Research and Development

iPad

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 20:13:40 -0700

So in all honesty I was on the fence about the iPad. I was really thinking I would be a version 2 guy. I love my iPhone, but am frequently frustrated at its responsiveness and speed. I didn’t really think that anything like that would replace my laptop or even be something I would want to carry around.

I was compelled by the reader potential, but that was it’s only real selling point to me. I was going to need more.

So after a stressful morning on Saturday, I talked Tina into going down to the Apple store to just take a look and get my paws on one for a few minutes. It took about 10-15 minutes in the “mob/line” to try one out and was amazed at it’s speed and responsiveness. The screen was beautiful. I played for maybe 10 minutes and then Tina wanted to get out of the crowd. As we were leaving, I decided I wanted one and went back in to get it.

I justified it because I had gotten a decent bonus and tax return and hadn’t gotten anything for myself. That was barely enough to keep Tina from shooting me disdainful looks on the way home. “I can’t believe you did that. It’s a lot of money,” was the common refrain.

I played with it for a bit in the afternoon and evening, and Tina played with it for a while. She was hooked. We went back on Sunday to get her one.

The things that I didn’t expect to be so great are numerous.

Photos look fantastic. With the Camera Connection Kit, this thing will be a wonderful way to look at photos. It’s such a beautiful way to show off photos. (BTW, it can be a digital photo frame with it’s little charging stand.) Anyone can use it to flip through albums. So much better than the little window on a camera, or even an iPhone.

The readers are even nicer than I thought. It is not the same kind of screen as a Kindle or a Nook. Those use an e-Ink technology that does a wonderful job of mimicking the look of ink on paper. They are also much lighter. Avid readers who don’t like backlit screens, won’t like this, but the apps offer in app dimming (a feature I wish the iPhone had). They are, however limited to the deals of their respective owners (i.e. BN or Amazon). Their screens are also a limitaion...no color, no animation, so they are pretty much limited to novels and non-fiction with simple if any graphics. The iPad offers all three platforms (including Apples iBook store) and the option to add third party ePub docs. The reader options, are very exciting to me.

The drawing apps seem like fun. I have been playing with Adobe Ideas. It’s very limited, but free and fun. I’m not much of an artist, but the ability to draw simple images comes in handy.

Comics. I said almost immediately after seeing the thing in January, “This could be the killer app for me.” Unfortunately, they only have Marvel and some independents so far. The comics are brilliant and beautiful. Even if you like to have the paper item, these will be a great way to enjoy the stories and graphics like never before.

Productivity Capability. I bought this with no delusions that it wasn’t a toy. I didn’t assume it would be a particularly useful item for many things. I took it to work today and used it to take notes in a presentation and I was amazed at how easy it was to use. There are a number of productivity apps that I’ve been looking at, and I think that my toy may have tool application after all. Who knew?

Video. I was apparently living under a rock, but I didn’t know until I got home that you could stream Netflix directly to the thing. “THAT IS SOOO COOL” Tina said when I showed her. It looks great. YouTube looks great and you can put all those “Free Digital Copies” of DVDs on it. Way easier than lugging out the laptop on the plane, or even the unitasker DVD viewer. Alton Brown would be proud.

Wishlist
★ iPhoto - Photo editing/manipulation tools even rudimentary would be welcome, Red Eye, Cropping, Color Correction, Straightening.
★ iWeb - At least blogs and photos if not outright full site management to me.com.
★ D&D Tools - Obviously.
★ Awesome Note + ToDo - I LOVE this app on the iPhone and feel it will only be cooler and better on the iPad...I’ll give them a week.
★ Barnes & Noble eReader - It’s on it’s way, but I just want to complete my collection.
★ Dark Horse Comics App - I need me some digital Hellboy. I’d love to read back issues of Star Wars.
★ A matte screen protector - I’m sick of fingerprints.
★ A decent cover - I like the design of the Apple one, but it has a ridge on the open side that I don’t really like.

Something I’ve been hearing a lot about, and didn’t really think about. Camera. I thought that would be silly, but then someone said that they are great for families to video chat. Something I’ve never done, but think it would be cool feature for version 2.

Anyway, thanks Apple for taking more of my money. I like my new iPad. Now get to work on iLife ’10 and iLife for iPad.

Dramatic Table of Elements

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 20:49:07 -0800

I have been doing some research and have discovered a few new elements of the dramatic type.

McGuffinite (MacGuffinite; Br.):
The element that makes up items that trigger the plot.

Unobtainium from Avatar is pure McGuffinite. The Maltese Falcon, though stated as being lead, was likely mixed with McGuffinite.

Plotconveniencium:
The element the makes up items that items that create situations that allow the plot to work in the story’s favor. Whether or not it is in the character’s best interest. Most Deux Ex Machina are rich in Plotconveniuncium.

The Flying Car in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets seems to have found some Plotconveniuncium based fuel on its foray into the Forbidden Forest. Naquadah from the Stargate series is almost pure Plotconveniuncium.

There are a number of isotopes of Plotconveniencium, including Comiceffectium:

Looney Tunes’ Acme Corporation is one of the largest users of Comiceffectium.

NaNoWriMo ’09 Day 29.2 - Part 8 FINAL

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:08:20 -0800

Well I’m done. Here is my count. NaNoWriMo’s word count has me at 50,465. Part Eight follows as well. It’s a bit rushed and the less said about the last scene the better. I wanted it to be a nice long scene, a real denouement, but I was sick of typing.

11/26 Day 167 Total 41,837
11/27 Day 3,198 Total 45,035
11/28 Day 957 Total 45,992
11/29 Day 4,748 Total 50,740

Links for all parts:

Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight (See below)
Final Text PDF.pdf

Part Eight - In which the Battle for Earth begins and things return to abnormal

Minerva screamed into the atmosphere in a near suicidal dive toward Washington, D.C.
If anyone who was watching this dive had seen Minerva Cathcart Island more than a month ago, they might not have recognized her. She was significantly less smooth, her soft streamlined curves broken by rends and dents in her copper plating. The plating itself was scarred and scorched almost everywhere. There were additions to the hull, applied inelegantly to be sure. Another ship rode on her back, a pilot and gunner inside waiting to launch to defend her. Her bow and flanks bristled with the jagged points of cannons and guns.
Minerva wasn't the only ship in the skies above Washington, D.C. In fact there was a veritable swarm of ships in the air. The mothership held its position a hundred yards above the U. S. Capitol building. Squadrons of aether-fighters swarmed around the city in dog-fights with U. S. Air Force fighter planes. The ground was littered with flaming wrecks of the end results of dogfights. Buildings burned and crowds of people marched hands on top of their heads in supplication to the dragons wielding weapons, both natural and man made.
Devon's lip curled in anger as he looked down on the carnage that Lady Arrakkia's forces had wrought during their weeklong head start. He regretted, now, not sharing his experimental new ray gun technology with the military. But that was neither here nor there at this juncture and Devon knew it. "Where are you planning to hit Danger?"
"I'm going to fly right at the damned thing's throat. Flynn can launch in there and wreck up the place. We'll strafe her dorsal side and come about for another pass. We need to get it away from people."
"Sounds like a plan," Devon said and addressed a microphone at his station. "Did yo get that, Lad? My hand is on the release lever. Let's go!"
Em twitched the controls to change the course of Minerva to a head-on collision course with the mothership. The gunner in the co-pilot's couch poured energy out of the forward cannons. The energy went into the open aether-fighter bay and small eruptions of flame rewarded them. Em rolled Minerva onto her back and felt the change in speed and weight as Flynn's aether-fighter detaching. She watched as the aether-fighter shot forward, its guns blazing as it was swallowed up the mothership's dark maw. Em adjusted course again and rolled to begin her strafing run against the mothership's spine focusing the initial blasts at the bump amidships that she assumed was the bridge or command deck.
Flynn and the pilot shot off the top of Minerva and chased their own ray cannon blasts and fifty caliber rounds into the maw of the ship. As they suspected, there were no aether-fighters in the bay, but the fire managed to chew up a lot of support systems and hopefully some of its infrastructure. A hairpin turn just shy of the back of the main bay and they returned out toward open sky.
Minerva swooped up and looped back for another run. The sight filled her with dismay, aside from a few small fires and charred areas, it would seem that her strafing run did little to damage the ship. "We need a new plan," she called over her shoulder to Devon.
The gunner mystic was the first to answer, however. "We have twenty five mystics on this ship. Given close proximity to the ship's systems and we could wreak havoc. Can we get inside?"
Em paused a moment, a malicious grin slinking across her face. "Devon, we'll need a cutting torch and a dozen ray guns."
Devon looked at her for a moment to judge her resolve. The notion of letting Em go on what was likely to be a one-way mission filled his heart with lead, but he knew from one look at her face that there could be no argument. He left his station and headed for the workshop. He grabbed the cutter and a dozen mystic volunteers and headed for the armament closet on the entry level. There were only four ray pistols and four ray rifles to go around, but he rounded out the teams with four scan-a-trons.
Em positioned Minerva toward the rear of the mothership and set her down carefully on the dorsal ridge. Devon returned to the bridge and took her seat. "Good luck, girl." He kissed her forehead and she kissed his cheek in return.
"I didn't think..." she started, a tear glistening in her eye, "I didn't study for this."
"I know. Be careful. See you soon. See you soon," he turned his glistening eyes to the scan-a-tron's display. Within ninety seconds, the main hatch was closed again and Em's voice crackled over the radio.
"We're clear..."

