Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, and the Great Pyramid have nothing on this joint literary project.
Continued (of course) from TERRA Formed, Part 1: The Edit — continued.
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
Yay! Thank you, GAPAs!
I know… we’ve been working on this for years now.
it was the first RRR of 2007. My God, it’s been forever….
OK, where were we? I was going to rewrite the sequence where Ian breaks Jaa out of his cell, but I had no idea where to start.
Nor do I. And I’m not really sure how they’re going to escape either, I mean, Parents security is pretty incredibly tight, right?
Well, Jaa designed much of it. But still, you’re right.
I can sort of imagine them escaping, but rescuing Kari and then escaping seems kind of unlikely.
What exactly is it?
I get the idea that it’s some kind of round-robin, though.
Yes, indeed. We’re actually rewriting a story that we finished about… what, a year ago? which was very exciting but very bad science-wise.
5- RRRs have been explained numerous times. Look on the HG2MB, I’m sure it explains it.
Terraformed was begun in January 2007, abandoned for a few weeks, and then revived by a bunch of ‘phytes. We finished the story, and, not satisfied with that, proceeded to write a pair of sequels. We edited and edited and edited, and the story still wasn’t that great, and then the one fully edited copy was destroyed when the computer holding it melted in October 2008. After this horrible realization, it dawned on the remaining writers that this opportunity could be used to write a much, much better copy of the story. So we started. We haven’t got very far yet, but someday eventually we’ll finish it.
Since we all have writer’s block, shall we take this opportunity to do some long-range plotting?
8- That sounds good.
Since the “gravity engines” have been scrapped, the Parents will have to alter the path of asteroids with nuclear bombs or similar. This will take years to come to fruition, at the very least, so they need to have control over part of the asteroid belt to pull it off. They’ll have to do some sort of coup d’etat.
10- Oh, yes! This way we get to put in the little intrigue-y bits that existed way back in the beginning.
I’d love to get involved with this but reading the large number of threads involved in this would be complicated, so is there any way one of you could give me a brief or detailed, whichever you prefer, plot summary?
Here’s how it is. Earth got used up. So we moved out- *SPLAT*
A long time ago, in a gala- *SPLAT*
These are the voyages of the- *SPLAT*
*wipes pie off face* For real, this time.
.
Earth was doing great. The population was booming, but that wasn’t a problem: people were leaving it, colonizing the Moon, Mars, even a few asteroids.
Then World War Last happened, and nuclear winter descended on our beautiful blue planet like a hammer blow. Those who could afford it got out. Those who couldn’t died.
Fast-forward a century or so.
The Asteroid Belt is now ruled by various mining corporations, fighting over the orbiting chunks of rock and metal like alley cats scrapping in a gutter. No all-out war, but subterfuge, sabotage and breach of contract are the order of the day out in the furthest reaches of the inner System.
Mars got terraformed about halfway before the project’s funding died with the Earth. Now, even the equator is like Siberia- but you can survive outside the city-habitats. For about 24 hours.
The Moon is overpopulated and full of little city-states that still cling to their old cultural identity.
Mining corps, magistrates, potentates- almost none of them are aware of the sinister organization pulling the strings behind the scenes. They are called the Parents. They are rich, they are powerful, and they don’t care how many people they kill to achieve their ultimate goal.
The whole thing started innocently enough, with a group of wealthy scientists who joined together a few years before World War Last. They read the news and saw the patterns. They knew it was only a matter of time before the bombs fell. So they pooled their resources and constructed an underground refuge, a sort of stationary Noah’s Ark. They preserved as many animals and plants as they could in living form, and stored away the genetic code of many more, so that when the Earth was livable again they could rebuild the biosphere. They called themselves the Preservers.
(OK, I’ve got to continue this later.)
A century? I swear it’s like two. Or maybe three. I think we said somewhere.
OK, I’m going to try to continue from where you left off, but I can’t really remember all the details of the new story, so I may end up getting it all wrong.
Eventually, some of the Preservers, headed by a man named Sebastian Kahn, got bored and quarreled with their fellow Preservers, which resulted in them breaking off, leaving Terra, and forming their own group, called the Parents.
The Parents call themselves this because they intend to create an entirely new race, smarter, stronger, and just better in general than everyone else. They call this Project Neohominum (New Human). It has a sister project, Project Neoterra (New Earth), which will involve…doing…something…to Mars, something which involves nuclear bombs and will result in the death of everyone on the asteroids. I think we were going to crash all the asteroids into Mars, but something was wrong with this plan. I can’t remember what.
Anyway, to aid them with their goal, they have created a race of genetically engineered humans, the Containers. The purpose of the Containers is twofold: first, to serve as guinea pigs for their Neohominum experiments and to hold the best genetic material, and second, to silence rumors and suspicion regarding the motives of the Parents.
Unfortunately for the Parents, some of the Containers realized the truth– that they were only a stepping-stone of sorts and that as soon as Project Neohominum was completed, they would be killed or reduced to subhuman status– and went renegade. Kari (an adaption of her ID code, KRI) is one such Container. While fleeing from the Parents on Ceres, she falls in with Ian, a naive, Terra-obsessed orphan, who begs to accompany Kari when she goes off-planet. He knows nothing of Kari’s history, and by the time he realizing how brutal and unscrupulous she really is, he is already deeply entangled in illegal activities.
When they disembark from their stolen shuttle/pod/whatever-it-was, they are almost immediately seized by the Parents, and wake up in a cell. Kari tries to escape, but another Container, KRJ/Kerj (who is actually Kari’s counterpart–in experiments, she was the control and he got experimented on and as a result is scarily fast and strong and able to survive unpleasant conditions), takes her away. Ian is ignored and left to wander at will. (Remember, he still knows nothing: only that Kari is ruthless and murderous and terrified of these people.)
There’s more, but I’m tired of typing.
Are we basically completely re-writing this now? I know I’ve fallen way behind with my assistance on any of the RRRs…
12- Aw, come on, there’s only… *counts on fingers* eight threads! Five for the story, three for the edit. Or was it six for the story?
As for plot summaries…Gods help us. I’ll come back to this.
13- Basically. We’ve kept all the characters and the overall goal of the Parents, but we’ve added to the latter and changed their way of achieving it.
OK… parents-bad basically try to kill everybody and make “better” people…
Do the preservers stay alive? Are they in the story?
Kari-doesn’t like being tested on and breaks away from the system,but is really ruthless and not a good character
Ian- naive and gets entangled in bad stuff with Kari, but is good overall?
Does anybody help Ian? How old is he?
And then there’s whatever’s next
15-
Parents–very very bad indeed. They’re goal is not to kill everyone, that’s just what’s going to happen and they don’t care.
