Buried by caustic red dust, recent storms had revealed the statue. The drones dug quickly; carapaces resistant to the radiation for hours at most.
It soon stood bare; grotesque; alien. Of its paltry four limbs one was cast out, pointing. My eyestalk swivelled in the direction.
Just dust. Shifting, deadly, dust.
<A monument?>I clicked my brood-sister, <To what?>
<Humph,> she trilled. <All monuments are shrines to the same thing. Death. Conquest. Murder.> Her eyes rolled behind their nictitating membranes cynically. <One civilisation’s monument is another’s headstone.>
Standing thorax deep in radioactive dust of a dead world, argument seemed futile.
Word count: 100
Feeling a bit scifi recently on the Friday Fictioneers; and a bit apocalyptic! I at least went smaller scale this week, last week I destroyed the universe; this week only humanity and the Earth. Guess I’m getting soft.
This one has actually been knocking around in my head for a while; or at least the idea of non-humans chatting while standing in the ruins of humanity. I hope you find it interesting.
Let me know what you think!
The other 100 word stories can be found by clicking here.
Cheers
KT
Uncertain Tales 
The Brood-sister has spoken the truth. Argument is futile indeed. Good one.
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I loved the mental picture of eyes rolling behind nictitating membranes. So graphic! Different take on the prompt KT, I don’t think many will go there.
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Eyestalks and membranes made me shudder. A great take.
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Standing thorax deep in radioactive dust of a dead world, argument seemed futile
Wonderful line. Radioactive dust would surely make many things seem futile. Interesting take on the prompt.
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“All monuments are shrines to the same thing. Death. Conquest. Murder.” I love this line. Thought provoking
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Very imaginative and a great take on the prompt. And this: “One civilisation’s monument is another’s headstone” is a brilliant line for it is very true.
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I completely agree. This line really captured my imagination!
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The hive-mind has spoken, and this little bug is tamping down a mushroom cloud of “wish I’d written that” envy. Creepily perfect.
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Dear KT,
I love the realism that your words imbued this piece with. That, combined with the situation described underscored your characters thoughts and told a story that crosses the boundaries between species. Holding life and civilizations together is hard, but the alternative is dust. Great job this week.
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear KT,
This put me a little in mind of The Martian Chronicles. Haunting piece. One man’s monument….great line. You had nothing to feel insecure about. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Wonderful take on a prompt, very descriptive and deep.
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I love every word of this. Waving my eyestalks at you in envious admiration.
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Superb story this week, KT. To respond to a photo that might easily pull a writer to the past, you have skillfully woven the tale of a probable future. Nice work.
All my best,
Marie Gail
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Feels like Ender’ s Game has come to visit Friday Fictioneers. I love it.
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What a dreadful future.. But I think monuments are the symbols of disasters for some. It seems like they understands humanity better than humans.
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Great language and beautifully, KT. There is a lot of truth there about monuments. They all seem to go hand-in-hand with death. Wonderful take. Aliens will undoubtedly be smarter than us humans. You captured the essence of another race very well here.
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Move aside Ozymandias. A wonderful story, KT. So much to think about and exotic characters to delight the imagination.
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Wonderful story with great descriptions! Your aliens are eerily inhuman with their ‘eyestalks’ and ‘nictitating membranes’, standing amidst the ruins of a dead earth. The brood-sister is unfortunately right in her summation of monuments. Well done. 🙂
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What a dreadful vision, beautifully told. A very unusual take, love to know how you got there. Well done, Dee
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Wise words – and haunting: ‘All monuments are shrines to the same thing. Death. Conquest. Murder.’
Truth in a nutshell.
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Thanks Kate, I’m really glad you liked it 🙂 I’m happy with the reception for this story – people seem to like it, which is always nice. I was a little unsure how the ‘aliens’ would be taken and at the start I struggled with how to ‘show & not tell’. I think it gets there.
Thanks, as always, for reading 🙂
KT
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Always a pleasure to read your work.
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Ah yes, we did both write apocalyptic tales! You said mine was better, but I’d be the first to counter that… Yours is very well written.
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Pretty chilling stuff that, and well constructed. Respect.
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