#
"...Get out of here." Em clipped the scan-a-tron to her hip and hefted the cutting torch. She set to work cutting a three foot wide hole in the hull. The mystics help positions and kept watch for anyone that might see them. She was three quarters of the way to being done when one of them shouted at her.
"Em!"
She looked and saw the man pointing to the motherships starboard. There was a trio of the aether-fighters closing in tight formation on their position.
"To the port!"
Em spun around and a formation of four aether-fighters was diving in toward them.
"Scatter!" Em shouted and the mystics headed fore and aft to get out of the line of fire. Em kept cutting her eyes darting back and forth between the two flights. She looked back to the port and there was a cloud of smoke and only two aether-fighters left. The one in the rear fired a ray gun and the forward aether-fighter erupted as its fuel tanks went up. The remaining aether-fighter pulled up and raced headlong into the trio on the other side of the mothership. One immediately spiraled out of control and collided with the flank of the mothership. The other two split, one was immediately shot down, and the attacker followed the third driving him up and blasting him. The savior aether-fighter swung back over the spine of the mothership and waggled it's wings. "Thanks Flynn," Em shouted and waved.
She finished cutting the hull and motioned to the mystics to gather around then hopped into the newly cut hole into the superstructure. "We'll have three teams. Team one," she pointed at a middle aged woman. "You'll locate and destroy communication systems, and then go after surviving mystics. Team two," this time a young man shifted forward. "You will go after the power system. Shut it down. Don't let them turn it back on. Got it? Team three, you're with me," She indicated the remaining four mystics, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. "We're going after the command deck. We should be able to disable anything up there and locate the remaining prisoners. Keep in contact. Let's go."
Team one headed down the side of the
#
"Good luck, Em," Flynn saluted Em as they shot past her on the back of the mothership.
"What now, Flynn?" His pilot asked?
"The pee fifty ones and the thirty eights are doing well against the Arrakkians," He looked at the ground and noted that there were more downed aether-fighters than U. S. Aircraft. He looked at a screen on his scan-a-tron and smiled. "That will save time. See that weird looking building over there?"
"The five-sided one?"
"That's it."

The aether-fighter was pretty well hidden in the woods across S Washington Blvd north west of the Pentagon. "We'll need something more...subtle," Flynn looked at his pretty female pilot. She was wearing robes of a fine weave that were common of her people. He looked at his own garb. His suit, formerly an expensive and finely tailored garment was shredded, torn and bloodstained in many areas. Even more strange was the coppery metal hand at the end of his right<?> arm. The hand had been rebuilt better than ever by the mystic Devon had handed it to on the way back to the mystics homeworld. He no longer needed to activate it manually. It would react to his whim and provide the right tool for the moment.
"Shh," the pilot crouched and looked around.
Flynn crouched and looked toward the sound she'd just heard. Flynn engaged his ray-gun hand. He set it to stun with a thought. He crept silently into the woods behind the aether-fighter. He spotted his noise and his quarry at once. A young officer and a cute young WAC were kissing passionately in a small clearing with a bench and a beautiful view of the river. He shook his head and took aim. One blast knocked them both out. He quickly relieved them of their uniforms. As he did he noticed that the officer was wearing a wedding band, but the WAC was not. He felt a bit less bad about leaving them in this state. He returned to the pilot and the two dressed in the uniforms. Flynn's fit perfectly, and felt comfortable. He wished the officer had had a pair of gloves, but no matter. He slipped the robotic hand into his pocket. The young pilot came into view and Flynn noticed that her uniform was a size too small.
"It's a bit tight," She gestured to her bust and hips. "Is that usual?"
Flynn shook his head looking at the comely young pilot in the snug uniform. "She was probably a little smaller than you, but I think it will be to our advantage."
The pilot shrugged and walked over to him. "You look a bit scruffy. And you seem to have a stain here." She tugged at his collar.
He walked to the canopy of the aether-fighter and looked in. Sure enough, his beard stubble was quite thick and there was a red smear on his collar...lipstick. He rose a razor sharp blade from his hand to his face and winced as he gave himself a dry shave. "That's going to hurt in a bit."
Looking more like a pair of military personnel, they walked out of the woods and back toward the Pentagon.
"We're going to find an old friend," Flynn said with a sneer. "Remember, your name is Collins and I am Captain Allen."
"Got it, what are we going to do when we find your friend?"
"We're going to wring his scrawny German neck."

#
Devon shot away from the back of the mothership leaving his protege and a squad of mystics behind to try to bring down the invading fleet. He looked out at the carnage below as he rocketed into the sky. The mystic at the radio station piped up. "I'm receiving a broadcast on all bands."
Devon pulled up a broadcast screen on his scan-a-tron. It was the President of the United States of America. He sat at his desk in the Oval Office. He looked pale, and anyone who knew anything could tell that he was wearing a lot of makeup. Devon assumed that he had been mistreated and the makeup was used to cover bruises and cuts. He began to speak:
"My fellow Americans. I have been in secret meetings with the alien visitors since they arrived a week ago. We have reached an accord and we shall work together." His eyes darted to the right as he spoke. "While they may look strange to many of us, they are just people like us. I encourage you to..." he paused and looked to the right. His jaw set, he stared into the camera lens. "FIGHT! Fight for your lives!" A strange figure came into camera frame bashing the President in the head and the screen went blank.
Devon looked up immediately to get his bearings. He pitched Minerva down and lined up with a long green strip of grass and a tall white spire in the middle. He landed at the base of the obelisk and he, the gunner and another mystics ran out of the ship and across the grassy mall.
"Where are we going?" the gunner asked.
"We're going to rescue the man that you just saw speaking," Devon said looking around from their hiding place near a cherry tree.
"How?"
"That statue over there," he pointed to a man sized statue of a minor founding father standing on a four foot high pedestal. He took off at a dash toward the statue. The two mystics followed him closely, watching their flanks and rear for anyone in pursuit. As they reached the statue, Devon lifted his umbrella handle first and hooked the founding father's outstretched hand and a hidden door in the pedestal swung open. The mystics looked at each other impressed and the three of them slipped inside never having been seen.
The corridor was completely black and barely taller than Devon. One of the mystics was required to duck slightly to avoid hitting his head. "Damn," Devon said groping in the dark. "This switch must be broken."
Suddenly the lights began to glow dully at first but brightening to a point where it was easy to see, but not too bright. Devon saw the gunner remove her hand from the conduit along the wall.
The corridor stretched into the distance, curving up slightly. "Let's go," Devon said leading the way. They walked quite a distance and then came to a flight of stairs. "Now we need to be quiet." He began climbing the stairs quietly but quickly. They came to a small room at the top of the stairs and Devon motioned for a scan-a-tron. He switched it on and aimed it at the door, and swept it back and forth and up and down. "It's clear in this room," he said and carefully opened the door. They emerged into a darkened conference room. There was a horrendous smell, but Devon paid little attention as he went to a door on the far wall. He pressed his ear to the door and again swept the door with the scan-a-tron.
"I wouldn't want to be you when we finally have no further use of you," Devon heard a rasping voice say, followed by a loud thud. He winced, knowing that the President had just taken a blow to the solar plexus from one of the dragon troops that work so dutifully for Lady Arrakkia. He looked at the screen of the scan-a-tron and his fears were confirmed. There were three dragons in the room with the President. He turned to the mystics to formulate a plan. They were way ahead of him.
The smell in the room apparently was not a feature of the dragons, but a feature of two week old corpses of White House Marine guards lying along the far wall. The mystics had liberated them of their weapons. Devon smiled and hefted twisted the handle of his umbrella withdrawing a shimmering silver blade. He tweaked the end of the handle and the blade emitted a faint hum and the blade was covered with blue lightning. "Let's go," he whispered and twisted the door handle.
#
"You'll need to reconsider that attitude, Lieutenant," Flynn leaned into a young man with a few pimples left over from his recent conclusion of adolescence.
"Yes, sir," the boy picked up a clipboard and rifled through a few sheets. "Yes, sir, he is here sir. He's in the Air Force wing, sir. Follow this corridor to blue section and ask at the main desk, sir."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Flynn said as he and the ersatz WAC walked down the corridor. They arrived at the Air Force main desk in three minutes. "Sergeant, I have a meeting with Eltan Drake. Please tell me where he is waiting?"
The Sergeant at the desk, an older man, and looking less intimidatable, looked up at Flynn and the pilot. "I'll need to see your security pass, sir."
"We don't have security clearance for this meeting. The fact that we are at war with an invading alien force is hardly a secret matter, is it?"
The man looked Flynn in the eye. Making a judgement. "Good point, sir," he pointed down the hall. "He's in conference room AFC-29. They just finished a meeting, sir."
"Thank you Sergeant," Flynn said and the pilot winked at him.

