VOL. MMDCCCLXXIII · No. 64 · Mon 28 September 2026
The Aftertimes
Dispatches from the future.

SULIS CRATER, OROS . 1 February 2873

Bowing To Drakes Was Not Holy

A settler in a bulky hazard-suit kneels in the red dust of Oros while a six-legged drake towers over him.

Deacon Silas leaked a dusty datacard revealing why settlers must kneel before the wild plains-drakes of Oros.

The file, written by the colony's first faith-keepers, shows the daily bowing is not an act of spiritual devotion.

Instead, the low posture keeps the human silhouette below the mating height of the six-legged carnivores.

Standing upright makes the territorial beasts mistake settlers for rival bulls.

"My joints are ruined," Silas said.

He rubbed his swollen knees.

He spoke from a darkened recovery ward, where he is undergoing joint reconstruction.

The old deacon spent forty years bowing to the pack that nests near the colony's primary water-extractor.

Silas claimed the early clergy invented the sacred prayers to hide a design flaw in the colony's original hazard-suits.

According to safety files, an upright settler triggers 4.3 mating challenges per kilometre from the drakes.

The First Landfall Creed denied the leak.

A spokesperson stated that the beasts simply appreciate human humility and the scent of the temple's sacred oil.

They also announced a new bulk order of heavy-duty gel-pads.

Dispatch metadata

Sulis Crater, Oros
847 years hence
1 February 2873
Domain: Ecology and Wildlife
>Locator chart for Sulis Crater, Oros (847 years hence)