Slimy Things Did Crawl

Halfway to Better #1

by Susan Kaye Quinn

SHORT STORY

At the bottom of the sea, a trawler crawls across an abyssal plain, carefully cleaning microplastics off the ancient mineral-rich nodules, when the crew finds something that shouldn’t be possible.

Slimy Things Did Crawl is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection.

If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.

Genres: Science Fiction

34 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2024

About the author

CLICK HERE for a FREE STORY

Susan Kaye Quinn has designed aircraft engines and researched global warming, but now she uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopeful climate fiction to gritty cyberpunk. Sue believes being gentle and healing is radical and disruptive. Her short fiction can be found in Grist, Solarpunk Magazine, Reckoning, and all her novels and short stories can be found on her website. She is the host of the Bright Green Futures podcast.

SOLARPUNK
collections
Bright Green Futures: 2024 (edited by SKQ)
Halfway to Better

novels
Nothing is Promised series
When You Had Power
You Knew The Price
Of Kindness and Kilowatts
Yet You Cry When It Hurts

short stories
A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me (Luna Station Quarterly) (hopepunk)
It's in the Blood (Reckoning 8)
Once and Future Kilowatts (Solarpunk Magazine)
Rewilding Indiana (Little Blue Marble)
Seven Sisters (Grist)
The Joy Fund (DreamForge Magazine)

SCI-FI
Singularity Novel Series
The Legacy Human
The Duality Bridge
The Illusory Prophet
The Last Mystic

Stories of Singularity
Restore
Containment
Augment
Awakening
Harvest
Defiance
Resistance

YA SF
Mindjack Series
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
Locked Tight
Cracked Open
Broken Wide
Mindjack Short Story Collection

WATCH the award-winning live-action Mindjack Book Trailer!

STEAMPUNK ROMANCE
Royals of Dharia
Third Daughter
Second Daughter
First Daughter

CYBERPUNK
Debt Collector
LIRIUM (Season One)
WRAITH (Season Two)

WATCH the Debt Collector Book Trailer

ANTHOLOGIES
Synchronic
Telepath Chronicles
AI Chronicles
Dark Beyond The Stars
Future Chronicles
Cyborg Chronicles
CLONES: The Anthology

MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY
Faery Swap

WATCH the Faery Swap Book Trailer

CONTACT SUSAN
Susan's Website | Sue on Bluesky | Sue on Mastodon
Susan's Email: sue@twistedspacepub.com

Reviews

[John Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read three of Ms Quinn's Mindjack stories, this one and the other five in the series came up on my feed. This is far different than the Mindjack series, fantasy dystopian scenario where some have mind powers that the government wants to control. This is more based on her PhD in environmental science, very short story about cleaning up the ocean from damaging microplastics. Quit short, but very gripping for only 20+ pages. I will continue with the series, all of which I downloaded free on kindle.

[James Tomasino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid solarpunk story. Cleaning up the ocean floor of microplastics gets a little bit hairy. I was getting into it when it wrapped up. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time in that world and see what happens next.

These short stories are indeed very short, so I'll need to reset my expectations for the rest.

[Christinaraven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short story where 3 crew are at the bottom of the ocean cleaning up plastics. The story opens when they are in the middle of a regular boring day at the bottom when they find something wild. It made me laugh at what happened next and snicker at what it really was and had to see if they would survive.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oceanographic adventure

Solid prose and a good story, which squeezes in intrigue, adventure, mystery and even a small romance subplot into a short story.
Thoroughly enjoyed this taster and I will preorder the collection.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story, but somehow it seemed longer - which was good! I guess that was because the author managed to set the scene without overlong passages of description - I wish some other authors would learn this clever trick!
Anyway, to the story. Interesting. Very original. Enlightening. I don't want to say more as I hate spoilers, but if you are interested in sci-fi, environment, dystopian - or anything similar, you will love this. And anyone whose reading doesn't come under those categories will probably enjoy it too!

[Sandy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

SLIMY THINGS DID CRAWL by Susan Kaye Quinn is an adult, solarpunk story found in the author’s HALFWAY TO BETTER collection of short stories. SLIMY THINGS DID CRAWL focuses on the underwater adventure of a sea trawler and its’ crew of Mateo, Anders and Ianira.

Told from first person perspective (Mateo) SLIMY THINGS DID CRAWL focuses on the clean up of the Earth’s oceans. Mateo, Anders and Ianira are research scientists whose current mission is to clean up the trash that is currently destroying the marine eco-system but the submersible, isn’t the only thing exploring the depths of the sea, and the team begins to struggle to get to safety.

SLIMY THINGS DID CRAWL is quick read; an intriguing, thought provoking and startling look at the what ifs of deep sea exploration, and the fall-out of man’s selfishness and entitlement of the world’s ecosystems.


copy supplied for review

[OldBird · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written cli-fi short story with just the right balance of action, exposition and description. I felt like I could predict what was going to happen, but it was no less enjoyable a quick read for it.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short solar punk

Part of a short story collection, kind of a flash fiction in a way. Set on a future earth battling technology mistakes. Reminds me of Jules Verne20,000 leagues under the sea.

[Alan Loewen · Rating 4 out of 5]

SF Creature Feature

Three people in a bathyscaphe encounter something that should not be when exploring the ocean depths.

The tension as the event almost destroys their vessel with them as well is palpable.

I very much enjoyed this short story.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

ooh I love the lino cut cover art.

Set in near post climate crisis world…

We have invented a machine to trawl ocean depths and pick up the garbage.

This is a the first part of a series, all with matching covers.

Very cool.

4 stars

[LittlePiscesReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose is lovely and pulled me in right away. I'm fond of pining and Mateo's for Anders just hits that sweet spot though Ianira is a fascinating character that I'm sad not to see more of. There's a wonderful juxtaposition between the ecological destruction wrought, the suffocatingly cramped bathyscaphe, the tension between the characters and hope and wonder.

[Cara Patel]

I got a free sample of this on my Everand app and it was listed as LGBT. I can’t seem to find reference to that anywhere though so I would love some insight. This is a soft DNF until I have another monthly credit to spend

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intersting future tripping.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story, interesting, fun. I like the way this author can very concisely describe the situation and the environment, developed the characters enough to make them real, and tell a fun story.

[Michael David Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Crichton, but Hopeful

I don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly was *not* expecting a [redacted] to be the story's threat. A well-written short!

[♥ t y n i c i a ♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure how much of a story can possibly be told about a deep sea worm butthole. but here you have it.