Preservers–Yes, the Preservers stay alive. In the old story, Kari got teleported to Earth after being captured for the umpteenth time, and found the Preservers. In this story, I’m not sure how they’ll come into play, but they definitely do.
Kari–You have to remember that Kari’s ruthlessness is by no means remarkable. She’s a Container, which are basically programmed to be heartless. There are some renegades, such as Jaa, who have better morals than Kari, but that’s because he’s been used entirely for his brains, while Kari has been used entirely for brawn, and as a control in the Kari-Kerj experiments.
I’ll explain Jaa later. I have to make breakfast.
-gasp- I said “they’re” instead of “their”!
-dies-
Oh man I remember this! I read a lot but never finished. Perhaps now’s the time?
…can you even put an apostrophe after “now?”
17- You’ll find it difficult to locate the original story, at least in any sort of coherent readable form. You could help us rewrite though.
should we start the rewrite? soon at least. You could explain to the rest of us as we go…
19- Oh, we started over a year ago, not that we have much to show for it. I’ll go compile the story, and might I suggest that everyone keeps copies of it this time? I know it’s my fault that it was all lost, and in order to prevent occurrences of a similar nature, all writers should keep a fully updated version of the story.
~~~
Kari had almost made it to the loading ramp when her legs gave out for the third time. She collapsed, gasping for breath, stinging sweat dripping into the cut on her forehead. Inwardly, she recited…
Pain is illusory, a nerve-pattern firing to warn the brain of harm. The brain controls the body, and thus controls pain…
…and at the same time cursed herself for thinking about one of their blasted mantras. I’ve got to get away. If I can make it across the dock before someone notices me on the surveillance cameras, I can get into the hold, and by the time they arrive, I’ll be headed off again.
There was a soft click from across the room, and Kari staggered to her feet, spinning around.
A door marked MAINTENANCE ONLY swung open, and someone stepped through.
She thought at first that he was one of the security personnel. But when she took a closer look, she realized that they weren’t as far behind as she’d thought. He was one of them.
It was easy to tell, although there wasn’t anything particular to distinguish him from the average human being. Something about the look in his eyes. She recognized it- she probably had it too, she reflected ruefully.
He dropped from the catwalk above and sprinted across the cluttered floor.
The last crate was rolling up the ramp. Kari seized the upper edge and hauled herself on top of it. It teetered on the edge, then fell into the hold. The hatch slammed shut in the man’s face, and the cavernous space was plunged into darkness.
Kari relaxed for the first time in twenty-four hours, making herself as comfortable as was possible on top of a rough plastic crate.
That was close. Closer than they’ve ever gotten.
She breathed deeply, calming herself.
Where was this ship headed? Ceres. That’s right. Ceres. Not too long a trip. We’ll have landed before the captain realizes that his oxygen tanks have been depleted a bit more than they should. Then I can hide. Ceres has lots of people. They can’t search every house. I’ll be all right.
I hope.
The harsh fluorescent lights on the passageway ceiling were beginning to dim, and the throng of people was beginning to thin out. Nobody noticed Ian making his way towards the dead end some hundred yards along the passage, which was completely fine with him.
It wasn’t as if he stood out from the crowd. Dark brown hair and eyes, light brown skin, ragged synth-fiber and gen-cotton clothing, a size too small- there was nothing in his manner or physique that distinguished him from the average young Cerean vagrant, except perhaps the book he clutched under his arm. The book was a very old one, printed on synth-paper instead of recorded on a compact disc. Ian had checked it out from the only public library in Louwborne Drum that was still, well, public.
A recorded bell-tone began repeating from speakers on the ceiling. Curfew warning. Ian picked up his pace, jogging toward the small maintenance hatch on the far wall.
He reached it just as the warning escalated in volume and tempo to the frenetic blaring of the thirty-second warning. The last few people were vanishing into the doors that lined the passage walls, entering the residential section.
Ian flipped open the hatch- the locking mechanism had broken down years ago- and tumbled into a dark, narrow space beyond.
The curfew bell cut out, and the lights flicked off.
Ian groped around until he found the rough blanket that had been his bed for the past two years. He set down the book on a ledge where he’d be able to find it the next day, and snuggled down to sleep.
It was then that he heard the footsteps.
They were coming down the passage outside, at a running pace. As they grew closer, Ian could hear labored breathing.
Cautiously- he knew the infrared cameras would register his body heat- he stuck his head out of the hatch.
There was a flash of light that momentarily dazzled him. Something hard slammed into his skull, making his ears ring, and a tangle of flailing limbs flipped over him and landed with a clang on the metal floor.
It took Ian a second to recover his befuddled faculties. When his eyes had adjusted to the glare, he found himself sprawled on the blanket, looking at the oddest person he’d ever seen.
She was around his age, perhaps a year older. Her clothes were woven from a bluish fibre that Ian had only seen once before, when a group of Martian merchants had visited Ceres. She had a cut on her forehead which had scabbed over in the recent past, but was now bleeding again. She clutched a glow-tube in one wavering hand.
She had green eyes, which were unusual; pale skin, which was rare; and white-blond hair, which was practically unheard of. She also had a knife.
Ian stared. The girl stared back, a little trickle of blood running down her face. She was absolutely, terrifyingly motionless. She made no sound. The knife did not tremble. She did not attempt to wipe away the blood. She stared at Ian for a long time, as if threatening him to run, or attack her, or scream, and when he did none of those things, she relaxed ever so slightly. Ian took a deep breath, and his limbs were suddenly extremely shaky.
He sat up slowly, watching to make sure that his movement did not alarm the girl, who had not put away the knife. “Who are you?†he asked in a near-whisper.
“That,†she said coldly, “is none of your business.â€
“I think –†he began, miffed, but changed his mind.
“Lock the hatch!†she commanded.
“Lock? But it’s been broken for years!â€
“Oh, no… †The girl’s eyes widened. She wrenched at an old metal pipe that was fastened to the wall by rusty brackets. It popped off with a clatter. She spun it like a baton and wedged it between the hatch and the opposite wall, leaning on it hard. She held her breath. So, instinctively, did Ian.
Footsteps clanged outside. Ian looked from the hatch, to the girl, to the hatch again. The girl leaned on it more heavily. There was a grunt from the person outside, but the hatch remained closed, and the footsteps moved on. Ian let his breath out in a heavy sigh, and opened his mouth to say something. The girl shook her head furiously and put her finger over her lips.
“Quiet†said the girl. “If they find us, they’ll kill you and maybe me. I’ve escaped one too many times, I’m afraid.â€
Ian shut up, stunned by what he’d just heard. Kill? Who would want to kill him?
