It’s Sunday again, and time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click the logo above for rules and other participants) and the logo below for snippet Sunday. Today’s 8 sentences are a continuation of last week’s from Rescue Operation.
But there was one species, the Maungs, that was dangerous to Humans.
They were not aggressive. In fact, the R’il’nai had a long history of peaceful trade relations with the Maungs. But the adult Maungs were a symbiotic relationship between a mammal-like but mindless body and a nervous system that started life as something resembling an insect. That nervous system could not infect the now-extinct pure R’il’nai, or their R’il’noid descendants. But the nervous system could infect Humans during its free-living stage, and became a genuine and frightening parasite in Humans. Most R’il’noids could immediately detect an infected Human, and within a year or two of infection, the parasite could be removed. If it was not, it gradually took over and eliminated the Human mind.
Scary friends, right?
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Scary, indeed. You’re painting a picture of the worst nightmare epidemic. Ebola? Child’s play by comparison. How about a happy tune next week, my friend?
But the Maungs ant the Confederation both try to avoid the infection.
This is a fascinating take on the cross contamination of previously isolated cultures, Sue Ann!
With friends like these . . . 😀
Made complicated by the fat that they really are friends.
Yikes, scary indeed! Glad to hear your O2 sats are coming up and you can start taking the oxygen off, excellent news. Diaphragmatic breathing my friend will do you a world of wonders : ).
If I can find a chair I can sit up straight in.
Those Maungs sound dangerous indeed. Love the descriptions of them and how they infect humans.
It’s not deliberate.
Holy crap, Sue Ann! I did not see that coming. I love how you make the Maungs a bit more complicated than simply being always deadly for humans. Real life is full of ifs, ands, and buts so fantasy should too, where apropos, and you sure do that. Every excerpt I read makes me more & more curious about the story 🙂
Well that’s a horrible concept. Yikes. Great description though. 😀
Glad it didn’t come across as an infodump.
Oh, I’ve wanted to know more about the Maungs so thanks for the details, which are – as always in your novels – extremely well thought out. Excellent excerpt!
This is at most a preliminary infodump. We’ll actually meet a Maung in book three.
These sound terrifying-and what an original creation! This story just gets more and more interesting.
They don’t look terrifying.
Ebola scary. Well done.
Written long before the Ebola scare.
Wow, that is disturbing and creepy. Great job!
But the Maungs are basically friendly, their reproductive cycle just doesn’t work well when Humans are around.
Oh wow, this is amazing. Parasites scare the crap out of me. Great eight!
Especially those that take over the mind.
Oh my goodness, such a frightening and realistic description of this infection. So many possibilities and so many that are not desirable. Great job, terrific world-building.
I tend to concentrate on world building. Mostly Central, Horizon, Rakal and Earth in this trilogy.
That has to be terrifying for the human host–but at the same time, it doesn’t sound like the alien’s fault, either.
Exactly. At this point I’m explaining the Rakal vote and setting up for the third book of the trilogy.
Wonderful descriptions! Sounds chilling for the human.
It is.
That whole mind-eating parasite thing is a real drawback at parties, I bet. Seriously though, what an interesting dilemma.
It takes a couple of years.
Fascinating. Inspired by something in nature right here on Earth?
The mind takeover was to some extent based on some fungal parasites of insects. The rest of the Maung reproductive cycle is based on symbiosis but has no exact replica here and now.
Oh so creepy good Sue Ann!
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And the Maungs and R’l’nai have a long history of cooperation.