The conference room was still darkened from a slide show, no doubt, but the window blinds were open and a tall, thin, blonde figure stood facing the windows looking out on the Potomac River. He spoke without looking. "Just set the tray on the table, Corporal."
Flynn did not reply, but walked quickly to Drake. The pilot stayed by the door. Flynn slipped behind Drake and put his mechanical hand on his shoulder. Drake turned angrily ready to chide the person with the gall to touch him. He eyes grew large as he recognized Flynn, but before he could say anything or call out, Flynn's mechanical hand closed on his neck.
"You are going to give Devon Cathcart his company back, then, if you are lucky you'll go to prison. If you piss me off, I'll be feeding you to Lady Arrakkia's dragon," Flynn growled in the face of the blonde man.
"Cathcart is dead, he was killed in a terrible explosion at his headquarters. It was very sad," Drake croaked. Even in the face of overwhelming odds, the man was infuriatingly smug.
Flynn clenched his robotic hand and Drake's eyes bugged a bit farther. "You don't always seem to do a very complete job," Flynn spat.
Drake's eyes looked to Flynn's copper hand, "You seem to have gotten a replacement hand after your accident. I think I'll take your other one for myself. Cathcart didn't seem to appreciate my gift of your first one. Perhaps he would have, if he'd known it would be his last gift."
"Cathcart isn't dead. He's flying above the city killing your alien buddies as we speak," Flynn loosened his grip a bit.
"I saw him myself. There was no way that old codger could escape. And as far as killing my buddies. Lady Arrakkia understands better, even than our former beloved Fuhrer how to rule. This country...this WORLD will be truly great. The weak will be scoured away and the strong will rule the universe. I will rule Earth alongside Arrakka. There is no way she'll go back to that doomed hell hole she came from. You'll be the first to die, when that corporal comes in and sees you manhandling the Earth's savior."
Flynn smiled and turned to the pilot, "Did you get that?"
She clicked a button on the scan-a-tron and the room was filled with sound:
"...Our former beloved Fuhrer how to rule. This country...this WORLD will be truly great. The weak..." she clicked it off.
Drake slumped and Flynn punched him square in the face knocking him instantly unconscious.

Twenty minutes later a corporal walked into the room and saw Drake bound to a chair with the cord from the curtains and gagged. He blinked imploringly, but the Corporal saw the scan-a-tron on the table with the label saying 'Press Me' on a button first. He pressed the button.

 
 
#
"But...but, you're dead!" The President said clearing his eyes as Devon lifted him to a couch.
"Not the handicap it used to be," Devon said. "Although I wouldn't recommend the route you were heading down."
The Oval Office was a battleground. The window behind the President's desk was broken. Three dragons lay dead in various places in the room. The President's desk was still smoldering as the mystic extinguished the last of the flames from a dragon's breath blast. The body of the gunner lay immobile in a pool of her own blood. Most of the furniture was broken or upturned. There was blood everywhere.
"What can you tell us?" Devon asked the President, trying to get him to focus. "We have a team on the mothership, but we need to know what the command structure is. Where is Lady Arrakkia?"
"Arrakkia?" The President asked. "That must be the woman they spoke of. They called her 'Your ladyship.' She's on the mothership on the bridge, to the best of my knowledge. Apparently, she's something of a micro-manager."
Devon stood and walked to the windows, pulling out his scan-a-tron.
#
"Communications is down!" Alpha reported after referring to his scan-a-tron. "Team one was successful."
"All right," Em grinned. "If we can get to the..."
Em's own scan-a-tron stuttered to life. "...Come in. Em, this is Devon. Come in."
She pulled it off of her hip, "Devon, I'm here."
"Arrakkia is on the bridge of the mothership. Are you okay?"
"We're fine. Communications are down and we're nearly to the command deck. That's great news. I'm glad I'll be able to be the one to meet Lady Arrakkia. Em out." She turned to the team and with a wicked grin said. "Let's go kick some ass."

The cutting torch made it's way through the wall and the huge oval fell to the floor with a clang scattering red hot slag onto the plush carpeting. She stuck her head through and found a richly appointed boudoir. "I think this is it. I don't want any argument, but you guy's need to go find the prisoners and bring them as high in the ship as you can. When team two is successful, this ship is going to fall out of the sky. You don't want to be in the bottom when that happens."
Bravo made to argue, but the rest nodded and they left her with best wishes.
She waited another few moments for the slag to cool and stepped through into the oddly luxurious bedroom. She took stock of her surroundings, looked out of the windows. The ship was still hovering a few thousand feet above the Capitol building.
She left through the double doors toward the bow of the ship and entered the bridge's command center. It was lightly staffed. Em guessed that most of the officers and other attendants were either on the ground leading teams or searching the ship for her teams and trying to repair the sabotage. There were two dragons, a half a dozen men, and Arrakkia standing at the frontmost windows.
The dragons were the first to react, the closest one inhaled and Em quickly shot him in the throat with her ray pistol, the flammable gas met the energy ray and the dragon exploded in a ball of flame, taking with it two of the human men nearby. The second paused and lunged after her, but was tackled by three of the human men, who Em now realized were mystics. They used their mystical energy to bring down the dragon into a immobile pile.
"Your bodyguards aren't very good. Comes from staffing up with prisoners, I'd wager."
Lady Arrakkia turned and drew her scimitar, connecting the handle to her bracelet. It flickered with electrical energy. Em drew her own rapier and connected it.
"Your little pin is very pointy, but can it do this?" Arrakkia asked and slashed her sword through the navigator's chair as though it were butter.
"I have a few tricks," Em flourished her blade into the nearest command console and it sparked and flamed. The ship shuddered and Em knew that she could make Team two's mission obsolete very quickly. She pretended to stumble and Arrakkia took the bait. She came at Em with an overhead chop. Em dodged and the blade buried itself in the controls for the ship's power systems. The ship lurched and swayed as the power failure cascaded down the length of the ship. It began to pitch forward and the ship began to move forward in a dive.
Em and Arrakkia traded thrusts and blows and parries and ripostes through the bridge. Em got clocked in the head with the pommel of Arrakkia's scimitar, but managed to land a thrust to Arrakkia's right cheek. "Now you'll have a scar that matches...If you live long enough."
Arrakkia stumbled backward against gravity's insistence that they come to the very front of the bridge. Em held on to the captain's chair and watched as Arrakkia tried to stand on the console in front of the windows. Em noticed something that made her blood run cold. The ship was heading directly for the Washington Monument. She hid behind the seat she clinging to and prepared to jump when the time was right. Arrakkia misinterpreted her action and began to gloat.
Her gloat was short lived as she was quickly impaled by the flag pole at the point of the five hundred and forty<?> foot tall obelisk. Em leapt onto the flagpole as it passed by her. The monument thrust itself through the bridge, it's ever widening pyramid tearing the front of the bridge open. The monument broke off as the bulk of the ship hit it full force and Em rode out the crash clinging to the flagpole that got progressively slicker with Lady Arrakkia's blood.
When the devastation was over, she opened her eyes and was face to face with Devon. She was hanging only a few feet above the ground.
"Good job, Danger. Good Job."
#
Six months later.

"DEVON!" Em stormed up the stair case into the rebuilt clock tower office of Devon Cathcart. "Have you seen the paper today?" She stormed up to the desk and noticed Flynn Woolton sitting there patiently enjoying a cup of coffee with his uncle.
"Sure did. Little surprised it took this long to hear from you. Fully expected to hear your eruption of anger all the way from Queen Anne. Flynn is here. Did you notice?"
"Oh hey Flynn," Em said. Six months in and she still hadn't quite gotten over Flynn's turning up on the White House lawn in a uniform with a lipstick smear on his neck and collar that matched the color in his pilot's uniform pocket. "You said she wouldn't do it for another week."
"Intelligence was wrong."
"What's happen?" Flynn asked lightly.
"Amelia Dareheart happened!" Em thrust the paper into Flynn's hand.
Flynn read, "'Aetheratrix and Aviatrix Amelia Dareheart breaks speed record for Earth Pluto Earth run.' Why is this bad?"
"Amelia Dareheart is a TRAMP! And she can't fly her way out of a double ended hangar. I was GOING to make that run today!"
"You'll beat her time, I'm sure." Devon waved at the coffee pot.
"But I won't have done it FIRST!"