The girl held perfectly still for over a minute, eyes wide, ears straining. Then she suddenly relaxed. “Whew. They’re gone.â€
She slowly collapsed to the floor, joints crumpling like sodden paper, and wiped sweat from her forehead. “That was close. Got anything to eat?â€
The abrupt question startled him. “Er, yes.†He reached into the corner where he stored any food he could afford to save. Perishables he ate within a day or two, before mold could set in. Fortunately, there was a fresh folder that he’d scavenged from a receptacle the day before.
He held it out. “You can have some of it if you’d- â€
The girl snatched it from his fingers, tearing into the thin flour pastry and shredded nutroot filling. Within a second, it had vanished.
†-like.â€
The girl flopped down on the rough blanket, lying with her hands behind her head and staring at the corroded metal ducts that wriggled across the ceiling. She didn’t even look at him.
“Ian,†he introduced himself, extending his palm.
The girl didn’t take it, shutting her eyes. Ian gave up attempting to initiate a conversation, sliding down on the cold, metallic floor with a sigh, and trying to come to terms with what had just happened.
Who the kimm was this girl, and who was coming after her?
She obviously wasn’t Cerean- her complexion told him that much. She wasn’t tall enough to be Martian. Could she be Lunar? There were plenty of artificial-gravity centrifuges in the caverns and crevasses of Terra’s satellite. Living in one of those would certainly prevent the unnatural height that many low-gravity inhabitants reached. And there were a lot of weird cultural pockets left on Luna- the old moon had borne the brunt of the refugees from World War Last, so the various ethnic groups had stayed separate to some extent. He’d heard that there were still people there who spoke Hispan or Rossky or Mandrin, or even Anglis, instead of Solar.
Could it be the police chasing her? The public peace officers were little more than figureheads, but Ian knew that the mining corporations employed private police forces to apprehend criminals. She could be a dangerous felon- although that was hard to imagine about anyone who was no older than he. She could just be a vagrant, like him, but that wasn’t a capital offense as she’d implied. And vagrants didn’t carry knives around. Nobody carried knives around. He couldn’t imagine how she’d gotten it.
He sat there quietly for only a minute or two, until his curiosity got the better of him.
“Who’s chasing you?â€
The girl was silent a moment, and then, with an odd and humorless half-smile, she said, “My parents.â€
“What?†said Ian incredulously. “Great Solana, if you’ve got parents what are you doing here?†He waved his hand around the chilly space.
She turned large, blank green eyes on him. “Haven’t you been listening? I said they might kill me. They’re not your ordinary parents, kid.â€
Ian’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “Abusive?â€
She smiled that enigmatic, unnerving, soulless smile again. “You could say that.â€
Ian was perplexed. This seemed like a plausible explanation, but he had a feeling there was something she wasn’t telling him. “Why haven’t you gone to the police?â€
She threw back her head and laughed, a laugh with a brittle edge to it. “Police! I haven’t got enough money to afford their bribes. And what could the police do against them?â€
“What do you mean?â€
The girl continued smiling, but her eyes were like chips of peridot-flecked stone. “Stop asking me questions, kid. I’ve told you too much already. Hopefully I can get off Ceres before they find me.â€
Ian started. Off Ceres? If she knew a way to get off-planet… he’d heard even some of the other asteroids were better places to live than Ceres, and Mars and Luna were paradises by comparison. He’d even live somewhere worse in exchange for a clean slate, as long as it was somewhere he could get a job and a rudimentary living space. He had no chance of that if he remained.
“You could get off Ceres?†he whispered.
The girl rolled her eyes, the most sincere expression he’d seen her make. “It’s not hard if you know the trick. Now shut up.†She rolled over and faced the wall.
“Could… could I come with you?â€
She remained silent for so long that Ian gave up hope of a response, but just as he was turning away, she spoke. “It’s true, sometimes these things are easier with two people. But you’ll follow my instructions exactly, and if you slow me down or give me away, I will have no compunction about leaving you behind. Or worse. We go tomorrow. Good night, and shut the duvv up.†She snapped the tab on the glow-stick shut, and the room was plunged into darkness.
Ian was so ecstatic about her response that he barely heard her threat, or her expletive. Not that he’d have understood it- he wasn’t familiar with the more vulgar portions of the Cerean lexicon, let alone the Martian. However, he figured that celebrating might annoy her into changing her mind, so he lay down on the floor at the other end of the room and remained quiet.
Ian slept soundly that night, despite his uncomfortable bed, only stirred out of his somnolence once by the girl’s voice.
“Kari.â€
“What?†Ian mumbled.
“My name’s Kari.†Then she turned over and went back to sleep. Ian did likewise.
Inside the little room, there was no way of telling the time, but Ian was used to that. When he awoke, he crept to the maintenance hatch, careful not to disturb the sleeping Kari, and opened it enough to peek out. The lights were bright and he could see people. It was morning, if you could call it that.
He closed the maintenance hatch again, rubbing his eyes, and groped around for the glow-stick.
The thin light disturbed Kari, who opened her cold green eyes and looked up at him. For a few moments there was no sign of recognition, but then she smiled her odd little smile and sat up. “Morning?â€
“Yes,†said Ian.
“No chance of breakfast, I take it,†said the girl, standing and stretching.
“We might find something on the way to wherever we’re going.â€
She shrugged.
“Let’s go,†she said. “We’ll have to move fast. I’m very conspicuous around here.â€
Sticking the knife into her back pocket and pulling the hem of her shirt down to cover it, she reached for the hatch door.
“No!†Ian said. “We have to wait until there’s a big crowd on the other side of the tunnel. It’ll block the surveillance cameras.†He opened the hatch a crack and peered out.
The crowd was thin, but a gaggle of Lunar traders, jabbering loudly in Hispan, were approaching the opposite wall. Then- Ian could hardly believe his luck- they actually leaned up against it, still laughing and talking. They’d probably get a sanction for blocking the camera’s field of view, but Ian didn’t reflect on that. He tumbled out and dropped to the floor, Kari following him. By the time the Lunars had moved on, both had merged with the crowd.
Kari walked very quickly through the crowd, with Ian trotting to keep up with her. He felt a slight pang as he remembered the library book, abandoned in his home, or former home, but he was soon too busy trying to keep track of the blond girl to think about it. One of the benefits of Kari’s speed was that by the time anyone noticed just how odd she was, she had already moved on. One of the downsides was that Ian was soon out of breath.
He ran a few steps and caught up with her, panting slightly. “So…where are we going?†he asked.
