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May list-fiction: "Interspace Fauna"
🕑 Added 2023-05-02 23:31:49 +0000 UTCI wrote this stream of consciousness without establishing exactly what the setting or backstory would be, except that I wanted most of these "creatures" to feel as little like "creatures" as I could get away with.
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Fauna 001: a flattened and transparent blue arrow. Its opposite end has never been observed. It extends slowly and cuts matter, which dissolves into its surface and evidently sustains it. No two 001 instances have been observed at the same precise depth, or observed to ever adjust their depth.
Fauna 002: a thin, vertical column of polygonal segments. Segments range from six to 27 sided shapes and rotate in alternating directions, generating friction between segments. The heat attracts Fauna 003, which ignite and carbonize.
Fauna 003: clear, flimsy, "heart" shaped organisms lined with angular veins that bioluminesce across the visible spectrum. "Flap" through the void by folding and unfolding lengthwise. Fauna 003 are attracted to heat, and each individual splits into new 003 when exposed to heat from any source other than Fauna 002. This is not a matter of temperature level; 003 is unharmed by heat sources equivalent or hotter than 002.
Fauna 004: invisible, shape currently unknown. Presence is marked by a metallic buzzing sound. 004 consumes metals by unknown means, easily tearing away small pieces which remain visible in what is assumed to be its interior, dissolving over the course of several hours. 004 evidently identifies metal by a combination of texture and color.
INCIDENT F004-1: a chrome-plated plastic object was offered to an 004. Specimen "ingested" the object, then violently ejected it toward the survey vessel. It emitted a previously undocumented sound as it fled, and subsequently no instances of 004 have since attempted to feed on survey equipment or experimental offerings. It is hypothesized that instances of 004 either communicate with one another over food sources or all observed instances were of the same individual.
Fauna 005: a multicolored disk of light, varying in size. Can "loosen" into a spiral filament and "tighten" again with enough force to crush solid objects as it reconfigures back into a disk. Prefers to "attack" objects that emit light. Oboe music causes 005 to turn uniformly purple and discontinue all aggressive behavior.
Fauna 006: a flexible seven pointed star-like shape, blacker than the surrounding void. Its surface details are visually imperceptible, but physical contact suggests that its surface is covered in fine, sharp growths that can "drill" into solid matter, consuming material in the process. Any light source filtered through blue glass will cause 006 to "scream" and collapse into a small spherical configuration, which plummets downward.
Fauna 007: identifiable by dense, continuous soundwaves confined strictly within a drifting egg-shaped area with a wider, flattened "tail." Dubbed the "soundwhale" by survey crew. No other material or energy components have yet been identified. All matter within Fauna 007 slowly evaporates in a pattern physically consistent with sonic bombardment, regardless of actual strength or density. Smaller 007 have been detected following larger specimens, and are incapable of "feeding" on their own. Evaporated matter is instead passed to these smaller specimens through a cone-shaped area that can extend and retract from the "underside" of the "adult's" borders.
Fauna 008: identifiable by nothing other than an emotional state felt by all survey crew, neither pleasant nor distressing but reportedly incomparable to any other nameable emotion. Size, shape and movement speed of 008 was recently ascertained by arranging personnel in a grid and instructing participants to report the sensation in real time. 008 was subsequently determined to be roughly twelve meters in length and one meter wide with two rigid "wings" of equal length to the body, roughly an "airplane-shaped" area. All other Fauna are observed attempting to flee from 008 if capable of locomotion. Fauna that cannot evade 008 are observed to vanish instantly on contact with its absolute borders. Analysis concludes "prey" are destroyed by tremendous gravitational force comparable to a black hole. It is not known why organisms and materials foreign to interspace are unaffected.
Fauna 009: not directly observed. Survey crew observed various other fauna in states of physical decay, unmoving. Close visual observation of the fractal-like decomposition triggers immediate knowledge of Fauna 009 as a pulsating cloud of loosely connected particles which exist precisely 0.023 seconds in the future.
Fauna 010: a rubbery blue-grey object likened to a stingray, but invisible and evidently immaterial on only its ventral surface. Matter passing into this "empty" side of the being is lost as 010 continues its high speed flight through the void, and is observed to grow in mass exactly equal to this "ingested" material. A probe retrieved from a captive 010 was found to be coated in a material almost identical in chemical composition and consistency to petroleum jelly. 010 visibly increased in size as the probe was inserted, and decreased proportionally as the probe was retrieved.
