Illustrated character models for my turn-of-century steampunk sci-fi media novel.
Current Project
Category: Animation
The Mercy of Angels
The three angels approached and encircled the humans in a slowly tightening ring. Tension radiated from James, probably his combat training shifting into gear. If there was a fight, was he in any shape to defend them? Joni doubted it, and knew for certain that she wasn’t – but it wasn’t a conflict she was worried about. Joni put her hand on his arm in a calming gesture.
They drifted in aquatic micro space miles above the submerged bottle. From within, points of light twinkled through unimaginably dense glass. Bioluminescence, Joni reasoned. If the city boasted light, maybe there was heat, and who knows what other unimaginable micro wonders. For the city to exist in this hostile environment was itself a wonder, and could only be explained because of the colony’s ideal location – inside the air pocket of the bottle, safe from invaders. Joni recalled that many species of freshwater microorganisms preferred to colonize similarly protected spaces. It seemed that the Microsians learned from the best.
The angels showed no sign of aggression – though who really knows what aggressive angels look like? – thought Joni. The creatures closed their ring around the pair. Pseudopodia grew, broadening and thickening – the limbs of one Microsian interweaving with those of the others, forming a watertight plait of eukaryotic membrane that enveloped Joni and Jas – a near perfectly spherical cocoon. The angel’s clusters of red photoreceptor eyes faced outward.
Inside the cocoon Joni felt the relative gravity increase as contractile vacuoles in the membrane pumped water out, while green organelles – chloroplasts – replaced the water with oxygen. In seconds, the inner space was dry. Joni touched the pressure point on her collar: her helmet evaporated with a soft pop. She took a breath. The cocoon’s air was sweet, richer than she was used to.
Jas filled his lungs. “Seems okay,” he intoned with an approving rumble. “Don’t breath too deeply, or you’ll hyperventilate.”
Joni pressed her hand against the wall of the cocoon, could feel the thrumming reverberation of cilia working in wave-like coordination, propelling them… somewhere. “They’re moving us,” Joni thought aloud. Although the Microsian cocoon had no windows, the shifting of watery light playing through translucent cell membranes confirmed movement.
Jas finished her thought: “To that bottle, and whatever is inside it.”
Again, the dark cloud of desperation threatened. Joni held it at bay by focusing on the present, on the now. She concentrated on breathing. Short breaths, spaced three seconds apart.
“Are you all right?” asked Jas.
Joni shook her head. “Kaya is gone,” she answered, and continued distantly. “Whatever life was before, no longer is. Our mission…the crew…me…you…all of it…gone.”
Jas did not offer any words – there were none. He put his arm around Joni, and not just for warmth. The only sound was the flittering butterfly humming of the ciliary membranes fanning the water, moving them toward the Microsian colony in the submerged bottle.
Sanctuary
The micro-scape was a watercolor blur of blue, green, and amber. There was no up or down. Joni closed her eyes, shutting off the dizzying vista and the vertigo that threatened to make her puke. She felt James’ arm pull her close, his right hand held firmly around her waist. She was spent, both physically and emotionally. He was now the only thing anchoring Joni, albeit tenuously, to time and space. Kaya was gone, her sweet soul and living brilliance extinguished in a moment of confusion and violence, and with them, Joni’s will to continue with the mission – with even the most rudimentary tasks of survival.
But survive they must, somehow…and do so without ship or crew, or the most basic shelter. Jas moved them forward, away from the aftermath of the battle, away from that unthinkable disaster that had pitted them against the strange indigenous sentients. The micro thrusters in his suit harnessed the water’s Brownian motion, directed excited molecules of H2O to move them deeper into the strange land of micro space.
Joni opened her eyes. Her pupils adjusted to the gloom. Ahead, in the distance she could see twinkling lights…and they came from inside a familiar shape, far away yet unimaginably huge. It was a bottle.
And then they where no longer alone. Figures appeared out of the micro haze…
First one, then a second, and finally a third of the aquatic seraphim materialized out of the watery gloom directly ahead. Each had wing-like membranes bound to gently waving cilia trailing from their pseudopodia, and down the ventral surface of head, neck, and torso. Joni wasn’t sure which was the greater revelation: that angels were real, or that angels were microorganisms.
Illustration: A Motley Crew
Illustration by Eric R Russell. Tools: Adobe Creative Suite with micrographic elements.
Author’s note: Microscopic Monsters is now being featured on Best Science Fiction Blogs
From the Files: Animated Series Concept
Refugee organism transport, sketch, by Eric R Russell
Dygon cyborg vehicle sketch, by Eric R Russell
There is a planet – blue, green, and white, that exists far outside the furious activities of a weary and war-torn galaxy – where life flourishes primordial and untouched. In a forgotten past this planet was known as Earth, but not anymore. Now Sanctuary has become a repository for endangered species from across the known universe.
Protecting this place is a small army of specially trained futuristic warriors called Rangers. The Rangers battle nefarious poachers and other opportunists intent on harvesting precious resources to benefit their mercenary war activities.
As a group, the Rangers are a council of many species, from a hundred worlds. They patrol the planet in cybernetic vehicles called Dygon (a derivative of dragon).
Permitted to live on this verdant world are a handful of retro-aboriginal humans. According to the treaty that protects Sanctuary from exploitation human or alien, these settlers must without the benefits and comforts of advanced technology.
One of the human-looking Rangers, Tevin, is particularly watchful over the planet. He is about to meet a woman, Seela, mother of two children, Aram and Reena. Tevin will find himself torn between his duties as a Ranger and his devotion to this young family.
As a destructive galactic war spawns an ever-expanding waste, threatened organisms are placed in robot ships that are delivered to Sanctuary.
With its diversity of environments, Sanctuary is home to a vast alien menagerie. Animals of unimaginable physiology and behavior roam the planet, occupying and competing for niches. The natural balance is constantly upset as new creatures are introduced. Some exist in large numbers, others as a barely surviving handful.
The governments fighting the Galactic War use resources so quickly that new sources for raw materials are in constant demand. A mercenary economy has developed for supplying these resources to all sides of the conflict. The word Poachers applies to any alien or human group with designs on exploiting the animals or natural resources of Protected Earth. According to treaty, all poaching is illegal. The planet is off limits to all governments, human or alien.
The Rangers were introduced to Sanctuary long ago, in the earliest years of the war. For a long time, they numbered in the hundreds and organized themselves into a Ranger Council. They consider themselves to be “of ancient Earth,” though all know that they are from planets forgotten to the peoples of the known universe.
A Ranger’s powers are partially a result of their biology and partially a result of their training. Most can communicate, at least on a very simple level, with animals. Rangers can also camouflage themselves and their sanctuaries, which are secret and known to only themselves. They have enhanced sight, hearing, and smell. They can go days without sleep. They are significantly faster and stronger than humans. While they can eat human-type foods for several weeks, they must occasionally consume starmead, a liquid prepared from the bark of a mature starfern. The giant ferns are imported from the Rangers’ extra-galactic training world and grow in sheltered valleys of the world’s coldest mountain ranges.
To be continued…
Eric Robert Russell 