She stopped. “We’re here.â€
A large, round metal door was before them, better polished than most of the other doors, and bearing the inscription, “To the Surface Elevators.â€
Kari spun the wheel, and the door swung soundlessly inward, revealing a crowded elevator. The passengers- mostly visitors from other asteroids, with a few Lunars and Martians mixed in- streamed out of the compartment, many staring curiously at Kari. She studiously ignored them, and boarded the elevator in the rush of outbound travelers.
A voice fuzzed through the old speakers on the roof. “You are approaching the drum axis. The acceleration of the elevator will create artificial gravity; however, upon leaving the elevator, you will be in Z-G. Please be prepared.â€
The inner doors slid shut, and the elevator began to rise.
Ian turned to Kari, puzzled. “You’re planning to take a shuttle? You have the money?â€
“Of course!†she said, rather more loudly than necessary for the benefit of the camera, then whispered, “We’ll talk about that later.â€
A voice resounded from the hidden speakers. “You will enter Z-G in approximately thirty seconds. Please take hold of the handrail and brace yourself.â€
Kari did so, shoving a couple of other passengers out of the way to make room in the overcrowded elevator. Ian followed suit, minus the shoving.
The elevator braked and began to slow down. Ian didn’t. Kari’s mouth curved up in wry amusement as he lost his grip, hit the ceiling and bounced off.
The door slid open onto a nearly circular passageway lit by harsh fluorescent bulbs. The passengers glided out into it with varying degrees of expertise. The Lunar traders, who had hardly ever been outside a centrifuge or an accelerating spaceship, were almost as clumsy as Ian was. One of them bumped against Kari. “L’ziento,†he said hurriedly, and struggled off.
Ian finally managed to maneuver himself out of the elevator by gripping the handrails and pushing off against the wall. The door slid shut with a clang.
“So… you have enough money to pay for a shuttle?†Ian asked again. There were no cameras in the tunnel.
Kari laughed harshly. Ian shuddered. The sound was somehow unnatural. There was not a particle of true mirth in it.
“Are you joking?†she replied. “Even with the money I stole from that stupid Lunie, I barely have enough to pay the fare for a smuggler elevator.â€
Ian was flabbergasted. “You stole… Smuggler? Are you seriously… â€
“Of course. Do you want to get off-planet or not? Because there’s no way we’re going to do it legally.”
Kari turned around, pushed off from the floor, ricocheted off the ceiling, and shot down the tunnel, straightening her body to reduce air resistance. Ian flailed around behind her, trying to keep up.
After the first few hundred yards, they began passing elevator doors. Kari ignored them, instead dropping to the floor and wrenching at a metal panel.
To Ian’s great surprise, it came away in her hands. A tunnel, lined with flapping streamers of ragged insulation, dropped away below them. Kari flipped over and sailed down headfirst.
Ian tried to imitate her smooth grace, and while he succeeded in getting inside the tunnel, he found himself in one of the most awkward position he had ever been in. Kari hovered impatiently a few yards behind him, and as soon as he had untangled his arms and legs, she maneuvered the panel shut. Blackness closed in automatically.
“Kari?†Ian whispered, afraid that she had left him behind. A glowstick snapped on, illuminating her face frighteningly close to his own. And then she was gone, practically flying downwards. Ian struggled after for what seemed like ages, but eventually they came to another door. Kari opened it and pushed Ian through. He spun out of control, and smashed into the far wall. Tears of pain and exasperation sprang into his eyes. He grasped blindly for the nearest thing to anchor himself to, and floated there, clinging to a metal rod, until he felt sufficiently stable to let go. Kari snapped off the glowstick, letting the dim bulbs illuminate the area that they occupied.
“Shabby†was hardly the word for it. The chamber was roughly rectangular, riveted together out of overlapping, slightly crumpled metal plates. It must have had some sort of insulation system, but not a very good one: the cold ate into Ian’s bones, and his breath frosted in the air.
There were a couple dozen other people in the room; disheveled-looking men and women, dressed in multiple layers of synth-fiber clothing, a few with shock guns hanging from their belts. Most of them were floating protectively near a couple of large plastic crates. All were waiting near a row of elevator doors on the far wall.
As they watched, one of the doors slid open. Kari barged through the line, seemingly oblivious to the murderous looks some people gave her, and floated up to the smuggling elevator’s skinny operator. She pulled a wad of money out of her pocket. “Me, and the other kid.â€
The man licked a grubby finger and filed through the hexagonal notes. “Lunar pesos? These ain’t worth much outside Nuevo Cruz and the Sea of Crises, girlie.â€
“You know the exchange rates as well as I do,†Kari said coldly. “I’m waiting for my change. Cores or betrens, doesn’t matter to me.â€
The operator grumbled, fished around in the depths of his billowing coat, and came up with a handful of Cerean cores. The metallic hemispheres changed hands, and Kari glided into the elevator. A few of the other passengers followed her, clutching their crates. Some had no luggage at all. Ian knew that the latter were stowaways, with no prospects and little money, who hoped for a better life on one of the other asteroids.
The others were a different matter. They were, without a shadow of a doubt, smugglers, trafficking in luxuries from the asteroids, trying to sneak their cargo on board a freighter without paying the tariff, to be picked up by colleagues on Mars or the Moon and sold on the black market. And these were the more innocent ones. Ian had heard of far shadier enterprises- genetically modified narcotics grown in illegal orbiting habitats, stolen treasures worth thousands of cores- even a few cases of smuggled uranium. He shuddered, thinking about the last example. Even after World War Last had destroyed three-quarters of the world population and irrevocably damaged Terra’s ecosystem in the process, people still had a desire to acquire the dreadful weaponry that had accomplished it.
The operator heaved down on a tarnished lever, and with a jerk, the elevator began to shoot upward. The return of gravity was a relief to Ian, but it was small comfort. He was tightly crowded within a group of sneering, dangerous men. The elevator was not in good repair, and Ian thought he heard the faint hiss of an air leak once or twice.
After a few moments, the elevator stopped, and Ian once again experienced the unpleasant sensation of having no control over his direction. He tried to minimize embarrassment by floating perfectly still, but Kari floated expertly out as soon as the door opened, and he was obliged to follow clumsily.
The passengers struggled through a dark, narrow crawl space, elevator operator in the lead. “Hold it… †he whispered. “One, two, three, NOW!â€
He gave a sudden heave to the roof, and a panel clanged aside. The group fountained out into a small, little-used storage space. Boxes were strapped to the floor, walls and ceiling with little regard for the concept of “down.†There was gravity, if that was the word for the negligible attraction to the floor, but it was almost nonexistent. Things didn’t fall, they drifted.
