TotW 235: Mare Umrae - The Vote!
<< Picture of the Week | Unedited Screenshot of the Week | Graphics Competition | Tale of the Week >>
Mare Umbrae
Vote for Two Tales!
Spoiler for Submission 1:Old Kowloon Bazaar.
Humanity inhaled, tasting some odd cocktail of bitter pollution, sweet rain and sour notes of their kind up close and personal. Downtown traffic buzzed at the back of the brain, like a dead and buried TV channel. The sonic boom of a space-faring engines exploded, the ship echoing like distant cannon, the sound encountering the brilliance of neon light. Tall columns and angular monoliths stood tall, iron ziggurats and smoke stacks betwixt, wheezing fumes. Morning colored them faint gold, the sun briefly piercing the haze, a new day blessing the ecumenopolis.
Above, space going vessels burst through the atmosphere like blazing comets, their heading? One colony or another that dotted the as yet unexplored star lanes of the Galaxy. Ahead sat silver hulks, hung against an eerie backdrop of stars and darkness. Sleek in their design, the ships mirrored the stained city below.
Beneath their smooth chrome exteriors these wardens were armed to the teeth, bristling with a vast array of weaponry. Combined with a crew of equal muscle, these ships were a force to be reckoned with. The lofty behemoths watched over the planet, as merchants, colonial fleets and patrols entered in and out of the systems gravity well. They reminded those coming and going who was in command, those bellow of the benefits of their protection and those that stood in defiance, the dangers of their wrath.
Detective Richer shouldered his way through the hustle and bustle of Old Kowloon Bazaar, the commerce capital of the city state of New Hong Kong. He navigated his way through the thick masses of crowd, deftly balancing a cup of coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other. Between his lips he chewed on the end of a dying cigarette as he watched passersby.
“… Two hundred… NO! Two hundred fifty… too much?! I have family, I have dog… cheap deals no pay bills Mr. you find someone else!” Richter heard in disjointed, heavily accented English, alongside the odd neo-Han expletive.
Such was the nature of this place, the remnants of old Hong Kong town. An awkward mix of Corporate Neo-colonialists, Han locals and other ‘Gweilo’ refugees running from the ever encroaching dangers of a fading ozone and the results anthropogenic climate change.
About him merchants sold their wares with a frantic fever, pop up stands peddled mystery meats and snake oils, vendors flaunted auto-prosthetics and bio-mods, arms dealers displayed the latest in custom designs and nightclubs pulsed with amphetamine and hallucinogens, neon oozing from their doors. All were bedazzled by the sights, sounds and smells of Old Kowloon Bazaar all except Richter that is.
“Welcome ladies and germs to the greatest stinking cesspool that is the the most wretched hive of vile scum and villainy this side of the Arm of Orion! Come one come all to this little ball of crap we like to call Earth...” Richter thought, sneering under the brim of his fedora, a bloody murder scene awaiting him.
Le fin.
Spoiler for Submission 2:"Right men," The captiain roared across the deck of the Apache, trying to be heard over the whirling engines of the thrusters, "Galaxy 23 is one of the last remaining unexplored areas of this Sector and by orders of the Queen we are the lucky bastards whose job it is to scout out this Galaxy and send it back to InOps for mapping. Returning safely isn't our top priority obviously..." That earned a few chuckles from the crew. "So be prepared for any wacko whang-dang spaceoids we might come across. As far as we are concerned we are exploring hostile territory, and these Sector 12 natives have proven to be hostile indeed. Golden rule boys is shoot first ask questions later. I don't want to come back and have to deal with the hideous amount of paperwork I get given if one of you scally-wags gets gnawed to pieces by some munching marauder." Again more laughs, that was good the Captain thought. It meant morale was high.
Leaving the deck the Captain looked fondly over the Apache - it wasn't the latest state-of-the-art ship that were becoming more widely available but it was his, and had been since his first command all those years ago. Space exploration had been in its infancy back then, and since it had ballooned in size, only the border regions like Sector 12 having no substitutable human presence. And Galaxy 23 was right at the edge of the border regions, extending into what was known as uninhabitable space. The Captain had never liked the sound of that. Still, work had been tough to find the past few years, and as a result so had money. Increased competition from egg-heads with cyber-technic infra-red mumbo jumbo crap for space ships as far as the Captain was concerned. Bastards. Sure the Apache was ageing and had fallen behind a few generations in terms of technology, but he had customised it over the years with a few surprises even the next-gen fleets wouldn't expect or be out-fitted with. He smiled fondly again, plus he had a great crew and his handling of his ship was superb - came from knowing all its nooks and crannies the Captain though.