THE END

NaNoWriMo ’09 Day 29.1 - Part 7

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:08:01 -0800

Here’s part seven.

Part Seven - In which the Battle begins and the stakes get even higher

"Do you want me to got tell them I was kidding, that some of them aren't worth fighting for?" Flynn followed Em up the stairs to the bridge.
"Of course not, but we need to make choices based on what we plan to do. We simply cannot take all of the volunteers," Em said to Flynn over her shoulder.
"What, out of curiosity, have they all volunteered to do? What are we all going to die doing?"
"No one is going to die," Em said dismissively but added under her breath, "I hope. Devon and I are still trying to figure it out. We have a few ideas, but we haven't come up with a final plan yet."
"What should I do in the meantime?"
"Go talk to them. Come up with something else they can do to help the villages. We can only take ten plus ourselves."
"Hmmm...you might be on to something," Flynn's irritation evaporated and he walked slowly down the stairs from the bridge fingering his chin in thought.
As he stepped onto the main hatch stairs he was immediately inundated with shouts and requests and people demanding his attention. He slid down the rails quickly and indicated a few people to gather with him. "We can only take ten volunteers on the ship. We don't even know what we're doing yet," the half dozen men and women around him erupted in more angry questions and demands. "Hang on! We have ideas we just haven't settled on the best one yet. There will be other tasks, IMPORTANT tasks that need to be done here and in the villages. We need to spread the word to the other parts of the planet what is going on. There are close to a million of you here, and we have told fewer than five hundred. We're not trying to save just you and your villages, we must save the whole world. You two," he pointed to two of the older men in the group. "Can you two develop a means of taking the record of the attack and presenting it to others? It needs to be made mass-produceable and portable." He handed them the crystal. The two men took the task to heart and were already arguing about the best approach to the problem. That left four more to give tasks to. "Who knows the lands of this world?" A couple of hands went up. He picked a young woman and an older man. "If I can get you a map, can you identify key areas to drop off emissary teams to talk to the villages?" They indicated that they could. "The rest of you can come with me. We have a few projects that I believe you can help us with."
#
The cargo doors were closed now, but the electro-magnetic field was once again being used as a display screen. On the screen was an image of the shepherd moon where the ship factory was located. Devon was speaking.
"The moon has multiple gravity generators used to simulate the mass of the planetoid after it was hollowed out to make the factory. If they hadn't done that, the orbit would have destabilized and the planetoid would have been destroyed by the ring debris, spiraled in to the planet or hurled off into space. This gives us an important piece of information. Em."
Em stepped to the front of the group and began to speak, pointing at a new diagram on the display. "We believe the best plan, the plan with the most immediate success, is to increase the gravity in the generators on the side of the planet nearest the huge bay doors. This will have two effects." The display showed a simple model of the planetary system and Em was able to fully illustrate her plan using a metal wand from one of the mystics. "If we target the generators nearest the door we gain three benefits. One, we will destabilize the moon's orbit. There are no habitable moons in the system, so we believe we will not be adversely effecting anyone. Two, that side of the moon will attract ring debris, hopefully large chunks of ring debris. The debris will impact and collect around the door hopefully destroying it and or jamming it shut, which brings us to three. The door being damaged or jammed will make sure no one can get out. Eventually, the orbit will destabilize enough that the planet will either be hurled into deep space and likely into the sun, or into the planet. Flynn."
Flynn took the wand and brought up a photo of the surface of the planetoid, a pock-marked mess of craters surrounding a huge rectangular portal. He pointed and three small features were highlighted in red. "These are the power regulators that we identified for this quadrant on the moon. A couple of you helped to install ray emitters on the front of the Minerva here, she patted the wall. They have been specially tuned so that three of you should be able to connect to the power regulators remotely and overload them creating the gravity well that will push our plans into action. I can fly Minerva and get her into position. I'm told it will take no more than thirty seconds to make the modifications. We'll need to get out quick, before the gravitational effects start to draw in debris. We'll be using the power supply from the Minerva to overload the power regulators, so you needn't worry about sapping your life forces. We simply need three volunteers to establish the connections, be the conduits and to control the systems."
Everyone raised their hands. Em smiled. "We have other tasks as well. I need the best at manipulating unfamiliar systems, especially without touching them," the volunteers discussed among themselves for a moment and three emerged as those that would handle the gravitational power regulators. "We'll also need a person on sensors on the bridge," an older man's hand went up and was greeted with nods from those around him. "We'll need a pilot for the aether-craft. Flynn can shoot a bullet through the eye of a needle in an asteroid field while dodging the bullets of another ship...but he can't fly the ship." A young woman stood and smiled at Flynn. Flynn did not notice, as he had other things on his mind, but Em gave her a rather dirty look for her enthusiasm and cuteness. She shook her jealousy away and said, "Finally, we will need two or three or a special project Devon has." She gestured to Devon.
"I believe the electo-magnetic field that we use for maintaining atmospheric continuity while in low pressure aether-space can be modified to provide shielding for the ship against smaller meteor hits, say as small as a fist, or a bullet. We have enough power, but there is no system to regulate and redistribute power. I'll need some clever thinkers and some innovative minds." Another few hands raised and suggested themselves and another woman not in the ship. She was injured during the attack on the first community and was being tended to outside. "See if she will be able to make the trip and let's all get to work.
#
The Minerva dropped out of it's micro sub-aether jump at a point a couple of miles above the ring of the parent planet on the far side from the shepherd moon.
"We're out!" Em shouted needlessly into the inter-com. "Setting course through the ring gap to the factory on the shepherd moon," her fingers danced across the controls and the ship dove toward the black void between the ring segments. Within moments, the ship was slipping lithely through the hundred yard wide gap. The occasional small meteroid was vaporized or deflected against the electro-magnetic field extended to cover the whole ship by a trio of mystics in the engineering bay. Each time they 'felt' and impact, they rebalanced the field and remodulated the power signature. Flynn and the young mystic girl were waiting in the aether-fighter waiting for the word to launch to provide cover for the Minerva as the mystics aboard overload the power regulators on the gravity generators. They talked casually, keeping their minds off the danger ahead of them.
"I'm showing a group of contacts," the mystic manning the scanners on the bridge. They had been traveling the gap for about ten minutes and were about to clear the limb of the planet, possibly making them visible to long range scanners. They traveled the ring gap largely because the hoped it would provide them with cover from those same scanners.
"Do they seem to see us?" Em asked assuming the contacts were perimeter patrols.
"Uh..." the mystic backed away from the new information on the scanner display. "Yeah! We're flying into a trap."
"What?!?" Em scrambled to pull up the scanner screen on her display. "Holy crap!" She flipped on the intercom. "Battlestations! Flynn, we've got incoming contacts in about thirty seconds. Get ready to launch on my mark."
"Copy that," Flynn's pilot mystic flipped the switch that opened the cargo bay doors revealing the black of the aether-space and the massive ring stretching off for thousands of miles.
"We're ready for launch on your mark," Flynn acknowledged her orders and began to double check his weapon systems. The ship still had its twin cannons in the rotating turret that fired a fifty caliber shell. There was a fair amount of ammunition left. They had however mounted ray guns on the turret and nose of the aether-fighter as well. Flynn powered on the systems and checked the power levels. "Just how many are we talking about here?"
"Don't ask," Em responded. "We'll cut a swath, just watch our back and flanks. They're at fifty miles, launch now."
The pilot hit the primary thruster control and the aether-fighter shot through the cargo doors and the expanded electro-magnetic field. Flynn turned the turret around to get a gauge of his surroundings, and when he saw the hundreds of ships coming toward them in wave after wave, his stomach dropped and his blood ran cold. They took up position high and behind Minerva and waited...but not long.
"Contact in three...two...one!" the bridge mystic counted down.
"Engaging firing systems," Em said and flipped a switch. Below in the workshop a makeshift war-room was set up. The three mystics tasked with running the ray emitters began targeting and firing upon enemy aether-fighters.
Em, for her part flew as straight as possible, keeping on course to arrive on target, dodging only to avoid deadly formations of the aether-fighters. The gunner mystics were phenomenal at their jobs and shot down or disabled nearly every aether-fighter that crossed their path. The projectiles that were fired at the ship were deflected or destroyed by the electro-magnetic field.
Flynn and his pilot circled the Minerva and kept the aether-fighters off the tails and flanks. The pilot was highly adept at putting Flynn in perfect position to pick them off one at a time. The aether-fighters were beginning to thin, whether from attrition or from retreat, he couldn't say, but he was glad of the reprieve.
On the bridge of the Minerva the bridge mystic was looking concerned at her scanner display. "The ships are retreating. They must not have liked our enhancements. Uh-oh. We've got an incoming object, it's not a ship."
Em looked at the display and gritted her teeth, "Taking evasive action." She hauled on the controls and rolled and dove the Minerva to the port.
Flynn was watching as the last few ships took retreating pot-shots at the Minerva and blasted the engine of one which sent it spinning into the ring. The Minerva then began a quick roll and dive to the port. "What the..." Flynn's question was answered as a great dark shadow stole over his face and was quickly followed by a rock the size of a camp-trailer. It hurtled toward the Minerva and grazed her flank pushing right through the electro-magnetic field. Flynn watched as the last three ships turned tail as Minerva barely escaped her collision without much damage. They began to withdraw quickly. "After those ships," Flynn yelled, as the pilot was already engaging the turbo-thrusters. "I think they just say something that the rest of their fleet would love to know. We need to stop them!" He quickly disabled the one in the rear, the second closest jinked and dodged evading his guns. The frontmost, turned and careened at Flynn's aether-fighter, firing a steady stream of hot metal at the ship. One of the bullets found its mark and pierced the turret's canopy. Flynn's artificial hand flew up in front of his face. His robotic hand took most of the glass and the bullet that was slowed considerably. The emergency electro-magnetic field flashed into place to prevent catastrophic loss of atmosphere. Devon had insisted on the safety measure and Flynn would now be very glad of it if her were fully aware...but he wasn't. He took more than a few fragments of glass to his face and chest, but worst of all the bullet had slammed his hand into his head knocking him senseless. Flynn's pilot lined up the ray cannons in the bow of the aether-fighter and blasted it apart, and began to close on the middle aether-fighters. The remaining aether-fighter apparently realizing that we was doomed turned and looped itself directly at the Minerva. The ship plowed though the electro-magnetic field and collided with the bow of Minerva. There was an explosion and when the debris cleared, Flynn saw the lights blink out on the bridge. "Em..." and he passed out from the pain and shock of his injuries.
#
Flynn's pilot slipped the injured aether-fighter expertly into the cargo bay. There was pandemonium inside the Minerva. Smoke was drifting up from the makeshift war room. She popped the canopy and flagged down one of the mystics rushing up the stairs coughing from the acrid fumes.
"Flynn is hurt!" The mystic climbed onto the wing to help the pilot extract Flynn from the gunner's turret. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and none of his injuries seemed life-threatening, so the other mystic returned to helping put out fires and restore order.
At that moment Em slid down the rail of the spiral stairs. She was running to the stairs to the war room when she saw the pilot leaning over Flynn's immobile body laid out on the wing, blood covering his face and chest. "Flynn!" She changed direction mid-stride and ran to his side. "What happened? Is he going to be all right?"
The pilot looked up to see the fear on Em's face. "He's going to be fine, he's just unconscious. He took a round in the hand," she lifted up his robotic hand and showed em the smashed wrist plating. "The hand hit him in the face and knocked him cold." She looked at Em's face and realized that she was injured too. Her face was a mass of cuts and scratches. Her hair was a mess and she was covered in dust and grime. "Are you all right Miss Danger?"
"I'm fine, the bridge is another matter. We're still trying to get the pressure back up to normal. Only then will we know the full extent of the damage," Em said wiping a streak of blood off of Flynn's cheek. "I need to go to check on the war room," she looked at the young, pretty pilot and took a deep breath. "Will you see if any of the mystics have any medical training."
"I do," she said.
"Oh. Okay," Em bit her lip and jogged toward the stairs. The war room below the cargo deck was still rather full of smoke, but it had dissipated enough that you could see. "Report!"
One of the mystics walked to her. "We had a fire, but it looks worse than it is. We have, however lost connection with the Ray emitters."
"They power connections are probably just tripped. The whole bridge is dark. I wanted to see that everyone was okay down here. I need to go see about getting back onto the Bridge. Let me know if anything else is damaged."
"Aye, Miss," he said and went back to his work.
As she arrived on the cargo bay floor, she ran into Devon who was coming from the entrance level.
"Flynn's been hurt," Em said, her voice thick with emotion.
"I heard. The pilot's treating him now," Devon gestured at the aether-fighter. Flynn was sitting up against the fuselage, his shirt was open to the waist. The pilot daubed something on the cuts on his face and chest. He was smiling weakly at her. She ran up the stairs toward the bridge, she missed him calling out to her.
She met one of the mystics coming down from the bridge with a charred piece of wood. "We got in, the atmosphere has stabilized, some systems are up, but we don't have gravity up there yet. If you're going up there, be careful."
"Will do," she went up the stairs and when she got to the bridge, she pushed off and floated up to the pilot couch. It was a very odd feeling, being weightless. As a girl, she'd loved the sensation. Her father would sometimes turn off the artificial gravity in an empty cargo hold and she could soar around like a bird. She could do that for hours, but now it was an alien feeling. She barely got more than a few hundred feet off the ground anymore. The sensation was tough to get used to, especially with the orientation of the bridge. She strapped herself into the pilot's couch and began to run a systems check. Navigation, control and propulsion were online. Communications were still shaky and intermittent, and the ray-emitter was completely offline still. She looked up and out of the main view port and noticed for the first time just how bad the damage was. The main view port was fractured in a huge spiderweb, and beyond that, she could see why the ray emitters were offline they were gone. Completely gone. "Crap."
"Our plan is going to require modification." The voice made her jump, she turned and saw Flynn looking up at her from the entry to the bridge. "The aether-fighter is not in great shape either."
"Flynn, I'm glad to see you are up and around. Did that cute little pilot fix you up okay?"
"Huh? Oh. She patched me up all right," he steered the conversation away from that area. He wasn't sure what was going on there, and it seemed that there were more important issues at hand. "With no ray emitters, we're not going to be able to remotely manipulate the power regulators, right?"
"Uh, yeah. How many aether-suits do we have?"
"Four, but if we can't overload the power regulators at the same time we may not be able to fully engage the gravity system enough to do the damage we need to do."
"I know, I just need to know our resources," she bit her lip and looked out at space. During the battle, they had come within sight of the tiny moon. It was barely more than a pea-sized crescent near the limb of the gas giant. There were hundreds more of those fighters out there, and now they knew they were coming. "Can you find out..."
Her sentence was cut short by another rock the size of a soccer ball bouncing off the electro-magnetic field.
"That was close," Flynn said, his eyes wide.
"That was TOO close," Em hauled herself out of the seat. "We need to go." She 'fell' down to the stairs riding on the floor below's gravity field and slid down the railing to the entryway. They all met on the cargo deck to discuss a new plan.
"Drop each of us off at our power regulator and we'll overload them at a pre-arranged signal," the mystics were universally in favor of this plan.
"It's too dangerous," Em shook her head. "We might not be able to pick you up before the gravity begins to drag debris down."
"It doesn't matter," One of them said. "This is more important than any of us, isn't it?" The mystics all agreed mumbling and nodding. "We all agreed that we would sacrifice ourselves for this mission if necessary."
"It may not be necessary," Em said under her breath. "Everyone get into an aether-suit and get ready to bail out. We'll fly low and slow over each position, but we won't be able to land. The gravity is very light, right now, so you won't fall too fast. I'll work on a way to get you all back aboard." She disappeared up the stairs.