“Go out the door in small groups,†the operator said. “Large ones attract attention.†Having fulfilled his duty to his customers, he dove back into the passage and pulled the panel back over the opening.
The passengers glanced around at each other. For all of five seconds, no one moved. there seemed a strange sort of reluctance to go through the small metal door, as though it led to some deeply unpleasant fate. Even Kari looked a little nervous, and the glance she shot Ian was not a friendly one. “We have to be fast,†she said to him, her quiet words laden with warning. “I’m not going to risk my neck for you, and if you can’t keep up, don’t expect me to rescue you.â€
Ian nodded gravely. If he was caught… Stowing away was punishable by enormous fines and years in prison. Being a penniless urchin would only add to the charges.
“Go!†she whispered fiercely, and they sprang out into the passage beyond.
Kari hit the ground running, going in great, floating bounds that took her almost thirty feet to a stride. Panic at being left behind lent Ian speed, and after a few desperate minutes he settled into a rhythm only slightly behind Kari.
“What now?†he asked her anxiously.
“Now,†she replied without looking at him, “now… Now you just do as I do. Act like you belong.â€
He nodded. Silence reigned briefly, but then they came into view of the official elevators, and Kari stopped, flattening herself against a shadowy wall. Ian followed suit, trying not to stare at the security camera not too far away. This seemed idiotic. Surely they would be spotted.
“Won’t they see us?†he asked.
“Not if this elevator shows up soon.†Kari, too, was staring at the security camera.
Ian frowned, puzzled. “How does that work?â€
“It swivels,†said the girl shortly.
“Oh! And right now it’s swiveled away.â€
“Yes.â€
A beep and flash announced that the elevator was about to arrive. As the crowd of people exited, Kari mingled, becoming just another tourist on her way to the shuttle.
“Everyone else has turned in their boarding passes already,†she whispered to Ian. “From here on, we’re legal.â€
Ian let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “So the hard part’s over?â€
“No. The hard part is getting off. They’ll cross-check the list of people on the ship with the list of people who paid. We’ll have to sneak off before they disembark.â€
“Oh.†Ian’s heart sank. Whatever that meant, he didn’t like the sound of it.
“Don’t worry,†said Kari, “you’ll have nine days to get used to the idea.â€
Nine days to get caught, thought Ian pessimistically. He was beginning to wish he’d turned back sooner. “Do we get food?†he asked, wistfully remembering the folder Kari had devoured.
“If you pay for it,†said Kari.
Ian’s hopes fell down through three stories and shattered on the ground.
Kari walked through a doorway into a cargo hold.
“Shh. Follow. Some people sneak food in the baggage. Under Cerean law, this isn’t allowed, so let’s even out the balance.â€
Ian swallowed. “We’re going to steal?â€
Kari looked at him. â€We’ve snuck aboard a ship, outwitted the police, and you’re associating with a criminal! We both have, at least!, a double death sentence. And you’re worried about stealing?â€
Ian looked down at feet. He knew it was stupid of him, after all he’d done, but he was still worried about it.
Kari bent down and began rummaging through the stacked bags, holding onto the wall to keep from drifting away. “We’re in a luggage module,†she explained. When Ian looked blank, she continued. “The Belt shuttles and the interplanetaries are usually owned by the big mining corps, and the modules by private organizations or small businesses, who pay a fee to transport their passengers or cargo aboard the shuttles, to other asteroids, or to Luna or Mars. The luggage carriers are too cheap to have security cameras in the holds- most of them, anyway- so we’re probably safe.â€
She straightened up, triumphant, holding a sealed plastic bag of folders in one hand and a suitcase full of betren notes in the other. “Once we reach Gracchus, we can pay for passage on an interplanetary. Their security is tighter, so stowing away would be suicide.â€
Ian felt it was time to ask a few questions. Common sense warned him against it, but curiosity won out. “Why do you need to get off Ceres, anyhow? Who’s chasing you?â€
“If that was any of your business, Cerean… †She half rose, then stopped, staring up at a winking red light on the ceiling.
“Crezzit!†she swore. “They’ve got cameras! They’ll be coming down to the hold right now!â€
She began digging through the smugglers’ crates with feverish energy, finally pulling out a pair of shock guns.
Kari tossed one of the guns to Ian. He stared at her, and then at the gun, and then Kari again.
“Oh, duvv. You don’t know how to work it, do you?â€
“No,†said Ian, and then added, “sorry.â€
“Give it back, then,†she said, and snatched it from him. “Just hit ‘em over the head with a suitcase or something.â€
Ian didn’t like the idea of hitting someone over the head, whether it was with a suitcase or not, but it was better than using a shock gun, so he picked up a long, thin cylinder made of metal. It was surprisingly heavy but easier to wield than the other options. Kari gave it a startled glance.
“What’s that for?†she asked, but Ian couldn’t answer, because at that moment the guards came in and there was no more time to think.
Kari fired off both shock guns at once, and two of the guards staggered, one falling to the ground and the other being whacked across the kneecaps with Ian’s cylinder.
Kari pushed off from the ceiling, drifting down over one of the dazed, moaning men. She gently placed her palm in front of his nose, then pushed. The moans ceased.
It took a moment for Ian to realize what had happened. When he did, an odd feeling took possession of him that was more than microgravity nausea. The world swam and spun, and his heart was thumping away somewhere in his ragged boots. “You…†He swallowed, mouth dry. “You killed him… â€
The other man tried to get to his feet, but Kari fired her gun again, and he spun in midair, twitching. “Of course,†she said. “Knocking him out would have been too messy, and he’d have woken up eventually and caused trouble.†She pushed off the floating body, drifting towards the unconscious guard, and pulled out her knife.
Ian seized her wrist. “No! You can’t… â€
That was as far as he got. Kari was unbelievably strong. After a confused, spinning moment, he slammed painfully into the wall. His arm was somehow twisted behind his back, and the knife was at his throat.
“Listen, kid, I do what I need to, and I get rid of anything in my way. That includes you. Clear?â€
Ian nodded, careful not to hit the knife. There was something in Kari’s eyes… something strange, inhuman, insane…
She shook her head angrily, then kicked off from the wall, garments fluttering. She came to a halt next to the supine man, raising the knife.
Ian caught his breath. He knew she would kill the man, and anyone else who interfered with her. That included him- she’d said so. But he had to try to stop this murderous girl from leaving a trail of death through the Belt. Did his desire to get off Ceres… to keep living… overrule the number of other lives that she would take? Was he that much of a coward?
The door burst open with a hiss, and several men and women tumbled through it. None carried guns, but one clutched a large pipe. They tried to orient themselves in mid-air, glancing warily around. The pipe-carrier called out into the hold. “Sar? Darjeel? Where are… â€
Kari stiffened as they focused on her, then made a leap for the far side of the room, going unusually far even for a microgravity jump. Ian followed, flailing wildly.
