Beautiful Plumage

Image source with more information
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

With the sun hidden behind Enceladus, Cassini is able to capture its icy plumes in all their subtle glory.

(Click for the full view, I recommend.)

Springtime on Saturn

Image source with more information
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Okay, yes, every springtime is an autumn as well. More generally: Saturn is approaching equinox. Not only has the northern hemisphere lost its blue tint, but now the whole face of the world is losing the huge shadows of the rings, as they begin to meet the sunlight edge on.

Paw

Oh TIGSource, not again!

So TIGSource have blessed us with another competition, and over a month to work on it. As I mentioned at the close of the last competition, I'm hoping to enter a short IF game into this one. No details until I've got enough done that I'm sure I'll finish.

Also, even though I've tried to cook up an entry for every single TIGSource competion since they started, I think that this is going to be my last one for a while. I finally have another project entirely of my own conception in the works, and I want to start giving it some priority. What is it? Well, you'll find out in due course. :-P

Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders: Part 18

Previously: “On the streets of Fortress City, after safely handing EON-5's head over to John Kirkham and his scientists, I found myself once more staring down the barrel of a gun.”

Part 18: Sanctuary

Something in the man's cold, emotionless eyes told me that he wasn't prone to hesitation. I did the only thing I could think of to get myself beyond the reach of his long-barrelled revolver, and threw myself backwards over the bridge railing. As I fell, I heard the plink of his bullet hitting the side of the bridge. And then I hit the water with a cold, slimy splash.

I emerged from whatever canal or river I had plunged into - more artificial than natural, it seemed - some distance downstream, soaking wet and thoroughly bedraggled. I disappeared into the nearest winding cobbled lane, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the occasional set of footsteps.

I navigated by my hazy recollection of the old city, from long before the world changed, and frequently found myself running into dead ends and broken, impassable streets. Eventually I stood before the cracked wooden door of a narrow, crooked house, part of a whole street of buildings that leaned to the left, like dominoes frozen in motion.

Answering my knock, a short, stout man with thinning grey hair looked me over with a wary eye. “Whatever you want,” he said politely, “I'm afraid we haven't got any. The soup kitchen opens at dawn, just down the road.”

I shook my head. “I'm looking for Sigrid Phenice. My name is Dr Peregrine Gleve.”

He opened the door far enough that I could see the shotgun he held close by his side. Some way behind him, down a narrow and unadorned hallway, Sigrid appeared, her sleeves rolled up and her hair down. “It's alright, Mack,” she said. “Let him in. Gods, doc, what happened to you?”

“Somebody tried to kill me,” I said, stepping past Mack as he set down the shotgun. “And then I went for a short swim.”

Sigrid grabbed my arm. “You're shivering. Come on, let's sit you by the fire.”

She led me further down the hallway, and then sharply left and into a cramped room with a tiny curtained window, lit only by the flickering light from a fireplace.

An old woman sat rocking in a chair, knitting a scarf that pooled into a ludicrous heap at her feet. She didn't look up as I entered.

Sigrid pulled a wooden stool and a blanket out from some secret cranny and set it close to the fire. “Come on doc, let's get you out of these wet things. Don't be shy.”

I sat down on the stool in my underclothes and wrapped the blanket around me tightly, only shivering more profoundly now that I was no longer walking through the streets. “Sigrid, there are plenty of people who want me dead, personally, but I can't help thinking that I'm part of a team now. I'm not sure if this was someone out to kill me in particular, or to kill all of us.”

She nodded. “Well, I don't think there's so much we can do about that at the moment. The others can handle themselves. They'll need to if someone wants us all dead, 'cause I don't see that that someone would want to leave much time between offing each of us.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“Dry off for a while, and we'll see about finding the Major. EON-4 should be pretty safe with Kirkham, and the Lady's in her little fort in Circhester.”

I tried to keep my eyes from the hypnotic motion of the old woman's knitting needles. “Do you know where Major Thurlow might be?”

Sigrid shrugged. “No. But I know where I am, so if someone wants us all dead, I expect they'll come knocking sooner or later. And would you tell me, doc, just who is that wants you dead 'in particular'?”

I tried to laugh her question off. “Just powerful people who don't trust me.”

“Nobody's powerful anymore. Nobody but John Kirkham and the Sky Spiders. Maybe the Iron Queen before you knocked her block off.”

“My enemies were powerful once. People respect that. And that makes them powerful still. Don't ever doubt the ability of the human species to get one over on itself, even in its twilight age.”

