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Entry tags:
Challenge 046
Story title: Colonisation
Author: Ingvild
Word count: 361
Rating and warnings: Safe for everyone
Characters and/or pairing: Again, none. Follows the previous entry.
Summary: More worldbuilding. Vegetation on the colonies.
The colonies were made by people out of metal, and for a long while that was all there was to them. Metal. There was nothing there to make it a hospitable environment for human beings. The colonies were completely barren.
Slowly, it started changing. Barracks, and later houses, started appearing. The air, after having been breathed and recycled several times, started tasting more natural, rather than artificial. The people realised that this was mostly an illusion, but it meant that they had started adapting to the environment. Scientists and contractors and everyone involved in logistics and the people piloting the vital shuttles were all breathing the same air, over and over again, and it helped to create a community.
Things went quickly from there. The community was set, the air made people believe they were part of something bigger rather than making them feel homesick, and the barracks had turned into houses. Slowly, but surely, other things started appearing.
The scraps of metal were cleared, and streets and pavements came in their stead. People started using what they had to make things, and soon street stalls started popping up, later being replaced by shops.
The day they installed the artificial weather system, the people of the colony took the whole day off and celebrated, feeling their first drizzle since leaving Earth.
Then, finally, they had grass.
The grass made all the difference. It had at that point been seventy years since the first people came to the colonies, and small children held their grandparents’ hands as they stared at the new, green thing on the ground. Grass was luxury. Grass meant that all the agricultural colonies were up and running, and soil could be spared for something so frivolous as grass.
The grass was the final straw, so to speak. The colonies now thought of themselves as independent and fruitful. And on Earth, people saw this, and started thinking that it was time to put them in their place.
Symbols can be powerful things. Freedom, in the colonies, was green as grass. And green was the colour of envy, as the Earth started seeing that maybe the colonies didn’t need them.
Author: Ingvild
Word count: 361
Rating and warnings: Safe for everyone
Characters and/or pairing: Again, none. Follows the previous entry.
Summary: More worldbuilding. Vegetation on the colonies.
The colonies were made by people out of metal, and for a long while that was all there was to them. Metal. There was nothing there to make it a hospitable environment for human beings. The colonies were completely barren.
Slowly, it started changing. Barracks, and later houses, started appearing. The air, after having been breathed and recycled several times, started tasting more natural, rather than artificial. The people realised that this was mostly an illusion, but it meant that they had started adapting to the environment. Scientists and contractors and everyone involved in logistics and the people piloting the vital shuttles were all breathing the same air, over and over again, and it helped to create a community.
Things went quickly from there. The community was set, the air made people believe they were part of something bigger rather than making them feel homesick, and the barracks had turned into houses. Slowly, but surely, other things started appearing.
The scraps of metal were cleared, and streets and pavements came in their stead. People started using what they had to make things, and soon street stalls started popping up, later being replaced by shops.
The day they installed the artificial weather system, the people of the colony took the whole day off and celebrated, feeling their first drizzle since leaving Earth.
Then, finally, they had grass.
The grass made all the difference. It had at that point been seventy years since the first people came to the colonies, and small children held their grandparents’ hands as they stared at the new, green thing on the ground. Grass was luxury. Grass meant that all the agricultural colonies were up and running, and soil could be spared for something so frivolous as grass.
The grass was the final straw, so to speak. The colonies now thought of themselves as independent and fruitful. And on Earth, people saw this, and started thinking that it was time to put them in their place.
Symbols can be powerful things. Freedom, in the colonies, was green as grass. And green was the colour of envy, as the Earth started seeing that maybe the colonies didn’t need them.