this story is continuously under construction, so it tends to end abruptly.
it will probably look different in a few weeks, too.

It is interesting to note that the leading cause of death among Jyrian Polymorphs is not spontaneous combustion (although that was in fact the case up to about a decade ago), but instead oranges, which have caused not only a huge decline in the entire civilization’s economy due to the complete focus on the orange industry, but have been recently found to cause a breakdown of the cells of a polymorph after regular consumption over about ten years. Oranges were completely unknown to the Jyrian civilization until a stray crate of them was left behind by a routine transport ship, discovered by the populace, eaten, found to be good, replanted, and eventually consumed in mass quantities by the general public, who found them better than the former staple of their diet, a greenish-orange gelatinous substance called XidGhJkdr. The exact reason for the cause of the breakdown of cellular structure is believed to have some relation to the Jyrians’ polymorphing ability, as it tends to occur at a moment of transmutation. Although the discovery of oranges eventually led to the death of 99.65% of the Jyrian population, it could almost be considered a good thing because, for all their shape-changing ability, the Jyrians spent most of their time in a shape remarkably similar to that of a palm tree. They did a lot of swaying and their conversation mainly consisted of discussions about the most suitable bark textures and so on. After their enlightenment as to the existence of citrus fruits, however, a typical dialogue would go something like this: "ZdfGhyu juKjGgFF Kgy oranges Ddrse, JudfetH oranges oranges", which while still dull, was a remarkable improvement over earlier days. The remaining seventeen Jyrians have relocated to a beach planet in the Aldebaran system. They do much swaying and no longer speak of oranges. They share the planet Bijkabo with a number of widely varied lifeforms, including the Saai, who resemble nothing more than small blue crabs, although the similarity would be more striking if the Saai lacked their bushy tails. The purpose of these strangely colored puffs of fur was unknown to the Zoological Committee until quite recently. A young assistant of the esteemed Gr. Frad Jones (the same Great Reflector responsible for the tragic Mission to Incorporate the Obhk Race Into Moderate Society [it must be remembered that the Obhkian method of communicating by direct contact between tentacle and cerebral cortex was not known to the unfortunate research team when they arrived on Ob]) discovered the answer to the mystery while vacationing on Bijkabo during the season of great warmth. Being cold-blooded, the Saai have a tendency to become overheated after prolonged contact with the sand, which can reach high temperatures (relatively, of course-- many of the volcano-dwelling races of the galaxy would be unable to sustain life in such a chilled environment) during the warm season. The tail is used to alleviate overexposure to the hot sand by allowing a Saai to float in the air for brief lengths of time. According to her report, the assistant was dozing in the shade of a fairly large Jyrian when she awoke to the startling scene of a mass floating.

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