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Happy New Story Sunday, Daily Tomorrow readers! This term, top marks to a story that truly stands alone, by the singular Mary Jo Rabe, who is in a league of her own herself. Don’t forget to enroll before the drop/add period ends! The image this week is an image of the lunar south pole, taken by the Henry brothers at the Paris Observatory in 1885. And that will be on the midterm. —The Editor
Semester of Solitude
By Mary Jo Rabe
Dod raised his grasping appendages gracefully and adjusted the vents in the walls of his surface habitat to let in some of the frosty air. The breeze tickled his external inhaling organs briefly before the incoming air heated up to his preferred room temperature. But the sensory input, the delightful, bracing combination of nitrogen, methane, and just a touch of carbon monoxide! The membranes of his breathing organs quivered with the touch of each molecule. This was a truly pleasurable way to begin Dod's day.
Dod's physiological composition had been genetically engineered to enable him to derive energy for his flexible body from any gases encountered. Still, some were more pleasurable than others. Dod was a connoisseur of fine sensations. This little planet with its subtle interaction of almost frozen gases was an olfactory paradise. Too bad, he needed a protective habitat and surface suit for survival. He would prefer to be one with the planet's essence.
Sight, on the other hand, was somewhat overrated on this dusty planet revolving around a distant, middle-aged, yellow star. The natural, outdoor lighting was dark, too dark for differentiating most frequencies he called colors.
Since this uninhabited planet was the canvas for his first individual project in cosmic art, he had painted a section of the surface a comforting but invigorating tint of pinkish-orange that contrasted nicely with the dark sky and the gray, monstrous, natural satellite that was trapped with his little planet in a jaunty but orbitally necessary do-si-do.
He still hadn't decided what to about the feeling of doom that the moon created. It didn't fit in with the impression he wanted the planet to express.
The biggest challenge so far, of course, had been for him to engineer the self-replicating painting nanobots using only the materials at hand, a little time-consuming at first, but exhilarating when it finally succeeded.
He found the view of the adjusted surface to be cheery for the most part, even without artificial lighting. The feeling of success at his first individual artistic endeavor was almost as pleasurable as the sensory experience of certain gases.
Mary Jo Rabe writes science fiction, modern fantasy, historical fiction, and crime or mystery stories, generally displaying a preference for what she defines as happy endings. Ideas for her fiction come from the magnificent, expanding universe, the rural environment of eastern Iowa where she grew up, the beautiful Michigan State University campus where she got her first degree, and the Black Forest area of Germany with its center in Freiburg where she worked as a librarian for 41 years before retiring to Titisee-Neustadt. News about her published stories is posted regularly on her blog: https://maryjorabe.wordpress.com/
Copyright © Mary Jo Rabe