“Is this to do with that Select Committee you mentioned? What's that all about, anyway?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. It doesn't matter.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Sure, I believe you.”

We both started as a heavy knock sounded at the door.

“Mack,” Sigrid called out. “Don't answer it.”

From somewhere in the shadows, Sigrid retrieved her rifle with its telescopic sight. I looked at my revolver, dripping wet in its holster, and hoped it was still in good enough condition to fire.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Next week: Who has come calling at this late hour? Friend or foe? Check back in a week's time for the next instalment of Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders!

Friday Megalith Blogging

Credit: Marta Gutowska
Some rights reserved.

The Callanish standing stones.

The Another Intriguing Studio Ghibli Project

So it seems that Studio Ghibli are collaborating with Level5 - the guys behind Professor Layton and the Curious Village - to make a game for the DS called, uh, Ninokuni: The Another World.

Ghibli are providing the cut scenes and Joe Hisaishi music. Level5 are presumably providing the gameplay and 3D graphics, and stitching it together into one huge crystal of obscene beauty or Frankensteinian failure.

Ghibliworld have the trailer, here.

Hat tip: Twitch

Miss Baker

Image credit: NASA

I keep a little (well, alright, 200Mb) folder of my favourite space images on my PC, as it's a lot more convenient than finding things among the squillions of images stored on the disparate space agency sites around the net. For the most part, they're ordered by distance from the sun, and then sub-divided by moon/asteroid/whatever.

I like to take a nose around the directories from time to time, to see if there's anything that stands out to me on a repeat viewing - which is what happened when I bumped into Miss Baker above. Well, actually, my first response was to exclaim, "What the hell?" aloud and laugh, and then worry that maybe she actually died on the journey.

Despite the poor grasp of astronautics that she's displaying above, Miss Baker was one of the two first animals to be put into orbit around the Earth by NASA (or by any other space agency). She lived to the ripe old age of 27, and was buried near the US Space and Rocket Center.

Image credit: NASA

Miss Baker rode into space on one of these: a Jupiter Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile, which, when it was not being used to launch monkeys into space, was capable of destroying cities with nuclear warheads.

I guess my point is that we owe a lot to monkey astronauts.

Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders: Part 17

Previously: “After collecting the incoherent head of EON-5, we returned to Fortress City with the intention of heading north by ship. Perhaps EON-1 would prove more communicative.”

Part 17: Shadowed Streets

As a rust-encrusted tram rattled past, Lady Una pulled me to one side. “Are you insane?” she whispered sharply. “I have no legs and titanium armour for skin, and you want me to take an ocean cruise? I probably won't be able to get up the gangplank without falling overboard and sinking like a stone.”

I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say straight away. “I hadn't thought of that,” I confessed.

She sighed. “And you're supposed to be one of the nation's leading brains.”

“Sorry. I just don't tend to think of you as... Well, you know.”

She reached up behind her head to touch her hair, as if afraid that it might have uncoiled from its tight bun. “I'm not sure if that makes you charming or inconsiderate. At any rate, I'm returning to Circhester presently, to check on my uncle. I'll take the opportunity to try and achieve neutral buoyancy as best I can.”

I blinked. “Yes, good luck with that.”

She adjusted the fingers of one glove. “You are, of course, very welcome to accompany me.”

“I...” I cleared my throat. “I'm afraid I have to meet EON-4 and John Kirkham. Perhaps if you were to postpone your trip until evening...”

“Time is against us. We don't have the luxury of postponement.”

“So I keep hearing.”

Lady Una took my hand delicately in hers. “Goodbye, doctor.”

“Until I see you.”

*

We had crossed over No Man's Land at night, just close enough to the distinguished black profile of Prometheus to feel protected. It remained unmoving, its arthropodal legs folded up tightly beneath it. The soldiers standing guard in the trenches had stared at us like we were ghouls walking out of a graveyard. Through a network of cramped and dank tunnels, we had passed beneath the walls of Fortress City and into its almost equally cramped and dank streets of cobble and coal-fire smog.

Now I stood once more in the home of John Kirkham, the city's most prominent, powerful and respected citizen. Professor Suzette Layling sat upright in an elegant wooden wheelchair, studiously ignoring me. EON-4 sat on an opulent couch, his legs crossed. In the centre of the room, perched on what in these times must have surely been a priceless antique table, was the head of the Iron Queen, her single eye clicking as she looked around the room.

