Dust world - 100s of feet of swirling dust comprise the lower layers of atmosphere.There is an undulating layer of more or less compacted dust which barely defines a surface capable of supporting Earth objects. The atmospheric pressure is mostly shifting dust, and at many times earth's pressure, it requires deep-sea type operations to 'land'. Occasional rocky outcroppings/mountains jut up from the depths of the planet, forming rare firmament in the wilderness. No light penetrates to these rocks, but it is hot from the pressure and constantly moving dust.
On the rocks deep under the murky wind, life clings on it's perch in short duration,being quickly sandblasted away. Living in the wind are dust mites, creatures that convert the crushing swirling dark heat into life of a sort. They have a small sense of location, being borne on the tempestuous winds of change. But some progress by Naure is being made, as long tentacles of creatures swim/fly through their wormy existance.
Huge networks of denser creature schools have been detected on the currents, and it is assumed they eat the dust mites. The black, sifting hiss and roar of moving dust makes sight & sound unlikely senses. Some hypothesize they use temperature gradients, current modifications by the upstream talker to a downstream listener, physical contact, and some form of scent/smell/pheremone language. They resemble large spindly starfish.
"They" may be a bit of a misnomer, as it is hard to tell from the x-rays where one creature ends and another begins. They form an intricate web of briefly contacting arms, and some believe that it could be one giant organism. Others see it as a commune of smaller creatures, declaring the sporadically interconnected network no more intelligent than a coral reef. Others think that coral reefs are quite intelligent, but also quite slow.Communication with what the researchers are calling Dusty has been successful of a sort. It is possible to send pheremone messages that result in motor responses from the conglomerate,both to approach and to avoid. Sample collections have been difficult, but some sketchy anectdotal evidence suggest Dusty produces and releases other pheremones in response to the researchers' messages. Funding is being requested to develop more advanced message saying "Food over here" and build mobile dust mite dispensers.
