aldersprig: (Shooting star)
[personal profile] aldersprig
January by the numbers continues (now two days off~)!
From [personal profile] kelkyag's prompt "Giant giraffes gambol gingerly;" a ficlet
.

🌱

The planet was smack between a planet that had been renowned for its local foods and one that had been amazingly good at providing raw materials, and, as such, it became a way-stop on the transgalactic trade route.

It if had not been right where it was, it was likely it would not have been touched; at least not until a new government came into power back "at home"; the current policy was that one settled on planets but one lived in some sort of concert with the local flora and fauna. Thus, the mining and farming those two bracketing planets did was of the careful, long-term sustainable sort, and the planets were tended with, as one might say, kid gloves.

But this way-planet, this one offered some unique problems. If one was allowed to harvest not more than 25% of the local flora or fauna, what did one do when there were only three plants of any given sort taking up an entire continent? They were, of course, very big plants, spanning miles and miles, but one could not take the root of the plant for experimentation without destroying it unless one was very, very careful.

The companies who did such things preferred working in places where one could simply cordon off one mile out of four and work from there, mining or planting or harvesting or hunting. This planet, thus, would have been left alone for quite some time - perhaps forever, or at least until a more permissive galactic government took over.

But it was at a perfect way-position, and thus one small corner was cordoned off - so very carefully, destroying as little as possible of the local ecosystem - for their space-station.

And from there you could take hover-tours, safaris in very well-armored vehicles. You could, on your long layovers, soar over the giant continent-spanning leaves, watching the giant giraffe-like creatures gambol through the leaves. There were only ten of them on the continent, and they would mouth gingerly at the hover-cars, testing them to see if they were food.

It was a good planet to stop on, and a lovely tour, everyone said.

So long as you avoided the jaguar-creature.

🌱

Want More?

Date: 2017-01-15 04:21 am (UTC)
kelkyag: notched triangle signature mark in light blue on yellow (Default)
From: [personal profile] kelkyag
O_O That is a very tiny breeding population. And even tinier for the jaguar-creature, it sounds like.

Date: 2017-01-15 05:45 am (UTC)
thnidu: my familiar. "Beanie Baby" -type dragon, red with white wings (Default)
From: [personal profile] thnidu
But do they even need a breeding population? We don't know how they reproduce. Assuming that they do...

Date: 2017-01-15 08:24 am (UTC)
kelkyag: notched triangle signature mark in light blue on yellow (Default)
From: [personal profile] kelkyag
'Tis true! It could be a planet full of wind-up toys for a moppet currently being mistaken for a moon ...

Date: 2017-01-15 05:52 am (UTC)
thnidu: Tom Baker's Dr. Who, as an anthropomorphic hamster, in front of the Tardis. ©C.T.D'Alessio http://tinyurl.com/9q2gkko (Dr. Whomster)
From: [personal profile] thnidu

• If you was allowed
• but you could not take the root of the plant for experimentation without destroying it unless one was very, very careful.
> You have to (One has to) choose between "you" and "one". They're both OK, though with different connotations (formality, etc.), but waffling gets you (one) into fixes like these.

Date: 2017-01-28 07:59 pm (UTC)
sauergeek: (Default)
From: [personal profile] sauergeek
If the jaguar-creature manages to take down one of the giant giraffes, I shudder at the potential damage involved to anything on that continent. On the other hand, a falling giraffe taken out by the jaguar may well sever enough plant material to satisfy any curious botanists.

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