Eliza Gauger

Deep Map Pilots 1: Marenka
digital
2012

[buy]

MARENKA flies the sailplane service that skims the Neptune atmosphere on a loop that brings it back to the thaw station on Triton.  All the many photos taped to the walls of Marenka’s cockpit flutter like dead leaves in a cold breeze when she bounces out of the atmosphere, and when the harsh thermal exchange bounces the boat about on its descent to Triton.  Triton is a moon of frozen lakes and a hot core.  The sailplane delivers scooped helium-3 to the fusion engines that are re-routing core heat to the surface.  Soon, Triton will be a subtropical worldlet on the edge of the solar system.  That’s when Marenka will leave.  She has a cockpit full of photos of all the things she never wants to be near again, and soon Triton won’t be a cold enough place for her.

Deep Map Pilots is a five-part science fiction vignette series in collaboration with Warren Ellis.  Ellis writes; Gauger illustrates.

Animated GIF showing progression:

• Process, part 1
• Process, part 2

filed under:
• #warren ellis
• #eliza gauger
• #sci fi
• #science fiction
• #space
• #spaceships
• #illustration
• #digital
• #neptune
• #deep map pilots