"Get ready," Em shouted. "Don't lock your knees, and once you're down, find some cover from these aether-fighters. First drop, coming up." She dodged the stream of bullets and slipped within ten feet of the lip of a large crater. "Five...four...three...two...GO!"
The first mystic dove out of the main entry's electro-magnetic field. He dropped twenty feet and landed kind of hard on the ground, rolling, but finding cover behind a rock as one of the aether-fighters broke off pursuit of the Minerva and strafed the ground with hot lead.
They made two more drops safely, and made a quick orbit of the moon to give the mystics time to get in position. The Minerva managed to smash two of the pursuing aether-fighters into a ridge. They came up on the drop area low and fast, when Flynn realized the main portal was open. The signal was to fly over the center of the area and shoot straight up. As soon as the power regulators were engaged, the Minerva would swing back in a wide slow arc trailing a rope ladder. The mystics would grab hold and climb back into the ship. Em performed the maneuver and watched the scan-a-tron display. The gravity well was beginning to grow. As it hit one gee, Em changed her course and set it up for the arc. "Flynn, get ready with the ladder."
"Got it!" Flynn was wearing an aether-suit sans the helmet and unrolled a long rope ladder into the aether-stream. It trailed behind the ship, but as they approached the gravity well of the planet, it began to droop toward the surface of the planet.
The first pick up went well, and the mystic was halfway up the ladder when the second grabbed on. Over the third, however Flynn noticed the mystic lying on the ground near the power regulator. He was clutching his arm that even at this distance Flynn could tell was stained with blood he waved for them to leave him. "Go around again!" Flynn shouted up to Em. He hauled the second mystic into the door, latched on his helmet and slid down the rope ladder to the end. As the Minerva pulled a tight turn to make another pass, Flynn was flung out from the ship. She slowed down for the approach and Flynn sank so he was very close to the ground. He could have stepped off the ladder onto the surface with no difficulty. The third mystic was standing, ready for his pick up when he waved frantically at him, He turned his head and saw a rock the size of a car engine hurtling right for him. His eyes bugged out and pumped the rope ladder out of the way like he was on a swing set. The rock sailed past him, impacting and showering him with debris. On his backswing, he grabbed the mystic with his arm and Em pulled up. The gravity lessened as they shot away from the planet. Flynn and the mystic were hauled in by the other mystics and they were treated to the site of rocks and boulders and chunks of ice beginning to shower the gravity zone. The main entry portal was being pummeled with stone and ice, and one of the doors was already warping out of shape. A huge stone, the size of a house made a perfect shot through the open main entry portal and the were treated to the site of a huge explosion inside the moon.