He entered the command centre seeking out the head Cartographer he gestured towards the interactive route-plan screen and began speaking, "Giles I am planning to head towards Alpha B, the last known colony that was set up in this region by the Frogs. It isn't ideal, at a British base we would get free supplies and equipment, but InOps confirmed with the French that this base was put out of operations after their relocation program to the inner sectors so we can scavenge whatever we find their, and my engineers should be able to get the vitals of the colony's infrastructure back on-line. Together this should hopefully be a safe launching area as we probe deeper into the Galaxy for your team to begin mapping."
Spoiler for Submission 3:One morning, Sophia woke up with a feeling that something tremendously important was hovering just out of reach, and that if her mind could grasp it, everything would be all right.
She pushed it aside, and began dressing for work: simple clothes of dark green, with a buff coat to turn aside blades. From her belt she hung an arming sword and a parrying dagger. Thus prepared, she opened her lodgings' door and walked out into the market.
Sophia was immediately assaulted by a cacophony of cries and shouts, each vendor advertising his wares louder than the last. A huge tattooed man with an earring called, "Ships in a bottle! Galleys, cogs, longships! Take you where you need to go!" From a small figure swathed in a dark cloak covered in silvery dust: "Stars, two a penny! Galaxies, ten shillings!" One unsavoury man with green tattoos swirling on his face grinned at Sophia with pointed teeth. "Sylphs' feathers for the pretty lady? Ensnare men, drive rivals mad? No?" Sophia put her hand on the pommel of her dagger. "Bugger off, Mordecai," she growled. He backed away, bowing and scraping. "Jean-Pierre's men are looking for you," he hissed as he retreated. She shrugged and tossed him a crown piece. "Let them look," she replied.
The market swarmed with all types - gawking provincials fresh from the colonies, easy meat for pickpockets; furtive, hairy men from the unexplored forests selling the skins of white harts; stranger persons hawking the breath of fishes, or the hand of a hanged thief. One respectable old fellow with silver-feathered wings stood next to a vulpine gentleman sporting a pointed beard in a stall advertising "Miracles and Curses - Reasonable Rates". Several large men sporting weapons lounged around a sign reading, "Hawkwood, Sforza, Montefeltro, and Associates. The Old Firm. Condottieri at your Command."
Continuing past a number of other such remarkable entrepreneurs, Sophia reached her own premises. The sign outside her tent read "Sophia St. Clair. Adventuress and Quester. Unicorns captured, dragons slain, princesses rescued, princesses kidnapped, kingdoms overthrown. Enquire within for details." She sat down inside the tent and waited for business. Sophia had no need to cry her wares; those who needed her would find her on their own.
Briefly, she recalled her earlier strange mood, and was about to dismiss it as the result of too much venom-mead when she saw them - two young women about her own age. She knew immediately, with the instinct of a quester, that they were the reason behind the odd feeling; she was about to walk over to them when two hulking masses of muscle grabbed her by the arms. "Jean-Pierre wants a word," grunted one of them. Surprised at this loquacious display, Sophia briefly entertained the idea of complimenting him on his obvious intellectual achievements (far above the calibre of most of Jean-Pierre's hired muscle), but decided on reflection that the thug was unlikely to appreciate her subtle humour and instead followed them toward the centre of the fair.
Spoiler for Submission 4:‘An unexplored planet you say?’
‘So I said. That leaves but one option, you are a stowaway from our ship. And as such you must be dealt with according to procedure.’
The young man in the cricket uniform smiled and patted Janus on the back, which only served to infuriate him.
‘Here now my good fellow, have you no imagination? Firstly, you can hardly say this planet is unexplored, even the galaxy is fairly well documented if you know where to look. Furthermore, you have no proof nor reason to believe I am a stowaway! As a matter of fact I just arrived in my own craft, and though your Nosfaratu is certainly impressive from the outside I daresay mine would blow your mind if you stepped into it. Would you care for a look inside?’
