Another beastie

[ffutures]

This one's a "Caterpillar-beast" from Uranus, basically a series of six-legged animals that join together to look for food - they're blind (sight isn't actually much use because the planet is always covered in dense mist limiting visibility to about 50ft) and the leader uses its "sensory disc" (the sucker thingy at the front end of its body) to seek food. Once they find it they attack in a continuous chain of teeth and sharp claws. Their nervous systems are linked so they essentially become one animal.

As usual some jagged edges etc. should be invisible in the book, since it's going to be reproduced pretty small.





The idea was later used by James White in one of his Sector General books, the second collection of Ambulance Ship stories I think.

That's almost the last creature, apart from some living crystals from Pluto, basically nanobots with an appetite for metal, carbon, etc. Next I start on the tech side of things, space travel, etc. which will hopefully go a bit faster.

Incidentally, does "Load Up On Guns (Friends Optional)" sound good as a title for the section on weapons?

Comments

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

How large is this beastie? 1 meter at the shoulder or smaller/larger?

As for the section on weapons, there's the old Firesign Theater slogan: "Pass the Lord, and praise the ammunition."

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

They're about 8ft long per "segment", don't really have a figure for width.

Not familiar with Firesign Theater, I'd prefer to go with something a little more current anyway.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sorry, misread your question - they're higher than a meter, someone has to vault a line of them in the story, and barely makes it.

I'm thinking of this as a photo taken by someone standing on a rock or leaning out of an airlock.