Fauna 011: a collection of up to five long, rippling red "curtains" radiating out from a subatomic central point, likened to a spatial singularity but lacking a gravitational field. These "curtains" or "arms" extend up to sixteen miles in length and widen to roughly a mile in maximum width before ending abruptly. This material wraps around nearly any matter it comes into contact with and slowly ferries it to the central singularity. Instantaneously, these "consumed" objects are ejected as red corundum ("ruby"). Several billion of these gemstone waste products drift around the center of 011 in a dense cloud.
Fauna 012: the most "animaloid" fauna yet observed. A cross shaped configuration of white, flexible, segmented tubes. 012 walks in a crablike manner on Fauna 011's tentacles, remaining at least half a mile distant from all others of its kind. Seemingly undetected by 011, it capable of consuming matter through any of its tube tips and will attempt to feed on captured material before 011 can consume it. All instances of 012 "stood up" on a single tube and "waved" their remaining three as the probe passed over them, emitting a series of "saxophone-like" cries.
Fauna 013: an amoeboid mass of ochre-colored dough with many finer hairlike pseudopoda, 60 meters across. Any object approaching within 100 meters is impaled by a pseudopodal "lance" that can extend to 100.05 meters in 1/100th of a second.
Fauna 014: thus far identical in every observable aspect to a common adult housecat, female, calico breed and missing its left rear leg due to an unknown past injury. Observed sleeping comfortably atop Fauna 013, awakening every four to six hours to clean itself, stretch, and return to sleep. Fauna 014 emits a continuous sound indistinguishable from the purring of a normal cat whenever conscious. Fauna 013 and 014 have been observed 24 reported times over a period of 72 years with no observable changes in behavior or apparent health.
INCIDENT F014-1: crew held a position outside the range of 013's defense mechanisms and attempted to attract 014's interest with a number of audio recordings. These included a range of feline calls, food bags and food cans being opened, running water, birdsong, cat toys and human speech samples. 014 ignored all stimuli but the human voice, which it reacted to by fleeing to the opposite side of 013. 013 immediately began approaching the survey crew and readying its "lances." All further interference with Fauna 013-014 is prohibited.
Fauna 015: object resembling two "crescent moons" intersecting with one another in a cross shaped configuration. Pale blue, luminous surface is covered in circular pits that emit a continuous ringing sound.
INCIDENT F015-1: object began to follow survey crew 023, during which an increasing number of crew began to emit the same sound and attempted to leave the safety of the exploration vessel. As soon as any crew exited the vessel and exposed themselves to the void, 015 ceased all activity, approached the crew slowly, then fled backwards with extreme speed. All affected crew regained their autonomy, but have suffered long term psychological effects similar to extreme separation anxiety. All afflicted personnel were removed from survey duty.
INCIDENT F015-2: six former members of crew 023 breached protocols and boarded exploration vessel 44N on an unauthorized launch, severing all communication channels. It is presumed these personnel left in search of the same 015 from their previous encounter. A following survey mission retrieved several heavily damaged pieces of 44N's hull within 015's known territory.
Fauna 016: a point of bright, white light less than 1mm across, which moves along solid surfaces similarly to the light of a laser pointer. 016 moves at a rate of only 1/2 inch per second, but appears to be attracted to the sound of a living human heartbeat. No other organism, material, or even artificial replication of the appropriate sound has affected 016's trajectory. Contact with human skin causes an exponential breakdown of tissues until the subject is completely liquefied over the course of 72 hours, after which two new instances of 016 emerge from the remains. It is thus far impossible to contain 016 in any known material.
INCIDENT F016-1: two instances of 016 are believed to have been brought back unintentionally with the return of survey crew 034. The first instance was successfully returned to interspace while consuming a host.
ADDENDUM F016A: further experimentation with Fauna 016 has found that each subsequent generation of "offspring" exhibit a 2% increase in speed.
ADDENDUM F015B: field observation has determined that 016 can detect the nearest human "prey" within 643km.
Comments
Emily Davis
Awesome! Have you written more list-fics besides those on Patreon?
These are all my pets
