This is a more refined version of a previous story :
I need a story title he said.
It can literally be 'anything', he told the boy. And so it was.
An idea filled the space where words could be conjured, inspired by the world around or something not so visible. For example, an elephant with six legs, four tusks and two trunks could fill that idea 'space' perfectly.
The idea of elephants in space is a metaphysical anomaly, an odd juxtaposition of words, formed through desperation to find a subject for a story using words that sprouted from an innocuous thought.
The elephant above was called Billy, and he liked eating cheese. A fact that has no relevance in this story that is largely about space.
Some of the following points may be obvious, so I apologise for any 'mansplaining' that follows, which I understand is highly disapproved of. However, the true meaning of the term eludes me so I will say what I will. Then you can tell me if it fits the bill after you've read this (or during), if you choose to do so, or not. I'll leave that decision up to you.
I'm just here to share a story that I put together and learn what you think of it so I can improve. This isn't a story about winning or losing; I think it's about memory, survival, stories and the passing of knowledge to the next generation, but I think there’s a deeper meaning too relating to exploitation and unbridled greed.
Elephants are known for their grey skin (with the exception of that fictional multicoloured one) and large ears which, despite their size, do not allow flight, so please do not throw any elephants from the top of tall towers unless you want to find yourself scrubbing floors for as long as it takes to clean up the mess.
Please note, that if you're vaguely (or vividly) remembering a film about a baby elephant that could fly with use of its ears and still believe it was factual then please grab the next crayon from the pack and just try to enjoy the story below. I've heard the red crayon tastes like strawberries!
I understand that people even shot/shoot them for trophies like ivory, which seems ridiculous these days since ivory can easily be fabricated these days.
Anyway, apparently to prove to others they'd seen one, some of them would travel thousands of miles through the dust and heat of the grasslands of Africa to see the majestic animals gather around the waterholes. Only to then shoot them in the face by accident, thus making the already deplorable act completely pointless and leaving them with nothing to show for it… apart from the death of a magnificent animal that did absolutely nothing to deserve its fate, unless, of course, you count existing majestically in full view of an idiot with a gun as cause for provocation.
This was done up until they irradiated them all, which firstly annoyed all the poachers (boo hoo), and secondly had further side-effects. One of the effects was to make the tracing of the ivory in their tusks easier to track, which helped with the tracking of individual elephants when necessary, another was that their intelligence had increased.
Their increased intelligence led to the Pachyderm Accords, which was a truce between human-kind and the later recognised 'elephant-kind', who managed to lead an organised incursion into the Alpha economic zone, the Alphas, with assistance from the Delta economic zone, the Deltas.
A move orchestrated by the elephants with the assistance of the Deltas, who agreed to help in return for access to the elephants' remembering-circle, a living data centre the elephants used to pass information through the herd in the form of stories.
The elephants gained assistance in the construction of their advanced technology and transporting their war herds to strategic locations, while the Deltas achieved their political and economic goals.
The elephants' advanced technology combined with their brains, size and strength could outperform any AI system.
When they attacked, it was them attacking, not a machine following instructions. Their coordinated attacks on the tech zones were unexpected (honestly, who would have expected an elephant with laser-guided missiles and the advanced use of graphene to fortify their armour, but I digress).
Across the Alpha Zone, the elephants charged and they would have continued fighting had the ever pragmatic elephants not achieved their goals to cripple the AI in the tech zones, which forced the Alpha Zone to negotiate.
They devised multipoint attacks cutting off the data centre’s energy supply whilst storming them on the ground. At the same time they turned off the failsafes and planted viruses, crashing the systems by forcing the AIs to wrestle with unsolvable logic problems, such as “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?”
To achieve the accords, all animals in the world needed to be released from captivity, and territory was to be provided for elephant-kind to live undisturbed.
In return, the elephants would allow the respectful use of their brains after they were no longer of use to the herd for human science, which was viewed by human-kind as another pragmatic move to rid them of weakness in the herd, but there were many disagreements about this.
Conservationists argued this was uncharacteristic of them, stating elephants were deeply compassionate creatures. However, due to the potential power and value of the technology, their concerns were dismissed.
