Image by Steve Jurvetson – Flickr Photograph of the Milky Way in the night sky over Black Rock Desert, Nevada taken on 7/22/2007. It is a 54 second exposure taken with a tripod mounted Canon EOS 5D digital camera with a 16 mm lens, wide open at f2.8 and ISO 800. via Wikipedia
It’s getting so you can be proud for finding an image that hasn’t been meddled with by AI … so this is a real life situation …
Jar-test apparatus used for the experiment. The picture is taken from preliminary testing of different biopolymers by SN Applied Sciences at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330866661/figure/fig1/AS:941943265697815@1601588183793/Jar-test-apparatus-used-for-the-experiment-The-picture-is-taken-from-preliminary-testing.jpg
The light in the tunnels at the Reefarium, where Zebe is reading her twin’s missive …
This pic had a complex beginning and I wish I could’ve listed the original artist. A friend visited a seaside art installation. He took many pictures without taking note of any artists or their details, and at home let some of them loose into the wilds of a well known art program. Representing krill in this pic. It was originally 9 MB, and 75 cm wide. Cut that down to 15 cm, and I might’ve been too stingy. My apologies.
That is, links between Mongrel, part 1 of the series and Meld, part 2. Ordinarily these might be called back-stories telling how various characters got to the point that they enter the story.
Though in this case, it’s the ongoing premise that needs more explanation than I can fit into the main tale. So I have recruited a group of supporting characters to tell their side of events, in the hope that they will then just slot you into the cycle.
This was a 500 word Flash Fiction try-out that describes Claire King’s secret project. If you’ve been reading long enough you’ll probably recognize the Dolphinate, who live in the Delta in Lodestar.
This little painting represents a bunch of new life in a petrie dish.
Rita de Heer 
