Challenge #02786-G229: Not That Hostile

What sort of culture might arise from an Eyeball Planet? From the ring of liquid water temperature sandwiched between way too hot and way too cold? – Anon Guest

Life… finds a way. It can exist in sunless, crushing depths. It can survive under thousands of Sidu[1] of ice. It can thrive in the substrate of irradiated soil, between the burning sun above and the toxic liquid below. It can even evolve in the confounding physics of Hyperspace, where the Xyrak'l come from. It laughs at terms like “goldilocks zone”, so it definitely gets a chuckle out of Eyeball Planets.

Science theorises that no life could exist on one. Science is wrong. In the relatively thin band of temperatures between burning metal and frozen air, there is space enough for life. Someone with a telescope could, if they so wished, stand on the habitable edge of the hot side and see someone waving at them from the habitable edge of the cold zone.

Walking there might take the better part of a week, but it’s still possible to do it. Life may find a way, but it is most definitely not Human. It might not even be anthropoid. Plants and animals alike have evolved to take advantage of the winds. When intelligent life arises, it arises in the shadow of such beasts. It, too, learns to adapt its environment for the best comfort.

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