Two ficlets on Earth

[vilakins]

This week's b7friday topic was Earth, though neither of these two stories is set on it.

Last Look

“Take a long look. That's the last you'll ever see of it.”

The Earth hung there, impossibly beautiful, like a milky turquoise cradled in black velvet.

“No,” Blake said with determination, “I'm coming back.”

So am I, thought Vila. He’d managed to get off CF1 all right and he’d only been 14. How hard could it be? Ships called at Cygnus Alpha all the time and he’d be on one when it left.

Nova blinked rapidly, not wanting his last glimpse to be a watery distorted one. He shivered. He didn’t want to die on some alien world, but the vast and empty darkness they were flying into frightened him even more.

Jenna stared longingly out the porthole; it wasn’t Earth she’d miss, but the galaxy, each planetfall an adventure and each departure freedom.

Gan did not look. Instead he remembered the last time he’d seen Zephron, although he hadn’t known it at the time, he and Lubov carefree and excited at their first trip off-planet. He wished they’d never left. He didn’t care if he never saw Earth again.

And Avon watched dispassionately. There was nothing down there for him, not any more, no reason ever to come back.


The Naming of Planets

“Silly name for a planet anyway,” Vila said, relaxing now they were through the barrier. “I mean they’ve all got a horizon.”

“Rather more than one,” Avon said scathingly. “But you must admit it’s marginally better than the somewhat generic Earth.”

"Yeah. All blue and white like that; they should've called it Sea."

"If we were marine creatures, we doubtless would have. Although you're not far from being one."

Vila considered this, his head on one side. "Fishy reputation?"

"Drinking like one."

"Wouldn't mind gills. I could stick my whole face in my food and still breathe." Vila grinned triumphantly at Avon's disgust.

"Vila's right though, at least about Earth," said Jenna. "You'd think they'd have come up with a better name. It’s Terra on the charts, but that’s just the same thing in Latin."

"Well, they thought they were the centre of the universe back then.” Blake yawned, exhausted. “They had to be more inventive with the colonies."

Vila turned to look at Gan. "What's Zephron mean then?"

Gan shrugged. "Wouldn't have a clue. Sounds Greek to me."

"Auron though, that's a pretty name." Vila said dreamily, putting his feet up. "Like gold."

Avon’s eyes went unfocussed too, the thought so engaging he ignored Vila’s surprising knowledge of chemistry.

Cally smiled to herself and said nothing. They would all be far too disappointed to know what 'Auron' meant. 'Earth'.

Comments

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

These are both so wonderfull! The first one is an absolutely PERFECT character study of all of them.

And the seccond - reminds me of a conversation I had with mike_mccall, where I was complaining about the derivativeness of "Banik'ra" and he pointed out that the names of all homelands, in the language of the native people, mean either "dirt" or "place were we come from". Fantastic dialogue in it, too, btw! Utterly perfect!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yup. When I posted it on b7friday, executrix said:
In Lanford Wilson's "The Fifth of July" one of the characters points out that *everybody* calls themselves "The People" and everyone else "The Other People."

Hee. She also said:
I could stick my whole face in my food and still breathe
Knew it--Vila and Rygel, separated at birth.

LOL!

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

...this is all a fiendish plot to get me to join b7friday, isn't it?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hey, we'd love to have you, but you don't have to. You could just watch it like some people do. We don't have that many posts, maybe 1 or 2 a day on average. Or you could just answer any challenge you fancy; there aren't any rules about doing it every week. I'm the only one who does because I set it up so I think I ought to. :-P

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

You know, freinding it with lady_smith (where all my fic communities go) sounds not too bad.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Oh I just love 'The Naming of Planets'. I can just see them all sitting around having that conversation. It's one of those lazy weekend things, where you're all relaxing, having coffee, and the conversation just drifts in a lazy way.

And marvelous Avon-Vila dialogue, as usual.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[grin] I'm sure they did just sit around and chat. Several eps seem to interrupt that sort of relaxed scene--at least on the Liberator.