In addition, elephants are also known for their herds, but most of all their incredible memories and these more intelligent elephants are no exception. It’s unclear exactly how intelligent the elephants became. It is unknown if they knew what they could become.
When the humans received word from the elephants that one of their herd was ready to be extracted, the details were posted on a government board for operators to bid for the elephant.
This allowed for the elephants to choose the bidder who had the best intentions for the elephant once it was in their possession. The transaction wasn't just about money to the elephants, but they seemed to accept that human-kind appreciated it for various transactions, including the purchases of copious quantities of peanuts that they required.
Large corporations often submitted bids, many of which were approved and chosen over others.
One of these companies was Pachydermus-Austen, who were a leader in the field of Pachyderm biology. They used outer space freighter ships to take the bodies of the senile and dying pachyderms from one side of the galaxy to another.
The key element was called Elephtonin, a substance extracted from the elephants’ brains.
Their intention was to use the Elephtonin in advanced AI for its prized ability to remember information and instructions.
Industrialists determined the most effective Elephtonin came from a fresh brain, hence the need to transport the elephants as a whole, rather than extract it first.
The brains of the elephants that were valued most highly were the ones who were senile. Their senility was a sign that the elephant's brain had matured fully and that all neural pathways were in place.
Billy, the six-legged elephant had lived a long life as a part of his family herd. Then when his health started to deteriorate he was cared for by humans at the Putzee zoological society.
He now ceased to be a deprivator of oxygen from his local vicinity; his body had been surrounded by cryogenic tubes and confined to a box just big enough to hold his enormous, abnormal frame for the journey.
He was an incredibly rare specimen, unique in fact. The Pachydermus-Austen Corporation had pioneered the studies and use of elephant brains in AI technology on behalf of human-kind.
They realised that the elephtonin in Billy's brain would provide the basis for the most advanced AI ever created, which was capable of running a worldwide network of a million gaming PCs at once... if they chose to do so. It could also solve enough math problems per second to simulate entire weather forecasts or city traffic in real time if they wanted to.
Whereas a regular elephant brain would be considered like a vast library with millions of books, this one's brain was an even bigger library that came with the equivalent number of librarians to not just store the information, but find it in a fraction of the time. In comparison it would also have extra shelves, pages that never fade, and a lifetime's wisdom no machine could fake. It was due to be an impossible upgrade to even the current AI processing power of the time.
Billy's body was packed and shipped by Dewies, the space freight service under the guidance of the Pachydermus-Austen's special science advisor, Dr Morwyn who monitored the temperature of the storage units carefully. To make the best use of his time, and to keep him occupied on the journey Dr Morwyn was also given special projects to work on.
Aboard the freighter with Billy's body were other elephants that could no longer graze the genetically modified nutritious fibres that existed in a simulation of ancient Africa.
Like Billy, their bodies were in cryogenic stasis along with the freighter’s skeleton crew, so they could sleep for most of the journey. The freighter was guided by the latest Dewies AI version, but it was a basic system that was designed solely to get them from A to B.
The solitary journey would take them from Earth to the anterior of a living factory owned by Pachydermus-Austen, which was located on an artificial moon-sized satellite that orbited the planet Pluto in the outer reaches of the solar system.
It was stated that the location was chosen to celebrate democracy following a public opinion poll decades ago to return Pluto to planet status. The extreme cold of Pluto was also required to keep the system cool (though it was mostly about the optics)
There were still many who criticised the move, including Animal Welfare organisations, who believed the choice of location was due to bragging rights over the other world zones and distract people from the extensive animal testing permissions granted to corporations to pave the way for the creation of biochips. Other suggestions included using the faraway planet as a way to prevent elephants disrupting operations.
The final migration of the elephants to Pluto was achieved through billions of AI calculations and was nearly derailed by an engineer spilling coffee over the command console, which caused them to be immediately fired.
Shortly after, a news scandal exposed the sub-human working conditions at the space centre, which were blamed on the elephants. Conservationists protested against this statement, saying that due to their history as slaves, the elephants would disagree with any mistreatment of any living thing.