“Hey!†cried one of the crew. “What did you do–†But it was too late, Kari had scrambled through the hatch on the opposite side of the module. Ian wriggled after her, desperately. For one frantic moment he felt a hand on his ankle, and then Kari’s hands fastened around his wrists and he was pulled through the hatch. Kari slammed it shut and locked it.
“Thanks,†said Ian shakily. “I–â€
“Can’t have you blabbing, can we?†said Kari tersely. Ian felt curiously deflated. For a brief moment he had entertained the thought that Kari was playacting, that she wouldn’t really kill him. But why wouldn’t she? She had killed the guard, after all… He shuddered.
Kari was already walking quickly–her quickness definitely enhanced by the fact that each step took her three times as far as it would in normal gravity–along the narrow corridor. Ian followed without much difficulty, feeling ridiculously proud that he could almost keep up.
The corridor was several yards long, with a few doors opening off on each side. Ian opened one and found a little bathroom. Another opened into a small room with shelves of food–nothing exotic, unfortunately, from Luna or the Terran Gardens, but food nonetheless.
He would have liked to look at the other rooms as well, but Kari had already left the corridor, so he hurried after her.
The corridor opened up into what Ian could only assume was the crew’s communal space. There were several comfortable-looking chairs, and a little metal table with with a game of Ixet laid out and then abandoned.
Kari was locking the other hatch as he came in. “There,†she said with a self-satisfied look. “We’ll launch with the shuttle and disembark on Gracchus before anyone notices anything. Come on.†There was a door opposite where Ian stood with a neat plaque reading “Cockpit†and it was through this that Kari half-floated, half-walked. Ian trailed obediently after.
The cockpit was a minuscule room with two built-in chairs, a control board full of very complicated-looking levers and buttons, and a computer. Kari plopped down in one of the chairs (as well as one can plop in microgravity) and strapped herself in, and Ian, not knowing what else to do, followed suit.
“Do we have to fly this thing?†he asked uncertainly. It looked very difficult.
“Of course not,†scoffed Kari. “The computer does that.â€
“Oh.†After a few moments, he spoke again. “Should we feed the crew, or something?â€
“There’s plenty of food in the hold,†Kari said.
“Oh.â€
The silence was just beginning to be unbearable when a voice spoke, a slightly tinny male voice. “Launching in ten seconds. Ten…nine…eight…†Ian counted silently with him, mouthing the numbers. “Two…one.â€
The liftoff was very gradual. Ian felt a gentle sense of increasing weight, as though his body was filling with liquid lead. Just as it became uncomfortable, it abruptly vanished, leaving him drifting again. The rapid change left him with a nauseating feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Great,†Kari said, noting his expression. “If you get spacesick, throw up in the bathroom – I’m not having vomit floating around in here. You even know how to use a micrograv toilet?â€
“Um… â€
She gritted her teeth. “Pull up the manual on the computer, then. This is going to be a long trip.â€
The voice crackled through the speakers again. “We are now in orbit. All luggage modules must now dock.â€
Kari guided the module expertly into a provided slot on the larger shuttle. Ian, growing used to the lack of gravity, felt his nausea abate slightly.
There was a jarring vibration as the clamps locked into place, then an ever-so-slight acceleration. The shuttle was breaking orbit.
Kari strapped herself into the seat in front of the computer, hair drifting around her head like a halo. She pulled up the information database and began scrolling through it at maximum speed, text flickering past the screen. It was a section dealing with asteroidal trade politics, Ian saw as he came closer. There were notes in parentheses all through it, though, added by the many crew members of the old module. He tried to read one: This place isn’t worth the rock they… It went past before he finished. He didn’t see how Kari could read anything at that speed. She was probably just-
“Go away,†she said under her breath.
“How did- â€
“I heard you breathing. Go.â€
Ian pushed off at an angle and glided out the door. As he left the room, he heard Kari muttering, “Crezzit, there must be something here! They can’t hide it from everyone!â€
The days passed in monotonous routine. Ian became used to the bland, dry space rations, the subtleties of movement in Z-G, the occasional hammering on the door of the hold, but he couldn’t get used to Kari.
The girl frightened him more and more. She spent much of her time hunched in front of the computer, speed-reading data and jotting things down- on paper, not in a word processor. Her notes were totally incomprehensible. Although her handwriting was clear and well-formed, many of the words, and even the letters, were unfamiliar to him. It was no language Ian knew.
When she wasn’t engaging in this strange research, she was performing odd calisthenics or meditating with her eyes shut, whispering a soft, quick cadence under her breath. She ate and drank in swift, large gulps, like a predator wary of something stealing its kill, and she never slept more than four hours at a time. She treated him coldly at her best, and he kept remembering the moment when she’d killed the crewman in cold blood.
Yet her presence was somehow comforting, something relatively familiar in a strange world. She continued to tolerate him, even to help him at times, no matter how self-interested her motives. It was that and his dream of a new beginning on Gracchus that kept him going whenever he thought of the dead crewman, the rest of the crew trapped in the hold, or the fact that he was now undeniably a criminal.
Ian tried to shake the latter thought out of his mind. There were no official records regarding him beyond Ceres, and the asteroids didn’t share information as insignificant as the location of a juvenile delinquent. He’d just quietly disappear and reappear on Gracchus. In practice, the government couldn’t run background checks on everyone. He might even be able to get a job. He’d have to work hard, but it would be far easier than scrounging food and sleeping in abandoned rooms.
But even so, he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guit about the whole thing. He had done nothing wrong, and Kari would undoubtedly have carried out her plans whether or not he had been there to watch. But still…he tried to keep his mind from running over every scene in which Kari had done something criminal, and reached for his book.
For an hour, he tried to lose himself in the story. It was what he’d always done when life got too much for him. He’d read almost anything, from soppy Martian romances to dry scientific texts, but his favorites were the books about Terra before WWL. The Cerean library didn’t get enough funding to buy the books from Terra. Every single cc of available cargo space on the evacuation ships had been allocated for the frightened masses of humanity. A few books had been stored on computers on the Moon and the fledgling colonies beyond it, but even then life beyond Earth had been one of necessity over luxury.
Ian was completely immersed in a vivid description of a Martian sunset when the small alert light beside his bunk began to blink gently. Gravity, or at least the semblance of gravity caused by acceleration, was returning. They’d left the Belt shuttle. Guided unerringly by the pilot program, the module was dropping out of orbit, toward the surface of Gracchus.
