Ki En is a morphological historian. A student of tales. An alien professor on vacation, enjoying some alone time out and about among the stars. Until things go badly and he ends up in the all the wrong places at all the wrong times. Fortunately for him, there’s a scoundrel, a librarian, and a king desperate for entertainment in his personal future…
What follows is a fragment from “A Teller of Tales” - part of “Exploring Infinity”, a collection of stories based on The Infinity Hotel from the 2017 Dragon Award Finalist for Best Sci-Fi Novel, “Escaping Infinity”.
Ki En looked up, and up, and even further up to the head of the enormous sauropod that stood before him.
“Too much time working.” His void was flat, dull. “Get away. Spend some time alone, they said! Get your mind right!” He could hear the strain in his own voice.
If the dinosaur heard him, it didn’t pay him any mind. It twisted its head back and blinked myopically, trying to figure out what it had stepped on.
That was, in fact, the ship that En had arrived in. The once-spherical craft was now decidedly more oval.
“Do one of those exploratory safaris!” En realized his vocalizations were getting a bit shrill. He didn’t care. “Get a singleship and a survival suit! Check out a new planet! What! Could! Go! Wrong!”
The giant lizard glanced at the wreckage for a moment. Then it gave a low hoot and turned its attention back to wherever its pea-sized brain had directed it in the first place. With a low rumble, it shuffled away across the rocky ground. As it moved, its enormous limbs batted the escape pod around under it, smashing it even further.
En winced with each stray crunch.
As he watched, the beast lifted up its tail to pass over the ruins of his pod.
It paused for a second.
His echo-group had always said he was awakened within an inauspicious density. En would swear for his remaining days that the thing looked him dead in the eyes at that moment. That the thing was not merely a beast, but an avatar of the universe, there to show him exactly what reality thought of him.
The creature gave another sad hoot and brought its tail down on the ruins of the pod. The already abused ship burst with metallic enthusiasm. Hullmetal, electronics and everything else that had once been En’s ship - and his only way off this planet - scattered across the granite.
En sat down, stunned. An unidentified bit of metal rolled out and bumped against his feet. A gear, perhaps. Or a switch. He picked up the twisted bit of metal. With a sudden snarl, he chucked the metal as far as he could.
Which wasn’t particularly far. He was a professor, not a professional explorer. The former bit of tech bounced off the granite shelf with a PING! Then rolled down the slope towards the rest of the wreckage.
“Get away, they said.” The sudden anger dissipated as quickly as it had come, replaced with a wave of despair. He looked at the hindquarters of the dinosaur as it waddled away.
He buried his head in his hands. “What in the name of the Great Reflection am I supposed to do now?”