Creative Writing: Elon’s Hunt for Merlin
Elon’s Hunt for Merlin
A revisionist history of the development of the Merlin Rocket
by Ryan R3C
Unfortunately, not many people know the dark back story to Elon’s incredible Merlin rocket engine. While his team was digging a tunnel for the Boring Project in LA, they found an exposed layer of bedrock that opened to a large ravine that dropped thousands of feet deep into the Earth. His team explored the area and that’s when they had their first encounter with the mole workers. Hundreds of pygmy sized humanoid creatures with small pointy snouts and greasy skin with coarse hair.
The moles were mostly peaceful people but not without a temper. They lived in small housing scattered along the cliff faces which hung over a endless run of machinery and cables, steam stacks and vents, and a thick hot air that seemed to hang around. Their strengths were in mechanics and engineering. The raw power of their drilling machines dug into the hard bedrock effortlessly, fire spewed from all sides of the machine as it growled and shrieked, but in all of its chaos there was something inherently beautiful about the destruction. The real attraction of the device is not only did it produce massive, seemingly unbridled power, but it could be controlled with a throttle. This information was sent back to Elon where an idea was born, but he needed the tech.
Eventually the two factions became aware of each other, and messengers were sent back and forth. The Moles didn’t speak a language in the traditional sense, but the soldiers rumored around camps that the moles could read their mind, they could sense how they felt. Peace and patience eventually wore thin and Boring started raiding the houses on the outskirts of the ravine. Mostly small families living in soil enrichment farms they used for cultivating food.
The raids continued relentlessly. The BRG, Boring Red Guard, slaughtered hundreds of nearly defenseless worker moles in one of the larger community tunnels on one eventful evening which the soldiers affectionately called Rudolph’s Day due to the bloody red noses the soldiers cut off the Moles as souvenirs. The barrage lasted for a few more nights until the Moles agreed to meet with Elon.
They decided to meet at the King moles palace near the back of the vast ravine. Large winding steps lead up to a sprawling garden of bioluminescent flowers and plants. There the Mole king sat a stone throne, large wrinkles flexed around his nose as he sniffed the air. His dingy teeth chattered towards Elon as he approached. As the Mole king slowly lifted from his throne, placing his weight on an obsidian cane to give a slight bow, Elon struck him in the back of the head that brought him to his knees. The mole looked up at him with watering eyes, it’s eyebrows shaking with fear then suddenly relaxed as Elon slit the King’s throat. Screams cried out throughout the palace that were shortly silenced as the BRG moved in with flame throwers.
The ravine now lies in shambles. Whoever managed to survive now lives off scraps of food in awkward and abandoned tunnels. They took the engineers and kept their family’s hostage to keep them working on improving the engine performance. The ones who couldn’t hide or be used as ransom were rounded up and forced to dig for minerals. A small rebel camp has been slowly working away in the shadows, silently creating an equal playing field. My father, the King, will not die in vain.