Ian quickly snatched a scrap of paper from the folder next to his bunk, marked his place, and unbuckled the straps. Finally, he thought as he glided toward the door. This nightmare was almost over. This time next week, he’d have forgotten Kari had ever existed, or tried to.
He made it about halfway down the corridor outside before the guidance rockets kicked in and the force of gravity reasserted itself. Ian struck the floor and got shakily to his feet, trying to remember how his legs worked.
Kari appeared in the doorway, eyes dancing with barely concealed contempt. “We need to get off as quickly as possible.†She spun on her heel, not at all inconvenienced by the increased gravity, and marched out. Ian wobbled after her.
“What’s the hurry?†he gasped. His pulse was racing. He was thankful, at least, that they were landing on an asteroid and not on a higher-gravity planet like Mars. “We’re clear now, aren’t we?â€
“Really?†Kari didn’t bother to turn around. “With a five-man crew prepared to swear that two kids matching our description killed one of their friends and locked them in the storage compartment? With our fingerprints and DNA all over the controls? I disabled the cameras, but that won’t be enough.â€
There was a sudden grating thump as the module touched down and locked into place. Kari sped up, Ian striving to catch up with her. He noticed that they weren’t heading for the main hatch, but towards a small emergency exit.
Kari spun the handle, and there was a hiss as the door unsealed and swung open. Another door opened directly behind it, revealing a narrow hallway, walls plastered with hazard signs and decompression warnings. As soon as Ian was through, Kari shut and sealed the hatch behind them.
She visibly relaxed, breathing deeply, but remained alert. Her eyes darted around the room until she saw what she was looking for – a small pane of plastic, halfway up the wall.
Kari pulled a small, sealed bag from her pocket, half full of greasy black sludge. Carefully, she approached the pane and squeezed a middling-sized gob of liquid over it. Almost immediately, the sludge spread out into an opaque film.
“Amazing things, genmods,†she said to no-one in particular. “They’ll have to scrape that mold off with a chisel if they want that camera to work again.†With that, she took off at a run, in great drifting leaps, Ian matching her pace. But they hadn’t gone far before there was a deep, rumbling thump behind them. The floor trembled slightly, and a slow, whooping alarm began to bellow through the passage.
“What did you do!†Ian almost shouted.
“Fuel leak,†Kari replied, her voice devoid of emotion. “It doesn’t happen much on these modern ships, but when it does… a single spark can set it off, and you can kiss everything inside goodbye. Doesn’t usually penetrate the hull, though.â€
Ian blinked as the full horror of the deed struck him. The book tumbled from his suddenly numb hand and fell to the floor. A slip of paper slid out, the same one he’d absently grabbed to mark his place.
It was a photograph of the man Kari had killed. He looked younger, although that could have been because of the poor quality of the image. He was holding a baby. A few lines of angular Mandrin characters were scribbled across the top.
Oh, God.
“Kari…†he said dully. She had resumed her flight, and didn’t turn around, or appear to have heard his voice, but he knew she had. Kari heard everything.
“Kari, I want to leave,†he said. He was obliged to run himself, in order to continue speaking to her, and as it is not easy to run and talk at the same time, the serious tone in his voice was rather lost in his breathlessness.
“Suit yourself,†she said, as coldly as before. “You know you won’t get far, though.â€
Ian knew it. What he didn’t know was what he ought to do. “You killed them, Kari!†he cried, begging, pleading, but he didn’t know for what. Remorse? Apology? It hardly mattered what she felt, as long as she felt something, anything, to distinguish her from a breathing, walking machine. “They had families, Kari!â€
No response.
“Look!†he said, thrusting the paper into Kari’s face. “He was a person! They were all people!â€
She shrugged. “So? Are you leaving, or not?â€
Ian’s face fell, and he slowed to a stop, thrusting the paper into his pocket. “Good-bye, Kari,†he said, turning away and beginning to trudge back the way he had come–as well as anyone can trudge in low gravity.
But there were footsteps and shouts around a bend in the corridor, and all of Ian’s resolve vanished as he heard them. He whirled and sped after Kari.
Within a few seconds, Ian knew they were gaining on him, and Kari was leaving him behind, as she soared round a bend in the corridor up ahead, as though she was wearing wingèd sandals. Ian had read a story about a man with wingèd sandals once, an ancient retelling of an even more ancient Terran myth. He tried to put the same spring in his step as Kari had, to take advantage of the low gravity as she was doing, but his imitation was poor and clumsy. It doesn’t make sense, he thought to himself, but by the time his thoughts had managed to get that far, his pursuers were upon him. A strong hand reached out and grabbed his arm. He struggled and kicked, but the grip did not lessen, and he did not waste his breath in yelling. Who would rescue him? Kari, who killed or imprisoned a whole crew of innocent people without second thoughts? Not likely.
And then he felt cold metal against the back of his neck, and his struggles ceased.
Ian’s eyes fluttered open. His head was throbbing with pain, his mouth was desperately dry, and it hurt to blink. The only upside to the situation was that he was too preoccupied with his aching body to feel scared.
He was lying on a cold metal surface. Harsh light gleamed into his streaming eyes. For a few minutes, he debated whether getting up was worth it. On the one hand, his years on Ceres had taught him that every moment unaware of one’s surroundings was a dangerous one; on the other, he knew it was quite possible that moving at all would hurt.
There was a noise somewhere behind him, and curiosity won out. He sat up, sending a fresh stab of pain through his skull.
The room he was in was quite small and totally without furnishings. It also lacked a door, unless the single wall of clear plastic could somehow be opened.
Behind him, Kari had sat up and was cradling her head in her hands. She seemed to feel his eyes on her, and looked up. Neither of them spoke. Kari’s lips parted, as though she was about to say something, but she closed them again, sighed, and laid back down, stiffly. He noticed that she bit her lip, hard, as she moved, and her blank, emotionless countenance looked a little more forced than previously. Her large green eyes glittered, and Ian almost forgot his pain in the shock of it. Was Kari about to cry? But she blinked once or twice and the moment passed.
“What happened?†he asked, his voice cracking, and he immediately regretted it. If it had hurt to sit up, it hurt worse to talk.
Kari muttered something, out of which only the word “parents†was distinguishable.
She’d mentioned something about her parents back on Ceres, hadn’t she? Ian strained to remember, but there was a noise behind him, and all recollection of the event fled from his head.
Two white-clad people stood in the corridor beyond the window, staring into the cell with matching expressions of absorbed interest.
The taller of the two was a muscular, well-proportioned man with skin and hair as pale as Kari’s, standing motionless but for his breathing and the occasional blink. The other was only a few inches shorter, and she was astoundingly beautiful, rubbing her hands together like an excited child.