#
They were pulled inside the electo-magnetic field and releived themselves of their helmets and the pilot mystic came over to check on the third mystic's bullet wound. She hauled him off to an area where she could get a good look at the wound. Flynn made his way of the stairs to the bridge.
"Hey! Great job! Now let's get out of here before this place turns into a rock storm!" When he arrived, he expected jubilation, but he was greeted with stunned silence. Em pointed to the main view port. Flynn had to adjust his viewpoint from the door way to see through the spiderweb cracks. Fire was erupting from the main entry portal in great geysers of flame. There were several huge eruptions of molten stone and dust from larger impacts. Flynn could even see a great fault appearing in the surface, leading away from the portal, it widened even as he watched. There was something emerging from the portal. "Surely not!" was all he could say as one of the motherships slipped out of the portal and into the barrage of ring debris. It angled up, showing the Minerva its ventral side and accelerated out of the ring and into nothingness.
"Crap." Em said and made to follow when the Minerva was rocked by a massive impact. Flynn fell down the stairwell, his artificial hand grasping for something to prevent his fall found a rail and popped off his wrist stump. He tumbled down and landed hard on the floor knocking his head against the floor. The last thing her remembered seeing was flames and smoke erupting from the floor below up the stairwell.
When he awoke he was looking into the pilot mystic's face, as she was looking into his pupils checking for concussion.
"Fire?" Flynn croaked, his voice hoarse from smoke inhalation. He tried to sit up and winced as he pushed his stump against the floor. He looked up and spotted the copper glint of his mechanical hand wedged and mangled in the railing ten feet up.
"The fire's out. The asteroid collided square on the cargo door. It punched through the Electro-magnetic field and is stuck in the doorway. The field is holding around it, but we're having the devil's time shifting the rock. You, however, need to stay still. You took a good crack to the head. I'm concerned that you have a concussion. I'll help you move to the side of the room, but I want you still," She helped him to his feet and they limped over to a chair near the main hatch, where he slumped down suffering from a sudden and severe headache and head rush.

Em slid down the stairway rail and she and Devon looked on as two of the stronger mystic attempted for a third time to shift the asteroid wedged into the cargo doorway. The doors lay in mangled heaps to either side of the doorway. The aether-fighter was partially crushed and shoved at an awkward angle against a wall.
"We're out of the plane of the ring, but we can't go to sub-aether with that rock in the side of us," Em said.
"I know, but I'm concerned that if we wrench it out, it'll tear the electro-magnetic generators with it. How long to get back to the mystic's world under standard drive?"
"Four or five hours, but that doesn't necessarily help. Re-entry won't be a picnic."
"Is it possible?"
"In theory. We'll have to come in sideways to keep the rock out of the slip stream. We wouldn't want it to burn up and fly out ripping the electro-magnetic generators, or worse, shrinking and flying in here and tearing the place to hell."
"I'm worried that that mothership is headed back to 'fuel up,' so let's get underway," He turned away from Em who was heading up the stairs and addressed the room. "Everyone needs to get out of this level. There's a danger that the asteroid will shift and fly in here or exit and leave the deck open to ray aether-space. Let's get out and get ready for a rough landing."
The mystics withdrew from the asteroid and followed Devon up the stairs.

"What's going on?" Flynn asked the pilot-medic mystic as Devon and the other mystics paraded up the stairs.
Devon diverted over to Flynn. "Got some extra baggage down there. Going to be a rough re-entry."
"Em will get us down if anyone can," Flynn said looking up toward the bridge and wishing he hadn't.
"True enough. How are you, lad?"
"I've got a galaxy class headache and my vision in blurry in my right eye. My hand is in a bad way, he pointed to the mangled cluster of metal in the stair way railing."
Devon looked at the young pilot woman. "Is there anything you can do for him?"
"His body is fixing itself, he just needs to rest and stay still, but not sleep. I've made sure that there is no lasting damage. The older man that was manning the ray emitters may be able to do something about the mechanical hand. He is a master of small mechanisms such as that. I will stay with him to make sure that he rests, but does not sleep."
"We're going to have at least four hours before we arrive. Rest up, Lad. This young lady will see to you. If you need anything, let me know. I'll be on the bridge." Devon stood and walked across the room to an older mystic and spoke with him briefly. He left and headed for the stairs. The mystic followed him. Devon handed the man the mangled hand and went up the stairs to the bridge.
He returned to his seat and began turning it over in his hands inspecting it and seeming to understand it's function. He looked over at Flynn and nodded and winked. His hands went to work in a way that was almost hypnotizing to Flynn.

"At least we have gravity back on the bridge," Em said strapping in and laying in a course for the mystic's home world. "How is Flynn?" Em asked, but did not look at Devon.
"Got his clock cleaned, but he's being looked after by that young mystic. He'll be fine, he'll be fine."

Em sat the Minerva down finally and peeled her white-knuckled hands off the controls and exhaled violently. "Well, that was fun." The Minerva made a variety of ominous sounds, creaking and groaning and pinging as its skin cooled and warped around the astroid and the myriad dents and gaps in its hull. Another sound, however reached Em's ears. Yells. Shrieks. Cries. "What the?"
"Em! Devon! Get down here!" Flynn's voice was commanding and echoed up the stairs. Em and Devon both rushed down the stairs to find Flynn staring in horror out the main hatchway. They rushed to his side and looked out on the scene below. They had left this village with hundreds of people waiting for their return, bringing with them news that their oppressor is destroyed and they were to be saved. Now, there were only a few dozen men and women lying around the burning wreckage of the village. A few were immobile on the ground, the rest were standing around the base of the Minerva wailing and crying. Many were injured, and all were terrified and angry.

NaNoWriMo ’09 Day 26.2 - Part 6

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:56:36 -0800

Here’s part six.