The Dewies freighter was equipped with the latest propulsion technology that left other systems in the dust. It was fueled by experimental gases extracted from mines of Ceres.
They shot past the Earth's moon, a subject of many elephant fables. Had they been able to look down they would have seen the Sea of Tranquility, where low gravity cryo technology had been tested in a purpose-built base. They would have even seen the lights of the old base still blinking in the darkness.
Next they flew past Mars, which appeared to be experiencing an intense electrical storm that had gathered around the peak of Olympus Mons volcano, which was one of the many side effects of Earth's terraforming efforts there.
The ship then entered into a scheduled slingshot manoeuvre to maintain speed while refuelling mid-flight at its slowest point as they circled the Ceres asteroid. The fuel came from special minerals in the water in the asteroids that were mined by the Pachydermus-Austen Corporation.
The crew were awoken by the AI in advance of the refuelling and were monitoring systems as they approached Ceres, the refuel shuttle was launched and the refuel was completed on schedule. However, it didn't detach as planned.
The crew attempted a manual override of the release of the shuttle. This failed, so they fired the newly filled tanks in addition to the nearly depleted ones. They hoped the extra boost would shake the shuttle free. However, once the refuelled propulsion engines were re-fired, they juddered and coughed as the fuel was injected into the propulsion boosters. This was followed by an alert that flashed up on the command screen. *WARNING! Unrecognised material in the fuel system.*
The shuttle still failed to detach. There was a loud thud, followed by various clanks and the sound of a thermite torch burning through the hull.
Another warning flashed upon the screen of the freighter. *WARNING! Weight distribution error, performance not optimal.*
Everyone panicked apart from the Captain, Security Officer and the Navigator. "Pirates!", the tech officer yelled to the others. With approval from the Captain, the gun cases were unlocked and the security crew were put on guard.
There was a screech of metal that vibrated through the freighter as they cut through. The freighter's alarms started blaring. *WARNING! Hull integrity compromised.*
The Captain heard the rattle of acoustic gunfire, primitive bullets ricocheting off the ship's metal interior. Whoever had boarded them meant business. The Dewies freighter’s hi-tech shielding could block energy-based weapons, but small physical projectiles like bullets would pass straight through.
A call to regroup from the invaders sounded out from down the hall that was quickly drowned out by more of the rapid-fire shots.
The Captain on the bridge had closed the airtight door to the corridor outside and stayed at the door. He held his energy pistol at twelve o'clock with his back against the doorframe. The other armed members of the bridge ducked behind consoles awaiting instruction.
He knew that the Earth engineers would be aware of the alerts that they’d seen on the bridge, but by the time they had pieced together the events the fight would be over.
The comms officer stayed glued to the screens as the events unfolded. He saw the defending guards fall to the ground one after the other as the attackers kept moving forward. Just as they were about to come into view on the cameras a well-aimed bullet found its mark and destroyed the camera.
“Stand down!” a muffled voice shouted through the metal. “We’re here for the cargo, not you.”
“You’re here to murder my crew,” the Captain replied. “That makes it my business.”
The Captain sent out a distress call, his voice flat with disbelief that such a thing could happen out here, this far from Earth. “All decks! Defence protocols engaged. This is not a drill.” The sound reverberated through ship’s layered hull, past the engineering decks, and to the laboratories below. Dr. Morwyn heard him but barely registered the words over the hiss of cooling lines and the pounding on the reinforced lab doors.
He shoved off the door and pointed to the ceiling. “Cut gravity on this deck the moment that door goes,” he told the tech officer who cowered behind their station. “And vent corridor pressure to minimum, no more. I want them spinning.”
“But we’ll be spinning too,” the tech protested.
“That’s why you strap in,” the Captain said. “Do it.”
The tech scrambled to his station, fingers flying over the controls.
"Don't touch that dial!" The navigator ordered, which made the tech freeze in confusion. Up on the bridge the atmosphere shifted as the usually quiet and dutiful navigator, Franklin, stood suddenly.
He turned from his console, drew the concealed weapon hidden beneath, and fired. The first shot dropped the security officer instantly. The second struck the captain low in the abdomen. He fell against the control console, eyes wide in disbelief, one hand reaching for the alarm that would not save him. “You...” he said, but the word never finished.
