This flatpic is from the collection of noted xenoarchaeologist Stephen James. When I asked him about it's history and origins, he had this to say... "Ah yes, I remember this one well. We discovered this most unusual piece on Betelgeuse VII. It was the year 711 GUT [Galactic Universal Time] and Rowan and I had just come from a particularly hair-raising bit of adventure in the Fomalhaut system, where a leak in our ship's head caused us to make a forced landing on the fourth planet of that system. Let me give you a piece of advice. Never buy a ship with a Recycoilet. They are cantankerous, fragile and, at times, downright rebellious. Not, as you might imagine, a good combination for an onboard toilet. When the blasted thing vented our entire ship's water supply into space I thought we were goners. And why does a supposedly closed recycling system have a hull vent anyway? That's what I'd like to know! What a pain in the... *cough* uh, but I seem to have digressed. Right, so what you're seeing here is the Grondargian Porpule of the long extinct Witheren Folk of Betelgeuse VII. Now, as you may be aware, the Witheren Folk are a most ancient people, extinct now for many millions of years, presumably since the superheated outer shell of Betelgeuse expanded and engulfed their world. Bet7 is a real hellhole..." (Story just a bit too long to fit ...if this link works you can read the rest of it here, in the Writer's gallery.) Comments welcome on both story and image. Story written in AbiWord (a somewhat recalcitrant open source rtf editor, but at least it supports page breaks which $%^@ Wordpad does not! ahem...), image done in Bryce with frame added in PSP 8. Thanks for viewing!