Part Six - In which a hideous secret is uncovered and a revolt is planned

Arrakkis Blue Four, the name Devon gave the planet, loomed in the view ports. It was slightly larger than Earth, but scans revealed it to be less dense. Gravity would be higher than Earth normal, but only slightly. "It'll be like you just had a big Thanksgiving dinner," Devon had quipped when he made the announcement. The were huge oceans, unlike the last planet they were on, and even larger than Lady Arrakkia's home planet. The main continents clustered like large islands mostly in the southern hemisphere and around the equator. The seas were greener than Earths and the desert areas that weren't covered with lush blue-green vegetation were red with tinges of green. There were high snowcapped mountains and a large souther ice cap and a smaller northern cap.
Devon was almost nose to screen with the scanner display. "The temperature is close to Earth normal. The atmosphere is similar to the last planet, so plenty of oxygen. I'm not getting any energy signatures similar to neutonium. There is some kind of energy signature though. It rare on Earth and other places in the Sol system, but there are pockets in India, Egypt, Central America, Ireland, Australia. This place is positively infused with it."
"Is it dangerous?" Flynn asked.
"No, not at all," Devon dismissed the idea.
"I'm not seeing any cities like you'd find on a modern planet," Em was looking through her own scope. "But there are sure people. Lots of them," Em looked up at the planet through the view port as though she might see something with her naked eyes. "I'll bet whatever they are going to use as fuel is prevalent everywhere, but they will exploit it here because the population is under-developed."
"Scum," spat Flynn. "We should probably find a lightly populated area. It will be easier to talk to a smaller population for the first time. They may also have seen or heard something about Lady Arrakkia's prospectors. They would probably seek out lightly populated areas to reduce risk to themselves.
"How about here," Em pointed to a smallish island in the southern temperate zone. She zoomed in to the north western corner. "There's a small colony in this area," she pointed to a bay at the base of a mountain.
Devon looked over their shoulders and pointed to a lighter green blue area. "There's a clearing about three miles from the colony area. It's temperate zone, so the forest should be reasonably easy to transit."
Em slipped into the pilot's couch. "Setting course."
#
Em guided the Minerva to the surface and landed it in the center of the clearing. The trees here were towering and looked even more bluish up close. They would be as tall as the redwoods on Earth. "Well, they'll do a good job of hiding the Minerva." She downloaded a map of the island to her scan-a-tron and slid it into one of the cargo pockets on the leg of her trousers.
The trio made their way to the entry area and began putting their equipment on. Em strapped her rapier to her waist, and strapped a ray gun rifle to her back and slipped on a ruck sack with food, water, first aid kit and other supplies. Flynn was just hefting his ruck sack when Devon returned from the workshop. Neither Em, nor Flynn noticed he had gone. He was carrying a leather strap like a belt, but wider. "Had a brain wave about how to make that third finger power. Took the liberty of making you something."
Flynn took the proffered strap. It was a bandolier with a dozen small knives strapped to it. They were cruciform in shape and all arms were razor sharp. "Just remember," Devon said. "Don't pull them out with your left hand. All edges are sharp."
Flynn removed one with his robotic right hand. It was weighted perfectly for throwing either flat end over end or sideways rotationally.
"They are inspired by combining the Japanese shurikan and the western throwing knife," Devon indicated a small chip at the intersection of the main blade and cross-piece. "Activate the capacitor with your ring finger and touch this chip for a moment to charge them. Throw them and the knife will carry the charge to your target. The charge itself won't be lethal in a healthy adult human, but it will incapacitate one without any trouble. They are an ultra strong alloy and razor sharp, they will cut into wood, stone and even thin steel. Use them well lad."
Devon hefted his own light ruck sack and pulled his umbrella out of the closet and opened the main hatch.
Em's boots hit the grassy clearing floor, she checked her scan-a-tron and indicated they should head out in a path that would take them over the ridge and to the bay west of their position. They walked single file, separated by several paces. Flynn insisted that if there were traps or area attacks they would be safer this way. The gravity was a bit stronger as predicted, but the high oxygen content fueled their lungs and muscles and they were able to keep up a good pace.
After two hours, Em called a halt with a silent hand signal, holding up her fist. She knelt on one knee and Flynn and Devon followed suit, Devon somewhat slower and using his umbrella to steady himself. She pointed off to the right and Flynn was able to spot a pair of robed men walking in a path almost parallel to theirs about thirty feet away. They carried baskets filled with what looked like pine cones and grass and were talking amicably among themselves. They wore robes of a fine weave that looked like wool or linen. One was light green trimmed with navy blue. The other was yellowish orange and trimmed with blood red. They wore their hoods up, so there was no way to judge their appearance from here.
The aliens walked ahead without noticing any of the Earthlings. When they had passed out of earshot, Em and the others made their way over to the path the aliens were following. It was easy to follow them on the well-worn path.
"Do you intend to do us harm?"
Devon spun around at the sudden voice in his ear. The other two followed suit. There were two men standing behind them, they pointed decorative metallic rods at them. They were dressed identically to the people they had just seen, they even carried the same baskets with the grasses and pine cone looking things. Their faces were pale, not from lack of sun, but from genetics or race. They had markings on their faces, whether it was paint or tattoo, none of the party could tell from their vantage point. Em was certain that they were the same two men that they watched pass along the path ahead of them just a few minutes ago. "How did you..."
"Silence," it was a demand, but spoken with the tone of someone requesting salt or butter at a dinner party. "You will keep quiet until we reach the village. Move forward."
The group moved silently, but quickly through the forest for another fifteen minutes. No one dared to speak or attempt any sudden moves. The natives had shown no obvious means of causing them harm, but all three of their minds were on the curious metal rods. Sure, they could be used as a club, but they didn't appear to be wielded in that fashion. They entered the village and a few men and women, even a couple of young children playing with a small animal watched as they were escorted into the village. The people appeared to be well fed and healthy. Despite the modest appearance of their dress and structures. They all appeared to be similarly pale, and several men and women wore similar markings on their faces. They were marched through the middle of the village and straight into a stone building on the edge of the central courtyard.
The building was lit by a quartet of torches leaving the room quite dark. Inside was a trio of elderly people with more elaborate markings on their lined faces. There was a woman flanked by two women. The woman indicated a series of cloth cushions on the floor. It was understood and they sat. She nodded at the men that brought them in and they left, closing a wooden door behind them. When the woman spoke her voice reminded Em and the others of a professor, not a native wise woman. "You are not from Lady Arrakkia. What brings you here to our world?"
Flynn looked at Devon and Em who nodded, spoke in return, "We are not with Lady Arrakkia. We are working against her and we are seeking means of disrupting her supplies. We discovered some intelligence that this world is a source of an important fuel for a fleet of interstellar ships. We are hoping to deprive her of this source and we would welcome your help if you were willing. We mean no threat to you or your people."
The woman raised her eyebrow and fixed Flynn with a curious look. "I did not say that we were not with Lady Arrakkia, what makes you think that we would be willing to help you and not do our duty to our leader and turn you over to her?"
Flynn did not flinch at this comment. "I don't believe that you will do that. I know the type of person that she is, and she does not make friends to get what she wants. She removes obstacles or even potential threats. The only thing I'm not sure of is why you are here. You and your people look healthy and reasonably happy. How is it that you haven't all been rounded up and dropped on some dead planet where you won't get in the way?"
"Well played," she smiled at him. "You are the mouthpiece for your little group. Are you the brains too?"
"Depends on what you want. I'm not bad with people." He nodded to Em, "Em's a whiz with engineering and piloting," and to Devon, "and Devon is our employer and all around genius."
"Let me show you something to enlighten you," As she said the word 'enlighten' she withdrew a small metal rod decorated with copper filigree and pointed it to the ceiling. Several crystalline clusters began to glow and illuminate the room more fully. Instead of a rustic community meeting hall or a archaic medicine hut. It had the look of a modern laboratory. There were work tables laden with glass and metal equipment reminiscent of a chemistry lab. There were strange boards made of metal or crystal that had strange writing and formulae written on them.
Em thought it was more than turning the lights on in the room. The space simply seemed larger than it had. In fact it seemed larger than the building they had entered only a few minutes ago.
The woman looked Em in the eye and said. "I see that you noticed something beyond the ordinary."
Em shook her head to clear the thought and regain her game face, "Those aren't just lights," she pointed to one of the crystal fixtures.
"You are correct," the woman said and stood. Em and the other two stood as well and followed the older woman to another area in the room. "We, simply put, are a race that fosters many mystics. We have an innate ability to connect to the forces and energies of our universe and manipulate them." She turned to Flynn. "You asked why we had not been rounded up and dropped on some planet. We were. We were dropped here. We have been for millennia. This planet is rich in copper," she pointed to the filigree on her rod. "The copper helps us connect with those forces and energies. We are treated well, but we are nonetheless prisoners."
"Treated well?" Em was aghast. "You are held in these primitive surroundings. We saw no technological developments on the planet at all. They are keeping you in poverty."
"My friend, we choose to live in this fashion. On our native worlds we seek the quiet of nature. The lack of interference afforded by simple communities. These types of environments again allow us to focus in on the energies and forces in the universe. But your ire is not misplaced. Recently, we have been little more than slaves at the whim of Lady Arrakkia or the other members of the royal house. We have always been tools, serving at the whim of the Lord or Lady of Arrakkia, but this Lady is something different. She is warlike and dangerous. We are being 'harvested' at a far greater pace than we ever have in the past."
"Harvested?" Flynn asked with emotion close in his voice.
"Sorry, it's our 'joke' to refer to ourselves as a crop," she laughed somewhat ruefully. "That said, it's more true today than it's been in living memory."
"Do yo know why?" Devon spoke for the first time. "Why now? Why are your people being taken with such increased frequency?"
"We can guess. My best understanding is that this new Lady Arrakkia is a more ruthless dictator than we've ever had before. She could have a terrible temper and go through more court mystics than other leaders. This behavior could be in vogue across the empire. It's sick to assume such a horrible reason, but we've heard nothing to lead us to believe otherwi...."

#
The woman was cut off by cries and a roar from outside. Her face darkened and she indicated that the other two older men, who everyone had forgotten about as they had not spoken, should go check on the situation. She then gestured for the trio of visitors to join her back by the work areas. She spoke in a rushed whisper, "I'll ask you to stay in here. I believe this is a visitation by more harvesters. Watch from here, but you must stay hidden. Contact with outsiders is especially forbidden." She prodded a screen of crystal lined with copper wires with her rod and an image of the village appeared on it. She pointed her rod to the ceiling again and the room was cordoned off by a curving wall of darkness. She walked out.
They turned their attention to the monitor. As they watched, they saw the old woman emerge from beneath the camera and walk away. Em reached over and touched a control on the side and the monitor's image zoomed toward the beach. In the distance, they could see a large craft that looked like an Arrakkian version of an Earth seaplane. It appeared to be aether-capable, however based on the construction. There were figures emerging from the craft. Flynn recognized several of them as dragons. Four figures emerged carrying something on a litter.
"That's the 'Project Hestia's' power supply," Devon pointed at the mass on the litter.
"What in the world?" Em frowned.

