vignettes

[marycatelli]

This week's prompt is:
motionless ⛰️

Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.

Comments

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

One of the most difficult problems with a tidally-locked planet like Horse-eye is the lack of any orbit equivalent to the Clarke Belt to put satellites that need to appear to hang motionless in the sky relative to the ground. The Kitties' solution is to use their grav-plane technology to hold the satellite in place. However, we pointed out that, given that most of the population would be in the twilight zone between the burnt nearside and icy farside, putting a satellite at the L1 position between Horse-eye and its primary would use less energy for station-keeping.

The Kitties were completely astonished -- and then we remembered that they'd gotten a huge jump-start on their technology from an ancient wrecked starship in their system. In particular, the manuals they found within the vessel, which taught them a huge range of technologies and allowed them to leapfrog past a lot of intermediate technologies, so they didn't always apply the most.cost-effective solution, even on civilian applications.

[marycatelli]

Such are orbitals!

[marycatelli]

She stood, still, for a moment. There were other noises.
And, she reminded herself, no reason why other scholars, or masters, could not be about at this hour. The refractory was not open yet, or the library, but they could be practicing.
Or just talking.

[marycatelli]

"We should cast a spell," said Stephan. "One that would not actually start until we were a safe distance away. Or at least would not attract a great deal of attention until then."
"Not starting would be safer," said Clara. "It's important to get it right. Because of the danger."