A Remora from the Great Ship universe
Added 2025-04-06 14:20:13 +0000 UTCCommissioned by generous patron J. M. - illustration of one of the suit-sealed post-humans from Robert Reed's Great Ship series.
Each of them was genetically human. Each was also a lifesuit of hyperfiber with a single fiber-braced diamond plate over what passed for a face. Every suit held a tiny reactor feeding the machinery as well as an array of recycling systems that fed what was barely human anymore.
Every Remora lived inside her lifesuit. Each lifesuit was built at the instant of conception, and that suit was theirs until a final moment of existence, usually on the leading edge of plasmatic fire.
The descriptions of these guys were crazy! I had great fun sketching them; here are the eight different iterations I went through...
They had all kinds of faces, unique eyes and twisting mouths, noses drawn by artists and openings that had no clear function, and every feature was built on a foundation of brightly colored flesh.
We ultimately developed this last form for the final rendition.
“And I have thousands of years of stubborn habit helping me sort through my mutations, spreading my favorite metastasized cells to where they can do the most good -- as naturally as you make fists while standing on new ground.”
“Transformation is my every day, and this is why my life is so much richer than yours.” Then with a final wink, he had told her, “I cannot count the times or the ways that I have reinvented vision.”
I finally designed this guy's lifesuit, and made him "wear" it.
These commissions have become a lifeline for me recently, and I give them my best. Thank you all for supporting me on Patreon, and beyond!