‘Listen here, there is no point lying to me! We scanned the area before landing and the closest colony is closer to Earth than it is to us! We are alone and the only ship capable of fulfilling the journey, I am the captain of.’
‘And I told you, we are not from another Earth colony! We came in the Ta-’
‘We? There’s more of you hiding on my ship? How many are there?’
The shoulders of the curious man fell a bit as he exhaled in frustration.
‘Don’t you have security measures on such an important ship, safeguards to hinder stowaways? It would be impossible to remain unnoticed for such a long time in space! How long did you say you were travelling again?’
‘I didn’t. We have been travelling for fifty years now, as you very much know, but that’s the price you pay for freedom.’
‘Fifty years? Look at me man! Do I look like someone who has spent fifty years of his life in a box somewhere, waiting for a new home? Of course not, I can’t possibly have come with your ship!’
Janus was taken aback by the sudden obviousness of it all. The man in front of him barely looked thirty, he could impossibly have spent fifty years on the Nosfaratu.
‘I - you..you wait here, I need to speak with the council..You two, guard this man!’
On the command two men with small firearms gently but firmly put their hands on the curious mans’ shoulders. Janus went, but turned in the doorway.
‘No wait..Leave him be. We have spent too long to get to paradise, let him go back to whence he came from.’
Janus followed the stranger to his supposed spacecraft, which turned out to be a large box.
‘So you were a stowaway after all.’
‘Well not quite. I’m pleased to have met you Janus and I wish you good luck. Oh and by the way; I’m the Doctor.’
Janus stood quiet as the Doctor went into the box and it suddenly disappeared in front of his eyes. After a while he shrugged and went back to organising the agricultural department.
Spoiler for Submission 5:It is time!
Mira had had yet another sleepless night. The star pilot of the “Daedalus” had been haunted by vivid hallucinations and spectres, each more terrifying than the last, each one dragging her closer and closer to the edge of the abyss. She had sacrificed many things to be the best; she had spent many hours, days, both in simulators and in the actual cockpit of the sensor ship and now it seemed that all these sacrifices returned from a seemingly unexplored part of her mind, of her very being. Over the past months she had tried to fight these illusions, these monsters but she had dared not go see the doctors, lest they would have pulled her from the mission.
Now, once more, she sat in the pilot’s comfortable chair. It felt familiar and it comforted her. She went without thinking, instinctively, through the pre-launch manoeuvres and as she did so, she felt better.
ETA one minute and counting, a voice was heard over the comm. link, letting her know that the people in the command centre were at their stations, this fact reassuring her further.
Mira saw the lights of the launching tube turning on and felt the vibrations of the engines. She strapped herself in, just as the navigation officer’s voice counted down the last seconds.
Seven, six, fiver, four, three, another crewman sat on the other chair, next to Mira, two, one, ignition...
As the small sensor ship accelerated through the launch tube, Mira was looking at the other person, but the sun visor was already down. This was highly irregular; Mira had never flown with someone else, aside from her instructor back at the academy. An uneasy feeling came over her. The acceleration stopped suddenly, as the vessel exited the large “Daedalus”, and the silhouette of the target planet was in view.
- Arrival time, ETA five minutes, Mira said over the comm. link, copy.
- Five minutes, copy, the response came back. Proceed to checkpoint one! Copy Scout-3.
- Checkpoint one, copy. Confirm second crewmember, Mira said again.
- You....reak...up, say...gain, the response was half heard.
- Solar flares Daedalus, Mira said. Confirm second crewmember.
At this time, the other person turned towards her, without opening the visor, stretching outwards one hand, open palm facing up.
- ...ost...comm...tio..., another half reply came from the command centre.
- Hold my hand Mira, a man’s raspy voice spoke from behind the helmet.
- Who...who are you, Mira asked, feeling more and more afraid.
- There is no place for you here, not anymore, the voice continued. This galaxy has long turned its back on your kind.
As the small sensor ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, the last thing Mira saw before she blacked out was the visor slowly rising and flames coming out of the astronaut suit.
Scan Mission Report: Launch flawless, comm. broke down, Scout-3 lost.
Scan result: Earth-uninhabitable.
Conclusion: Colony ship Daedalus maintains orbit, new scan scheduled in one thousand years.
Reply With Quote
Best of luck peeps!