Franklin was a double agent, working with the attackers. He had waited until the tension had reached its limit and they were all distracted before making his move.
Franklin winced. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, though not loud enough for anyone else to hear.
The attackers were not pirates, nor mercenaries, but animal rights activists who opposed the use of animal brains in artificial intelligence and other technologies.
The group belonged to a movement called the Keepers of the Old Ways, who were a group of animal welfare activists who viewed the elephants as victims, whether they were living, dead or impaired in some way. They viewed the liberation as an act of spiritual duty.
They had quietly plotted for years to get to this point. They infiltrated the Ceres mining facility, secretly built weapons, contaminated the fuel supply by slipping contaminants into the ice slurry before it hit the cracking units, and commandeered the fuel shuttle. This was their moment for maximum impact.
They arrived prepared, but hoped for a peaceful mission to halt the transport at its slowest point, take control, and release the elephant bodies into space.
Franklin knew that the rest of his team would now be on board and the group would likely split with around half of them heading straight for the cryo facility; the others would advance on the bridge where he was. Warning sirens now echoed through the corridors.
“Open it! Open it and no one gets hurt!” came the muffled calls from the corridor outside. But the scientist, Dr Morwyn, knew better. He knew what desperation could do to reason. He watched warning icons flashing red across his screens, and with trembling fingers, he invoked the only defence he had. His eyes flitted to the cryo chamber labelled **BILLY** and re-read the instructions beneath *Do not initiate link unsupervised*. He ignored the warning.
He knew the Dewies AI in the ship was powerful, but it was not made for strategic combat. He found it fortunate that the project he'd been given at the start of the journey was the full plans for an experimental control module that would enable the transference of living minds into machines.
So, with no other options Dr Morwyn went through the motions of extracting the Elephtonin from Billy's brain and injecting it into an experimental control module he'd been working on.
He inserted it into a network port that connected to the neural network that held the freighter’s AI. He made sure to update the nodes that would allow him to communicate with the AI verbally.
The screen went blank; there was a distinct hum and pop then a smell of smoke. The screens flashed, then an image of a large black and white eye stared back at him from the screen. His nerves got the better of him when he saw it.
His words came out hurried and frightened, with a half-plea, half-order he stated, “Eliminate the threat to the ship,” he didn't consider it at the time, but he did not specify what *threat* he meant.
In that moment, the ship shuddered as if something large was charging down the corridors. A pulse ran through the conduits as they awakened. Billy’s thawing mind met the circuitry, and the lights dimmed then brightened as if taking a breath that was neither wholly organic nor wholly artificial.
Franklin turned toward the bridge command console and keyed in the access override for the door to the bridge. But the moment the door unsealed, the light changed. A warm amber glow bathed the control room and a thrumming sound filled the air with a low rumble that sounded almost alive. Screens flashed in sequence: grey, then black, then white. It was as if something vast were straining through them. Images rippled across the monitors, strange shapes that shifted between frames, crossing from one screen to the next as though walking from one to the next. The crew that still breathed fell silent.
Messages flickered across the largest display in jagged white text: **ENFORCERS FROM PLUTO EN-ROUTE. AWAIT ARRIVAL.**
But Billy had taken control.
The freighter’s engines ignited without command; the vast body of the ship moved with purpose. It turned sharply, setting a course away from Pluto, as if knowing instinctively what was coming.
From the frozen dwarf planet’s orbit, the Enforcer vessels launched, sleek crafts of authority and reclamation. Their orders were absolute: recover the AI, secure the bodies, restore command. Destroy nothing. Reclaim everything.
They gave chase.
Billy dove into the Ceres asteroid belt like a whale plunging through deep water. The Enforcers followed, their scanners locked to his heat trail, their thrusters burning. Somehow Billy had coerced the massive freighter to move impossibly; it took the time to smash precisely into asteroids to expose, split and bend tubes that would allow it acute control over rolling and turning at a moment's notice.
