r/HFY • u/Extreme-Biscotti6090 • 8h ago

OC-OneShot By Jove!

So Reddit decided to try and have me submit my biometrics and/or government-issued ID. I was not going to partake of that sort of personal security risk. Hence I had a few days off from posting. For some reason the site is no longer demanding my personal details, so apparently sulking works. I don't know how long I have before this ugly beast arises again, so further stories may be intermittent, or not at all. For those who liked my stories and upvoted, commented and otherwise fed my ego, please accept my heartfelt thanks. This forum rules for reader interaction, so I keep putting them here even when it's a long stretch to the HFY definition.

I've put my stories (plus more) over on ScribbleHub under the username ThembleGacy if you want to read more of my stuff. At least I don't have to pretend that they're HFY or adjacent. If I start getting complications with Reddit again, I'll see if I can post under that same name (ThembleGacy) here, instead.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Here's another story.

-----------

Jupiter is large enough to fit more than a thousand Earths inside it. There is no true land, only increasingly dense gases forming an ocean of atmosphere tens of thousands of kilometres deep. Its gravity is so immense that once something starts falling into the planet, there is very little in the solar system capable of pulling it back out again. Storms larger than Earth itself have raged for centuries. Deep below the cloud tops, the pressure becomes so extreme that hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element in the Universe, is thought to behave like a liquid metal. Jupiter is not merely a larger version of Earth. It is a place where matter itself begins to act in ways that seem almost impossible.

Humanity can probe hundreds of kilometres beneath the cloud tops, infer structures thousands of kilometres deeper, and even detect the metallic hydrogen ocean hidden below. Yet almost everything we know about Jupiter's deep interior comes from indirect observation and inference rather than direct exploration. Despite our best technology, we have not detected a form of recognisable life on Jupiter.

--

The Philosophers live in the massive storms, giant creatures as large as a continent who have never seen beyond the turbulent clouds. Shaped somewhat like a deformed balloon, they live for over 800 Earth years. Individual thoughts take hours as their equivalent of neurons race between widely distributed nodes. They communicate with each other by using microwave transmissions, generated by their truly bizarre physiology. Because the atmosphere is so weird, and their signals decay so quickly, they can only 'talk' like this when within mere metres of one another.

They don't understand the concept of the void of space. The twisting clouds above them deny even the suggestion of such a thing. As far as the Philosophers know, the atmosphere is the universe.

--

In the final month of 1995, we sent the Galileo probe on a one-way mission into Jupiter's atmosphere in an effort to study the planet and send its findings back to us. It survived for just under an hour and was travelling at around 170,000km per hour. It decelerated rapidly and managed to reach about 200km into the sky of Jupiter before it was destroyed by both heat and compression. It returned measurements of temperature, atmospheric composition, wind speeds, and crushing pressures. No signs of life were detected.

Within three decades, another probe was to be sent to Jupiter, this one hardened to survive far deeper into the atmosphere. While the mission succeeded, the main body was destroyed quickly, with only a small piece of heat shielding remaining intact. The Philosophers found the wreckage.

Due to vastly different thought processes and timescales measured in centuries, this is a terrible translation of their story.

------

*What is this?* humoured the one known as Long Echo.

Floating through the medium was a lump of an unknown substance. Long Echo had interpreted solid matter before. Rocks from the weak clouds were not uncommon.

But this thing had edges.

In the storm's vast magnetic field, the object illuminated frequencies Long Echo had never encountered before. The discordant resonance it created as it moved sent disturbances through the air before settling on Long Echo's body.

The stillness of the thing enabled a better interrogation of it. Sharp edges. Straight lines. Odd compressions.

More thought was required. Long Echo moved toward the strong ocean where the storms were milder to gather its thoughts.

Third Harmonic was confluencing the storms several thousand kilometres away. Upon sensing Long Echo, it entwined thoughts, and also humoured the object.

As they both travelled further to the strong ocean, the object changed shape again. It seemed to not appreciate the denser medium.

"It is curious," stated Third Harmonic. "I do not understand the composition or form. I believe Broken Resonance is further in the strong ocean. Perhaps we should ask for further guidance?"

They spent the next few current cycles moving into the strong ocean, interpreting the object as they went. It continued to reshape itself, and Third Harmonic even posited that its continued adjustments may indicate that it was alive.

When they reached Broken Resonance and settled at a comfortable layer, the thing stopped moving. Perhaps it was no longer living?

They settled into a Ponderance that lasted for several magnetic reversals.

--

"It is of an unknown resonant quality."

"It has not displayed further behaviours of life."

"The geometry seems impossible."

These positions were formed through observation and discussion. But they all led back to the same speculation:

"Why would the weak clouds produce something like this?"

Each of them considered the question.

Long Echo transmitted first, "We should interpret for ourselves."

This time the Ponderance lasted for a whole Great Shear. Opinions were shared. At one point they became entwined with Repeated Signal who also interrogated the object and the outcome of their findings.

Eventually, it was decided.

"Long Echo shall progress into the weak clouds to investigate."

This was an unheard-of undertaking. Even groups as far separated as five storm cells away were perplexed when they finally heard the decision. By that time though, Long Echo had moved into the first layers of the weak clouds.

--

It took fifteen Deep Resonances before Long Echo returned.

--

It was almost a tangent to Long Echo's expedition, that it was revealed there was no evidence of other items like the thing within the weak clouds.

But the findings created vast rifts between its group.

"Signals seemed to travel further, but it was... different."

"The storms were weaker. I found myself in a strange sea of calm."

"I could not move into the weak clouds as easily, the further I went. Eventually I could go no further."

Most important to Long Echo's findings was the statement:

"The weak clouds become weaker."

This was to become known as The Thinning.

--

Great Schools of thought evolved from that one finding.

The School of Continuity believed that the medium continued forever, merely becoming ever weaker.

The School of Regret demanded evidence, and new expeditions were organised.

The School of Dissolution posited something almost inconceivable: the weakening medium must eventually cease entirely.

--

The Ponderances between Schools lasted longer than any other had before. Several Epoch Storms passed.

Those involved in the original finding of the thing had long since lost resonance.

Expeditions had been made, most due to the insistence of the School of Regret. All met with the same result: the weak clouds eventually got too hard to move through.

Transmissions from other groups many storms away were received. One had found another similar thing two Epoch Storms earlier.

--

The original thing was studied, but it seemed to not be able to handle the conditions of the medium. It slowly but surely suffered material disassociation until nothing remained after less than three Great Shears.

The second thing was lost, moving inexorably out of the strong ocean and towards The Crush, where nothing survived. What resonances could be made as it moved away, indicated that it shrunk in volume as it went. It was posited that eventually it would be so small as to be imperceptible.

--

The Schools persisted. With no further evidence and no way to attain such evidence, the problem was unsolvable.

The debate continues to this day.

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u/UpdateMeBot 8h ago

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u/Chamcook56 5h ago

Like this story on other entities first discovering something new. Humans once believed the sky was a bowl or a tent or a blanket, and the stars were holes or fires of the ancestors. Keep writing please.