Splook - Part II -The Glort [PSC2017]

The Splook was patient.

When Splook arrived from the center of the universe it knew it would return in time. Goodness knows how over the billions of years of cosmos travel the planet entity, now orbiting the mother star, desired to return to those outer reaches.

Hence Splook undertook this pursuit. Even if a tiny piece of the Splook’s existence escaped the suns grip to the black of space, that would be an accomplishment. Might take a few million orbits.

Splook experimented with various life forms on the planet. Watching the flying organisms gave some hope but invariably an occurrence of nature such as the collision between an asteroid and Splook’s largest moon saw the definite destruction of surface life on the only continent and a period of darkness for a near hundred orbits. This happening also impacted on the ocean dwelling beasties. It was during this short span that the Splook bottled up its plans and they were shelved for that period of hibernation. The one large volcano on the world continued to spew the planets molten contents over this span, occasionally shaking the Splook to remind the entity of actuality.

With eventual settling of clouds of dust and debris caused by the fallout of the shattered moon Splook observed that the planet was devoid of surface life. A stark, desolate surface on the large continent, broken by idle standing landmarks were all that remained to greet the red sunrise. The previous view of 3 orbiting moons was certainly changed. Splook was now ringed by the dregs of its favorite moon and noted the falling offal with interest. Burning up infrequently as the remnants entered the planets atmosphere sometimes impacting with the landmass but
most dissolving or just splashing into the ocean.

The change in the planet was gradual but the effects noticeable. Of course the tides altered and with that the ocean currents. The planets atmosphere cooled causing the poles to ice over by some thousands of miles. The water level dropped. Snow appeared seasonally on the flanks of the giant volcano. That mountain exploded several times expanding the caldera. Enormous and unusual pressure activities beneath the crust shook and ruptured the continent. Seawater poured into the cracks along with minute water life. The ocean’s level kept dropping during some thousand orbits. An appearance of some initial pooling within the fringes of the land lent itself to the eventual forming of lakes and larger water masses in the more depressed areas of the continents plains.

It was from here that the Glort emerged from weedy growth and the Splook entertained a thought that perhaps the asteroid had delivered a new flowering life form to its planet.

The Glort were definitely different. Foundational microscopic transparent blobs with many short flexible protruding appendages propelled their ungainly shapes through the shallows by squirting excreta from an only orifice. They were certainly helped along by a voracious appetite as the blobby wonders filtered anything that would sustain their new life through their short extending tentacles. Well, long story short, the Glort emerged from their liquid home over millions of years. Some remained in the seas and evolved separate to their land cousins but still remained attached to or, in a supporting contact with them. The new land dwellers shapes hardened and expanded, however essentially remained of similar primal design but much larger. The growth and productiveness of the species even surprised Splook. Most Glort maintained about 9 feet in any direction when their maturity was achieved. Their intelligence was high and operated with a hive mentality. Although blob in design they freely moved about much like a caterpillar using their protruding appendages in a wave like motion on any part of their maleable shape. The sound “glort" was produced as the autotroph was in motion. They continually communicated, sensed and absorbed their surrounds including sustenance through these appurtenances. The Glort appetite was insatiable. The exterior eight inch skin was leathery but smooth, elastic and unyielding to external pressures or forces. The layer was impervious to liquid and when coated with Glort waste was basically indestructible.

a reply to: bally001

Cont...

Over time the Glort evolved separate identities that encompassed their common purpose. There are many types to mention but a few here require some recognition. The breeder clan. Housed in cathedral like structures built high around the volcano for extra warmth along with the tending servant types. The workers. Non stop in their progress. Collectors. These gathered and stored extra sustenance from the atmosphere, lakes, seas, ocean, land and other Glort. This was taken and passed to the servant Glort who offered the dividends to the breeder stock.

Well, now we come to, depending on a readers perspective, the more unusual but serious none the less, the subject of Glort waste management and how this process inevitably assisted Splook in the world spirits endeavour to escape back to the universe.

There was only one Glort orifice as aforementioned. A sphincter like closing organ covered by a flap to which the Glort, in motion or resting, would ensure was at least a foot from ground level. Unlike the sea dwellers this exiting hole and the resulting waste could not propel the being. The precious excreta from the Glort would pass through the orifice perhaps several times during motion. Splook named this waste “spuk” with regards to the noise the excreta made when it hit the ground surface.

The properties of spuk belong to the cosmos. Not too hard when expended, not too soft. The substance could be moulded or flattened before it set hard as any other substance on the planet. Spuk could only be manipulated by the Glort workers who secreted acidic compounds from their unique antenna like flexible protruding rods. Spuk was put to use by those workers during the construction of roads, buildings, jetties, retaining walls and so on.

Unfortunately there were no regeneration processes and the subsequent over populating, building and feeding processes exercised by Glort lead to a cause and effect upon the world. A complication in this equation was the expanding height and width of the volcano which was some hundreds of miles across and a mighty thirty miles high. The growth of the mountain was nonetheless aided by Glort construction on all sides and around the rim of the caldera in efforts to prevent and reroute spillages of lava away from the breeder cathedrals ringing this now spukked up mountain.

Time was reaching a critical point after another 20 orbits. The crater was almost covered in spuk. Splook sensed not only pressure building up from deep within its planet but also a strange magnetism, shifting or attraction if you will. This was accorded by the lining up of all the planets, of which there were some twenty odd now, in the red stars system. Huge gaseous giants, several large planets of sizes that dwarfed Splook’s world and a small amount of
prime worlds that made up the stars family. The Glort activity increased as their world now continually vibrated, rumbled and violently shook. Much spuk was generated as they reacted by further encapsulating their breeder and servant stock.

Splook was excited. The time had arrived. An indication of the prime moment came with the smaller moon being whisked away from its planet and the worlds rotation slowing to a stop. The huge ocean gravitated towards the solar systems alignment lumping to that side of Splook’s world. The volcano projected away on the opposite side. Splook willed the planet to squeeze internally. The resulting explosion took the volcano clean off the world motioning the planet out of orbit. The momentum caused the ocean to rush backwards into opening to the core reacting with the super heated contents. The effect occasioned a steam like geyser spurting a thousand miles in length accelerating the planet towards the magnetism of the alignment.

So where did this leave the Glort. As indestructible as they were millions were dissolved. The volcano shattered into the void but the spuk encased breeders remained intact. Many were to succumb to the red sun although a minority were flung into deep space. Frozen, hibernating in that state until they may perhaps impact with another world capable of allowing Glort to regenerate. The ocean dwellers sucked up by the geyser instantly iced over as they entered the vacuum. These too, had the ability to survive if connecting with the right conditions. Only a matter of time.

The End

Splook, glort, spuk - I have 3 boys. This sounds like them talking.

Nice work, bally!

Quite original and interesting!

a reply to: bally001

So glad you went for Part 2 of Splook (pronounced like B-OO-T I keep hearing in my head!)

a reply to: PrairieShepherd

Thanks for reading mate,

kind regards,

bally

a reply to: Night Star

Cheers Night Star,

Bit long methinks,

kind regards,

bally

a reply to: TNMockingbird

lol. hope you enjoyed the story,

bally