Posthuman Blues

Here's the beginning of a brand-new unfinished story. The scene below describes an interstellar craft returning to Earth after a relatavistic space voyage. The time-honored SF premise here is that while the ship's crew will have aged, say, ten years, the Earth will have aged 1000 or so (think "Planet of the Apes"). But I have an original trick that I hope will elevate this idea. (The design of the ship, by the way, is loosely based on the cover painting for Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space.")

The Isis approached the Earth-Moon system, dishes alert atop gleaming struts like the eyestalks of crabs. Its segmented design had an ungainly lladro aspect, like a partially eviscerated wasp left to mummify on its dissection tray. The ship was defined by tapering pods and conical protruberances that looked as if they had been subjected to high heat and delicately stretched. The main structure -- a procession of gray cylinders emblazoned with flags and logos -- glistened vaguely beneath a fractal cobweb of struts, exhausted machinery and spare parts embedded in radiation-proof polymer.