bringing tools or medical equipment, and all the volunteers chatted among themselves as the Pacifier accompanying them carried a small pile of freshly replicated hats and started handing one to everyone. Bertha wordlessly took the garment and looked at it before putting it on over her short blond hair. It was a nice enough hat in her opinion, of a simple triangular design, made with a bright red synthetic fabric and adorn with white fuzzy trim and a ball of white fibers on the top. The fit was perfect thanks to the Commonwealth’s mastery of elastic fabrics, and her ears fitted through slats in the brim. But she still couldn’t figure out why they were being given these hats.
“Is there some cultural significance to this hat?” One of the other volunteers asked.
Pads, the Pacifier handing the hats out, smiled and looked up. “Oh yeah, there’s supposed to be a big human festival going on in the colony around this time. Dates back to an ancient winter solstice celebrations from their home planet. Celebrated with singing, food, gift-giving, food, family gatherings, more food…”
“I thought the humans didn’t like eating like we did?” Bertha asked.
“They don’t but apparently this holiday and some ancient harvest festival celebrated a month before it are the two exceptions.” Pads replied, smirking at the thought of food.
Bertha looked back at Pads with a skeptical glance. The Pacifier assigned for their protection was a good shot with his stun rifle and as handy with his tools as the rest of them but she often questioned just how well he really understood human customs and holidays. Still, since it was still the cold season in the colony when they arrived, it probably wouldn’t hurt to look appropriately festive….
Landing on the planet without incident, Bertha hung back behind the others as she looked at the colony and the colonists gathering to meet them. New Hope was a lightly colonized world, the small city in front of them was the only settlement on the planet, and the small crowd of humans gathered to try and get a glimpse of them was every bit as harried as Bertha expected from a colony that lost with the rest of the galaxy at large. Clothing was worn down and clearly patched over in places and the wearers were clearly dressed in layers instead of using self-heating smart fabrics.
The colonists regarded the Orion specialists with a suspicious look in their eyes, a few humans in the back of the crowd whispered to themselves, and children hid behind their parents as they looked up at the alien visitors. Bertha smiled warmly back at the smaller humans and waved as the leader of the greeting party stepped forward.
“Well, the home world wasn’t kidding when they said it would look like a freighter dumped a cargo of plushies on us. Is everyone in the Orion Commonwealth an uplifted Earth creature created by the Forerunners? And what’s with the Santa hats?” The leader asked, clearly fighting to be polite. “Samuel Watson, governor of New Hope.” He added.
Pads looked at the others, Bertha rolled her eyes. They planned out everything except who was going to speak for the group to the humans. Seeing no one else coming forward, she floated to the front of the group, getting no shortage of disbelieving looks from the humans at the sight of the big hovering black bear with blond locks peaking out from under her hat. “Bertha Driver, Constructor and nanotech engineer of the Orion Commonwealth. A pleasure to meet you governor. To answer your questions, yes we are. The Forerunners seeded quite a few planets with life engineered from Earth DNA samples. As for the hats… we were told there was going to be a holiday festival and-”
“Christmas was a month ago. Whoever told you didn’t calibrate their chronometer correctly.” Samuel interjected, causing several of the Orions to quietly glare at Pads. “Still, it’s the thought that counts. Thank you.” He added, his demeanor warming up by a few degrees as he looked at the group with Bertha. “Three bears, two canines, and a beaver?” He asked, counting off Bertha, Pads, and Dr. Herqulean, the Glabjaw brothers, and Emila Blenda.
“Yes.” Bertha replied, fighting the urge to bite her lip in impatience. Making small talk with non-Orions was not one of her strong suits. And the humans were so fussy about… Bertha decided it didn’t matter. She leaned forward and scooped the governor up in a squishy hug, causing the smaller human to slowly sink into her. “Merry belated Christmas Governor!”
And so began the Orions visit to New Hope...
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DireWolf505
~direwolf505
Fun stuff.
psion
~psion
OP
yep, we'll see what everyone else thinks of it.
Oswald Beese
~whatsonsecond
Aw, haha. The lore about engineering fatfurs is neat, and the way they show up thinking it's Christmas is cute.
