Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 3: Yours Is No Disgrace
Scene 1: Canisters From The Sky
3.1
Canisters From The Sky
Sssnk Skvrs was panting and sweating profusely. It was too warm. Warm, nothing - it was way too hot. The summers had gotten hotter and yet their culture had not adapted to it and people came out in the blazing hottest part of the day, dressed in business suits that provided layers of clothing - fashionable until you started to melt.
But the midday meal was to be taken outdoors. It had always been that way. Tradition mattered. And one of those traditions was destroying the habitat of the People and the Not-People alike. The Not-People blamed the People for the heat. Because the People built an extensive energy network and flew everywhere, using far more fossil energy than the ground vehicles the Not-People used.
The People blamed the Not-People because on their side of the Bor, they built an extensive network of roads for their ground transport. Roads that absorbed sunlight instead of radiating it back into space. Just because it was far more convenient to build roads out of dark materials.
If Star Fleet had encountered this world and these people, the unimaginative Star Fleet Xenoanthropology Division would have given both the People and the Not-People the name Boreans - or something even less imaginative. They were, technically, one species of humanoids, not too dissimilar from Neanderthals in appearance - they could (with some headwear) pass for human.
Sssnk felt a smaller hand slide into his. He recognized the hand by feel, by touch, by behavior even before he caught the scent of his boyfriend, Brll. Brll’s touch was comforting even though it was far too hot. If it weren’t for the heat, it would be a gorgeous day. Small, personal aerofoils filled the sky, sailing gracefully across the cityscape, landing in grassy fields with a great flapping of plexiflex wings.
Large aerofoils hovered over buildings, bolstered by waste heat strategically vented out of the tops of the buildings to fill the foils and keep them aloft. There was no ground transportation, so there were no streets and few sidewalks - more skywalks. Strong turving created parks like the one that Sssnk and Brll were walking in, with resilient grasses that would protect the ground from most shoes and shoes from mud, whenever it rained.
Sssnk felt Brll’s hand squeeze his suddenly. He turned to follow his boyfriend’s gaze - up into the sky. A giant, ugly, dull gray canister was falling slowly, gracelessly from the sky. It flew low over the city, causing gasps of panic. Then it sailed some distance out and crashed gradually, impossibly slowly, into the distant power plant near the river.
Some aerofoil pilots reacted quickly enough to bring their craft aloft - in some cases with heavy cargo or people falling to their deaths from the barking platforms. Other large transports fell gracelessly and heavily onto the buildings that could no longer produce sufficient air to support them.
As the city was slowly crumbling from this first strike, two additional canisters appeared in the skies, falling impossibly slowly into the city…
3.1