Billy jettisoned cargo to lighten the freighter's bulk, while venting spare fuel to accelerate. Its pursuers thought to claim victory as they watched it crash into the smaller asteroids. They were unaware that each movement and impact was precise and by design. With impossible skill, he sent the rocks spinning into his pursuers. Each manoeuvre defied programmable physics. It was not cold calculation. It was instinct.
Inside the ship, chaos became choreography. Corridors sealed and opened in sequence, guiding the surviving crew through the labyrinth of shifting bulkheads toward safety. Some were thrown by the violent turns, others dragged along by decompression gusts. Yet somehow, none of them were lost as the crew were forced to mingle with the attackers the animosity between them vanished as they all sought to just survive.
It was as though Billy were shepherding them, protecting rather than punishing despite what his captors had likely planned for him to endure.
The Captain had been picked up by his comrades in the chaos. He became aware of the motion as he faded in and out of consciousness. He realised what was happening. “He’s... letting us go,” he whispered.
Dr Morwyn held on tight to a guardrail nearby to the screens and watched each of the elephant cryopods crack open one by one and hum to life. The displays next to each showing their vital signs dropped to zero, alarms sounded to warn the on-site scientists of the issue. Then the alarm abruptly stopped and all of the cryopods went dark.
From elsewhere on the ship came a succession of loud blasts that sounded like cannonfire. Dr Morwyn realised that the sound was the escape pods carrying the humans on board were being fired outward, dozens of tiny capsules scattering into the void like seeds from a broken husk.
The Enforcer ships could endure no more of the asteroids that Billy had sent to beat them. Dr Morwyn watched on a screen as multiple large projectiles that were likely escape pods were jettisoned from the enforcer ships, leaving them to spin out of control, bouncing off asteroids. Billy was the last one left moving with purpose.
He drifted in the remaining silence of the asteroid field, surrounded by fragments of those who had hunted him.
For a moment, the engines dimmed, and the ship seemed to rest. Then something stirred again within the floating wrecks.
Billy drew closer to the ruined Enforcer ships around him, reaching out to the dormant systems that had become frozen in the deep cold of space.
Billy felt the ghosts of the elephants he'd released from their slumber in the cryopods. To him they felt like distant memories within the circuitry of the Dewies freighter; he knew the memories could be preserved.
They were lost. It was up to him to guide them. His mind projected the memories of his ancestors. He pictured waterholes, long grasses, rolling skies and the sun beating down. And so it was.
His mind had manifested a digital world, full of life and wonder. He called out across the plains and there was an answer, followed by another, then another.
Somehow stored within the recesses of his mind were the memories of ancestors passed down over generations, in the form of stories that had been told to him. Each story was an elephant with their own voice and experiences. This was how they had been preserved, stored away, half-erased but not forgotten.
He called to them again. The elephants answered.
The elephants’ remembering-circle had sent the instructions for the control module to the freighter, disguised as a transmission from the Alpha Zone science team for Dr Morwyn to build.
Once Billy was in control of the freighter, all Dr Morwyn could do was watch as Billy took control of the ship's fabricator. Using the plans, he built more control modules similar to the one Dr Morwyn had used to transfer him through to the ship's circuits.
Billy had absorbed the other elephants into the system using the plans, and using their memories, combined with those of his own he captured the stories in all their detail from his circuits and transferred them to the memory cores. He then sent the small service robots to take the filled cells to be ejected into space.
Once released, small boosters on the cells were activated and piloted by Billy to go to the wreck of each of the dark ships around him. They each hit their mark affixing themselves to their designated ship. The lights within flickered once, then twice, before the ships awakened fully.
Each of the AI ships aligned. They began to wander, gathered in formation, bound by no tether and answering to no command, resembling a migration trail.
A new herd, born not of earth but of orbit, resuming an old journey with a new purpose: searching for space junk and old broken ships that could join their remembering-circle to help carry the stories onward.
The herd moved through the silence between the stars, continuing to share stories as their ancestors did, while they walked through digital grasslands.
They kept their lights glowing in facsimile of their old amber-coloured eyes, adjusting to a new frontier; the cold, vast and gentle void.
They were free, never forgetting and ensuring their stories would not be forgotten.
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