Photosynthesis Node
Preliminary Report on Unidentified Object 92002, "The Chiron Derelict"
Discovered by a robot probe exploring the minor planet 2060 Chiron, object 92002 appears to be nothing less than an interstellar spacecraft of nonhuman origin.
The relevant probe imagery was suppressed, and an unprecedented manned exploration mission was dispatched to investigate the artifact.
Adrift, apparently long abandoned, the vessel is nonetheless far from lifeless. Indeed, the ship itself is alive. It shows every indication of being a complex colony organism composed of many disparate subunits, which the exploration team calls "nodes".
This appears to be no natural space-going lifeform, but a deliberately assembled combination of biomechanoid modules. Most of the nodes are so completely self-contained, so tightly specialized, and so efficient at their functions, that they must have been genetically engineered with near godlike skill.
For example, this power-generating node was extracted from the derelict's outer surface. It is plant-like, photosynthesizing sunlight of almost any wavelength. The black chemistry of this process is far more efficient than Earth's green chlorophyll. The plant's waste products are digested by a symbiotic fungal matrix below it, which in turn emits a chemiluminescent glow...which is absorbed again by the power plant's ventral surfaces. Thus the loop is closed and the plant generates electrochemical energy for the colony-spacecraft with near perfect efficiency.
The unexpected discovery of such an advanced alien artifact so close to Earth is alarming, and the apparent abandonment of the vessel by its presumed crew is hardly reassuring. If they - whoever they are - are not still on board...where did they go?
This is an illuminated alien/organic greeble study for Greeble De Mayo 2015, Week Three.
Photosynthesis Node
Preliminary Report on Unidentified Object 92002, "The Chiron Derelict"
Discovered by a robot probe exploring the minor planet 2060 Chiron, object 92002 appears to be nothing less than an interstellar spacecraft of nonhuman origin.
The relevant probe imagery was suppressed, and an unprecedented manned exploration mission was dispatched to investigate the artifact.
Adrift, apparently long abandoned, the vessel is nonetheless far from lifeless. Indeed, the ship itself is alive. It shows every indication of being a complex colony organism composed of many disparate subunits, which the exploration team calls "nodes".
This appears to be no natural space-going lifeform, but a deliberately assembled combination of biomechanoid modules. Most of the nodes are so completely self-contained, so tightly specialized, and so efficient at their functions, that they must have been genetically engineered with near godlike skill.
For example, this power-generating node was extracted from the derelict's outer surface. It is plant-like, photosynthesizing sunlight of almost any wavelength. The black chemistry of this process is far more efficient than Earth's green chlorophyll. The plant's waste products are digested by a symbiotic fungal matrix below it, which in turn emits a chemiluminescent glow...which is absorbed again by the power plant's ventral surfaces. Thus the loop is closed and the plant generates electrochemical energy for the colony-spacecraft with near perfect efficiency.
The unexpected discovery of such an advanced alien artifact so close to Earth is alarming, and the apparent abandonment of the vessel by its presumed crew is hardly reassuring. If they - whoever they are - are not still on board...where did they go?
This is an illuminated alien/organic greeble study for Greeble De Mayo 2015, Week Three.