Cherry Blossoms: Science Fiction

The cherry blossoms were brilliant patches of white against the purple sky. Lady Miyamoto looked up at them and pondered the beauty of their flowering. Twice a year, they bloomed, and all the court came out to remember their exquisite past. The cherry blossom season was a time for remembering, a brief week's break from the onerous demands of court and politicking. All factions gathered together to watch the cherry blossoms. It reminded them all of whence they came, though the sky be purple instead of blue, and the goldfish that swam in the pond had scales of an iridescent red with swirls of green. A side effect of the metals in the earth, their court philosophers said. The people had been engineered to absorb and process them without such problems but alas, nobody had thought of the goldfish. It was a sad thought. Yet they were beautiful, still, in their way, as they swam through their ponds and under the stone bridges, past the statues of the ancestors. She looked up at the cherry blossoms and so it was that she saw the blossoms fall to untimely death.



Inspiration: The crabapple trees were blossoming today.
Story Potential: Very high. Interesting set-up options...I like where this could go.
Finished Length: Short story, though it could be expanded to book length. Let's not and say we did.
Notes: Medieval Japanese culture (in many ways) transferred off-planet and given, of course, a sci-fi future of technology. "Court philosophers" are the scientists. You know, I actually do really like this idea. It would require a lot of research, though. Heck, I'm not even sure what color cherry blossoms are.