Globes (10 lines #1)

 

The vault was immense, the glow from the individual radiant spheres providing heat and light to each working system, but with only a bit of light extending beyond each into the greater darkness.
There was plenty of space left between each set to keep effects isolated, still more distance dividing the larger clusters of similar prototype layouts.
There were so many variables to test; what energy provided, placement and size of the containments, what combination of chemicals could be combined into each.
It was exacting and patient work, so often ending in less than desirable results.
The Overseer wandered through the complexity of the project, attention drawn to some excitement over at one of the M class experiments.
As was typical, the starting flasks ranged in size, and had been laid out bracketing what was usually considered the ideal light and temperature zone, all rotating and turning at different rates to churn the various chemical mixes.
Of the starting nine globes, there had been three that had looked especially promising, numbers two through four in the series.
The inner most had heated too quickly, resulting in an accelerated growth that had ended in sulfurous contamination and although number four had started well, but something had gone wrong with the containment, leaving the contents too dry, thin and cold.
The developing primary culture in globe three however was reaching it’s absolute peak of perfection, with traces of a subtle smoky component, which if harvested at just the right moment, would ensure it’s appeal to the connoisseur.

Meanwhile, the humans living on Earth, completely unaware of their true role in the larger Universe, blindly continued to burn massive amounts of carbon based fuels, thinking somehow everything would be fine in the end.

 Image taken from the December 2020 issue of Discover

 

My partner Kelly had passed along an exercise suggested from a creative writing course that a friend was taking. 'The 10 Line Challenge' is to write a short story using only 10 sentences. The piece is formatted here so to make the sentence count clear. This may be cheating just a little, as some of those lines are a wee bit on the long size.