My Pets in Space story, The Thunder Egg, started as an opening scene probably a year ago. I was doing the writer's equivalent of doodling, playing around with ideas. I started off with a female freighter captain walking back to her ship after making a delivery. She is regretting taking the short cut to the spaceport through the oldest, seediest section of Old Port as one of the frequent fogs descends. It's a haven for thugs and muggers and she's grateful for the pistol in her pocket.
That looked promising, so I asked the Muse what happened next. "Ah," said the Muse, "As she walks, something hits her chest and clings, staring into her eyes."
And just like that, I had a snippet of a story.
But what hit her? What stared at her? I asked the Muse. "Let's see. It can fly. It isn't a bird or a bat. Something cute and alien."
"But what is it?" I wailed. "Where does it come from?"
The Muse wasn't happy. "Come on. Work it out for yourself. She's - I don't know - a cross between a Pern dragon and a pterodactyl." Then she flounced off for a Bex and a lie-down.
Both of those species hatch from eggs so after some deep and detailed navel-gazing I decided that little Neyru was hatched from an egg that looked an awful lot like a thunder egg.
Yes, thunder eggs are real. No, they're not fossilized, unhatched dinosaur eggs. But many of them have fascinating contents – if not quite so fascinating as Neyru. They are formed by volcanic activity, as described by Don, the owner of the Mt Hay gemstone tourist park, one of several places in Australia where thunder eggs can be found.
“Mt. Hay is the remains of an extinct ancient volcano, which was last active about 120 million years ago. When it was a rumbling volcano millions of gas bubbles were present in the molten rhyolite lava …. it is these gas ‘pockets’ that became thunder eggs. Thunder eggs or volcanic birthstones are the result of these “pockets” filling with siliceous liquids containing impurities and trace elements, which crystallize as they cool, and when cut in half, reveal many different colours and patterns.”
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| A thunder egg my husband and I found at Mt Hay. |
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| It's an interesting enough rock… but when you cut it open… |
Neyru hatched from an egg that looked superficially like a thunder egg. Her protector, Professor Drew Torson, bought the rock during a visit to the famous markets at Laremenssa, which appear in several of my Dryden Universe stories. Drew was on his Sabbatical, touring some of the Empire's outer planets, and Neyru's egg attracted him because of certain iridescence in the stone. He was astonished when Neyru came out of a shell that looked like a rock. She wolfed down his steak dinner, too – clearly a committed carnivore. She's totally alien and Drew has no idea what she is or where she comes from.
The Thunder Egg is essentially a quest. Drew finds an artifact that turns out to be Neyru and he takes it upon himself to protect her and take her home. Wherever that may be. Just as well he bumps into freighter pilot Afra. He wouldn't be able to do it on his own.
Here's the blurb.
No ordinary rock…
History Professor Drew Torson’s purchase of a thunder egg at a market leads to an astonishing discovery when what should have been just a rock… hatches. He isn’t the only one who wants the unusual creature that emerges. When thieves attempt to capture his new friend, Neyru, Drew is left stunned and bleeding in an alley.
Freighter captain Afra Abrussen is shocked when a strange, but beautiful creature named Neyru seeks her help. She’s no heroine. She has cargo to haul and debts to pay. The last thing she needs to do right now is get drawn into Drew and Neyru's plight.
Drew insists that all they need to do is find out what Neyru is, where she comes from, and get her home without being caught by pursuers who will stop at nothing to get hold of the little creature. Afra thinks Drew forgot one important clause: They need to do all of the above without falling in love during their dangerous mission.
Can a freighter
captain and an academic stay one step ahead of the thieves determined to
capture Neyru, and if they do, what will happen when they discover they broke
the all too important clause about not falling in love?
Very cool background on your story's title. I've never heard them called Thunder Eggs before. I think around here they're just called geodes. But I can totally see how what looks like a fossilized egg would be called a Thunder Egg. Of course, in this case though...surprise!...not fossilized!
ReplyDeleteLove the back story and looking forward to reading your story!
ReplyDeleteThank you, ladies. Maybe 'thunder egg' is quintessentially Australian.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a Thunder Egg before, but boy are they pretty inside! Great idea for a story! Wishing you many sales!
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