#
Their speculations about what they intended to do with it were cut short as the true horror of the scene broke out. The dragons in the party began grabbing and subduing the people. Those that tried to run were run down by dragons on the wing. Flynn looked angrier than Em or Devon had ever seen him. He reached out and pushed another button on the screen. Just has he did that, one of the dragons fire-blasted a man who was putting up a fight. The man fell burning to the ground and the rest of the villagers were cowed and cowered on their knees. The old woman stood and approached the ship and shouted. The monitor didn't pick up sound, but her voice, if not her words could be heard in the room. Moments later, Lady Arrakkia emerged from the craft and walked regally to the woman and pointed at the old woman. Two dragons flanked the woman and marched her to the power supply. She was forced to kneel and lay her hands on the machine. Her hands were clasped onto the machine. Her back arched as if she were being electrocuted. Then she fell over silent and immobile. Two human men in lab coats walked over and noted some observations on clipboards. The nodded toward Lady Arrakkia who signaled something to the dragons, spun on her heel and returned to the craft. The dragons each grabbed and drug two villagers into the ship. Soon it was over. The ship departed and the villagers treating their injured and weeping over the dead.
Em looked at Flynn whose face was a rictus of fury and sadness. His eyes and cheeks were wet with tears. He clenched his teeth and fingered the side of the monitor. A small crystal popped out of the side. "What's that?"
"Recording of what just happened," he said through his set jaw. "Let's get these people to the ship. We need to go."
"We can't save everyone," Em started, "There are hundreds of thousands on this world maybe millions."
"We're not leaving the planet," Devon said, his hand on Flynn's shoulder, his face rigid and angry. "Let's get them loaded."
One of the older men stumbled in to the room. He was even paler than before and the markings on his cheeks were smeared.
"I'm sorry," Em said and went to him. She helped him to a chair, and tried to comfort him. Flynn found some water and brought it to the man who took it but not drink any.
"What is that machine?" his voice was flat and quiet. Why kill us?
Devon was standing behind Em and Flynn who were kneeling in front of the man. "I'm afraid it's our fault. But we want to make sure it can never happen again. Can you help us?"
"I'll do anything."

#
They hadn't all been easily convinced, but in the end every single villager was loaded into Minerva. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but Flynn assured them that they would only be in here for a short time and they would be safer from the evil woman that had come hunting to their village.
The Minerva shot off the ground. Em sat grimly at the controls in the pilot's couch as she guided the rocket into orbit. Flynn and Devon stood back by the scanners and looked for the optimal place to put their plan in action. After two full circuits of the planet, they found the largest population center and Em began the descent and landing routine.
"How far are you willing to go, Flynn?" Devon asked his nephew while they looked at a scanner monitor.
"The stakes are high, uncle. I keep these people safe and maybe, just maybe Earth is safe. I'd die to keep these people safe. "
"Noble as hell, lad. Noble as hell," Devon put his hand on Flynn's shoulder for a moment and went down the stairs toward the workshop level.
"Flynn?" Em asked over her shoulder.
Flynn had just been staring at the monitor. He shook himself out of his reverie. "Yeah? What is it?"
"I heard what you said." Em said. "Why is this your fight?"
"I can't stand watching an overwhelming force dominate a weaker one. I don't know if you know, but I was in France in World War II. I fought with the French Resistance."
"I didn't know. What was it like?"
"Frankly, I don't talk about it much."
"Sorry," Em looked away abashed.
"Don't be. It's difficult, but I should get passed it. I lost someone important to me."
"Oh."
"She was something."
"Oh."
There was something in the way that she said that the made Flynn look over at her. She was staring fixedly out the view port. "Anyway, these people are worse than the Nazis. They have technology so much more powerful than those that they dominate. These people are completely at the whim of that woman," he stood and left the bridge.
"I'm not so sure," Em said as Flynn descended the stairs.

Em guided the Minerva down on a deserted stretch of beach. The beach was deserted, but they knew there were several villages within a few hours walk. Several of the villagers had volunteered to go to the other villages as ambassadors to bring representatives to the ship to hear out the visitors.
They set off in different directions. They eschewed the visitors' offer of weapons.
"We have nothing to fear here. We can protect ourselves," was their response.
Flynn shook his head as he walked among the remaining villagers, those that were too injured or still in shock to go to the other villages. The children and the few skeptics. Flynn eased suffering of some of the injured with water and food and medicine from the ship. He tried out his sleight of hand with his new robotic hand to entertain the children with feats of 'magic.' He suspected they were humouring him given that they and their parents were capable of amazing feats of what could only be described as real magic. Their minds were sufficiently distracted, so Flynn felt he'd done his duty.
Em worked on rigging up some external ray guns on the nose of the Minerva. She had scaled the rocket and was welding two of the rifles to the nose cone, just below the view ports. She ran the wires inside where she hooked up power supplies and triggering mechanism.
Devon, for his part, tinkered in the workshop. He wanted Flynn's message to have power and moment. He had easily figured out how to project the video onto the cargo door's electro-magnetic field, but decoding the crystal was taking a while. He stood over the remains of several different circuit and vacuum tube constructions that he was re-cannibalizing for his next attempt to build a reader.
Some hours later, the people from the local villages began to arrive. Many were confused. Many were shocked. More were skeptical. After another hour, the last of the emissaries returned with a score of villagers. He walked up to Flynn and let him know that all of the emissaries had arrived. He was one of the men that had captured Flynn, Em and Devon in the forest.
"Thank you. Devon asked me to see him before speaking," Flynn said, handing a child a copper penny he'd pulled from her ear.
"If you'll permit me, I'll follow you."
"Of course," Flynn walked toward the Minerva. "This way."
When they were out of earshot of the other villagers, the man spoke again. "I overheard your conversation with Devon on our way here. Forgive me, I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to eavesdrop."
"Never mind that, which part concerns you?"
"Not concerns. You said you would die for my people."
"That's true and I absolutely would. I couldn't stand watching your people be subjugated and murdered by that woman and her regime. I've seen too much of that in my life."
"You have had such despots on your world?"
"We have over the centuries had many despots in various parts of our world. We have also had leaders that were revered by their subjects and by their descendants."
They approached the ship and scaled the stairs. Devon was still in the workshop.
"I'm sorry, lad. Couldn't get the thing to work, we're out of luck."
The mystic looked curious, "What do you speak of?"
Flynn looked a bit down-trodden. "I tried to make a recording of the attack on the village, but I don't think I did it right, or we can't figure out how to retrieve the record."
The man took a step toward Devon, "May I?"
"Of course, of course," Devon handed the man the crystal.
"There is indeed a record of the attack on this storage crystal. May I use some of your materials?"
Devon stepped back and indicated that he should make himself at home with an expansive gesture.
The mystic took a bit of scrap copper wire and a bit of putty, wrapped the wire around the crystal and encased it in clay. "I will need to start the playback myself. I do not have the time to make a control system. How do you wish to display it?"
Devon handed the man the leads to the display system he had wired to the cargo door's electro-magnetic field. "If you can connect it to this, the red wire is..."
"I can sense it, thanks," The man placed the feeds at points in the putty and the screen flickered to life. The scene unfolded and they could hear the villagers outside fall silent and begin to gasp and wail in terror, shock and sadness.
Flynn walked over to the doorway and stood behind looking through the screen to the crowd below. They were held in rapt attention and horror. As the footage began to wrap up, Flynn rushed up the stairs then down the main hatch stairs. He set foot on the ground just as the footage stopped. He climbed atop a crate set near the ship so he could see the crowd better.
"I don't have to tell you what happened," He spoke, his voice powerful and laden with emotion. "You've all seen it for yourselves. I don't need to tell you that there were children left as orphans, spouses left as widows and widowers. I know I'll never be able to chase those horrors that I've seen from my mind as long as I live. I doubt many of you will either. I apologize for needing to show you that. What I offer, besides horrible images is hope and a willingness to fight for you. For your families. For loved ones lost and still among us. For freedom from tyranny. For freedom to live your lives without fear and loss.
"Who will join me? Who will risk your lives to save those of the greater community?" He hopped down off the crate and began to walk among the people. "Will you fight for your daughter?" He asked a man with his mate and young daughter. The man's chest rose and he nodded curtly. "Will you fight for your mate?" he asked a young woman holding the hand of a young man." She blushed and smiled with a nod, her chin lifting. "Will you," he waved at the crowd as a whole "dive headlong into the unknown to fight and possibly die for those you probably do not know? I WILL!"
The crowd erupted in a cheer and Flynn stood looking at the people proudly.

Em stood at the cargo door with Devon. "I have goose bumps," she said rubbing her arms.
"So do I, Em." He said, his face betraying a true smile through his curmudgeonly mask. "So do I."