Behind him, Kari let out a strangled sob. The sound seemed raw and alien coming from her throat. Ian backed up against the wall. He didn’t know who these people were, and he didn’t particularly want to. If Kari feared them, he probably should too.
The woman stopped laughing abruptly and spoke a word. With a slow hiss, the window slid back into the wall, leaving the cell open.
Kari moved so fast that Ian didn’t register what had happened until the fight was over. There was a brief scuffle, and then the girl was pinned to the floor with a dislocated arm, the blond man kneeling on her chest. He pulled a complicated metal tool out of his pocket and rolled up her sleeve, pressing its tip to her forearm.
There was a beep, and Kari screamed, thrashing wildly for a few seconds, before subsiding into unconsciousness.
Ian made a snap decision and ran for his life.
Kari was fast, but the blond man was even faster. Ian made it a few yards before an impossibly strong hand seized his arm and slammed him into the wall.
Ian just slid to the floor. His entire side was one big bruise, or worse. He hadn’t imagined anything could hurt that much. Though one of his eyes was already swelling shut, he could see the blond man and his companion scooping up Kari and walking away.
He lay there, dazed, for several minutes, trying to process what he had just seen. Those people had been awfully young to be her parents… He began to feel that there was something he was missing, besides the use of his right eye and his traveling companion. Slowly he stood up, wincing. Kari was gone; he was lost and confused…and ignored. Would they come back for him? Or had they forgotten all about him? Given what had happened to Kari, he was pretty sure he didn’t want to be noticed.
“Hey, kid!†said a voice.
Ian whirled, trying to find the source. A few feet away there was another cell, this one inhabited by a blue-clad child, perhaps eleven or twelve, with curly, reddish hair.
“Did you say something?†he asked.
“Yeah,†he said. “Are you a renegade?â€
“A what?â€
The boy’s eyes widened. “You’re not a Container at all, are you.â€
“A what?â€
The kid jumped to his feet. “Look, you’ve got to help me get out of here.â€
Ian backed away. “No…no.â€
“Why not?â€
“I…uh…I have…to…†he trailed off. There was no way to voice the fear he had of this place, of this kid, of his captors. It was like the fear he had or Kari magnified by thousands. They were all wound up in it together, and he did not want to get involved. The trouble was, he was already involved, and had been from the moment Kari dived through his hatch. He slumped to the floor, put his arms around his knees, and cried.
“Look, kid,†said the curly-haired boy impatiently. “If you help me get out, I’ll help you and your friend get out here.â€
“Don’t call me kid,†said Ian lethargically, raising his head. “I’m older than you.â€
The other boy laughed. “I seriously doubt it. Are you going to help, or not?â€
“I guess so,†said Ian, getting up and wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “What do I have to do?â€
~~~
There’s that one last bit, but I don’t know if we’re keeping it. POSOC said something about wanting to change it.
Oh my god, you have NO IDEA how much time I spent doing that. Those RRR-in-a-RPG-bits made it really hard to distinguish at a glance what was story and what was not.
19- I read most of the the original. Then you all rewrote it and I got lost again XD
WAIT the original was lost? I thought someone had a copy after all?
21- I had the only updated copy. I sent one to Kiki to send to a publisher, but she didn’t have it anymore. I was retrieving the story from the edit thread, but it was really really messed up in more ways than one, so we just decided it would be easier to rewrite.
The fractured fairy tale might be what you’re thinking of, because TMFA had a copy, but it died anyway.
22- Didn’t you send me a copy to work on to a little? I think you told me t was lost and wanted to know if I still had the copy, and when I got the message I offered to send it to you but I you said someone already had a copy. I don’t know if we still even have it though, it’s a bit late, oops.
How’s the rewrite though? Similar? I should read this version I guess…
23- Oh, maybe I did.
I might have thought that Kiki had a fully updated copy. It’s also possible that your copy was exceedingly outdated and not necessarily complete. Because it was easy enough to find the first part of the story and some of the second, but the more recent edits and the last story was completely lost.
Anyway, the rewrite is sort of similar, but better.
I liked the fractured fairy tale too, but it started to bug me, and then it died.
I still have the FFT on my computer somewhere. We can revive it if you guys want to. I’m open to that.
Dreamtime anyone?
What was the FFT?
25- Oh! Dreamtime… Too many characters, I think. And too many RRRs in general, at that time. I never felt entirely devoted. It was fun though, to write all the weird dreamy stuff.
25.1- The Fractured Fairy Tale. I don’t believe you were ever involved in that one, actually, aside from a single post in the beginning.
*coughdontforgethtispleasecough*
28- Oh, don’t worry, it’s like this most of the time. And then there will be a brief flurry of writing and then it’ll go back to being dead. At this rate, we might finish before I turn thirty…
Apologies, I’ve just been so caught up in the new RRR I’ve barely spared a thought for the old.
I’m going to try rewriting the escape sequence now.
~~~
The red-haired kid smiled craftily. The expression seemed far too old for his cherubic face. “To the left of my cell door, on the wall, there’s a panel. See it?”
Ian peered at the wall. “No.”
“Figures, it’s almost the same color… It’s about at your head height. Put your palm on it.”
Ian placed his hand against the wall and slid it around tentatively. When a brightly colored display flicked on just above his fingertips, he pulled back instinctively. The screen vanished.
“Right, you’ve found it. Do that again. You’ll see an image of a hand print with a series of characters above it. Tap it twice, quickly. Another image will come up- several text boxes- ”
“Slow down!” Ian snapped.
The prisoner rolled his eyes. “Put. Your. Hand. On. The- ”
“And don’t treat me like some sort of idiot.”
The redhead’s smile grew wider. “I’ll try.”
“Do you want to get loose or not?”
“You’ve got no hope of escaping without me, youngster, and you know that. Now put your hand back on the panel and do exactly as I say.”
Ian gave the kid a baleful star, but the boy only raised his eyebrows as if to say “Well? What are you waiting for?” Ian thought he might have liked to say something cutting, but he couldn’t think of anything. Besides, the logic of the kid’s statement was all too real. Ian didn’t have a clue what was going on, much less what he ought to do about it. He was glad to defer to someone who knew what he was doing, even if he did treat Ian like a child. Kari hadn’t exactly been any better. He put his hand on the panel and did as the red-haired boy told him.
Remember…dear…thread?
-pitiful expression- -pathetic tears-
I remember.
3 months later, almost to the minute!
Do I detect a subtle hint of what I might call reproach in your tone, Alice?
Believe it or not, no. Or at least, you might detect it, but I didn’t intend it. I was just noting the coincidence.