John Kirkham breezed in through a pair of lavishly handled double doors, his face hidden, as ever, behind a gold mask with a serene expression. “I'm sorry for the delay,” he said, casually. “Ah, here we are. The spoils of adventure and exploration.”

The Iron Queen said simply, “Who are you? Another mirage.”

“Quite an amusing piece to have on my coffee table,” Kirkham continued, “although I can't help but wonder about its practical applications - or lack thereof.”

EON-4 stood to shake Kirkham's hand. “I'm afraid EON-5 seems to have sustained significant damage or corruption. It will take considerable work to unravel its - her apparent insanity.”

I stepped forward to take Kirkham's outstretched hand. “This is something I'd like to leave in the capable hands of what scientists and engineers exist in Fortress City,” I explained, “while we head north to try and contact the other EON units.”

“I see,” Kirkham said. “Since you left it came to our attention that their seems to be a rather formidable vessel anchored off the coast. I assume that it has something to do with you? Perhaps you intend to sail north and find EON-2?”

I frowned. “Why number two?”

He sounded like he was smiling behind that mask of his. “Well, that was the unit to contact you, correct? And the only one you know to have touched the mind of the Sky Spiders and come back with some measure of coherence?”

“It's also the most distant. We were hoping to reach EON-1.”

Kirkham laughed. “There have been few enough people to arrive at Fortress City from inland over the past couple of years that I can remember them all - name and face. And their stories. Things are happening in the north of this continent, doctor. The poison wastes are just the... the byproduct, the side effect of something more profound and sinister. Something that is almost certainly highly dangerous - probably even lethal to terrestrial life as we know it.”

“And you know,” I said carefully, “that this is the area where EON-1 is located?”

He stepped over to a drinks cabinet and opened the ornate glass front. “I'm a benevolent uncle to most of what remains of the species, doctor. I know a little bit of everything. I know enough, for example, to be more interested in seeing out my life with a glass of brandy in one hand than in solving possibly unsolvable mysteries that may not even hold the secrets to our survival. Speaking of which, would you care for a drink, doctor? Professor?”

I shook my head.

Suzette held out a hand. “Whisky. Whatever you've got. Neat, please.”

“You'll excuse me if I choose to drink alone, ladies and gentlemen,” Kirkham said, gesturing to his mask. “I prefer to share my scars only with myself.”

“Anyway,” I said, “I see no reason that EON-1's location, especially approaching from the east, should be any more hostile than the Frozen North. Suzette- Professor, I hope that you can dedicate at least some time to studying this head with what resources you have, while we are gone.”

She regarded me with aloof curiosity. “I'm sure the gunnery sergeants that constitute my faculty will be intrigued. Are you sure you wouldn't rather drop it off at the Imperial Society on your way north?”

“I don't feel,” EON-4 said, “that we should risk this prize any more than we already are. I'm still not convinced we should pursue EON-1. A bird in the hand, as they say.”

Suzette smiled at me. “Or maybe you're worried that the Society will snatch the prize out of the clutches of the Select Committee? That you might never see your pretty robot head again?”

“I hope you won't take her apart,” I said. “At least not more than you're absolutely certain you can put her back together again. Try talking to her at first. I think there may be a strange kind of consistency to what she says.”

I looked at the Iron Queen then, expecting her to interject. She said nothing.

“Don't worry,” Suzette told me. “I'll look after your strange little toy.”

*

I stepped out into Fortress City. Already the sky was darkening, black smoke from myriad chimneys coiling up around the blood red sunset. People walked past in small groups, their shoes clicking harshly on the cobbled street.

As I crossed a small, secluded bridge, a voice spoke from nearby. “Gleve? Dr Peregrine Gleve?”

“Yes?” I said, a little surprised.

A man in a long coat stood watching me. He chuckled. “That's something I like to see. Not so common any more. Naïve honesty.”

He lifted his hand, and aimed a long-barrelled revolver at my head.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Next week: Who's this? How will Peregrine escape staring down the barrel of yet another gun? Who is it in Fortress City that wants him dead?! Check back in a week's time for the next instalment of Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders!

Futher Adventures in Interplanetary Snow

Image source with more information
Credit: ASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/

Texas A&M University

Phoenix is still busy scraping away at Mars, despite dropping solar power as the nights close in. I meant to mention this a couple of weeks back, but Phoenix also recently detected falling snow - albeit falling snow that sublimed away in the thin atmosphere before reaching the ground.

Speaking of snow, Cassini is performing its most daring dive-bomb of the icy geysers of Enceladus today, passing within the did-somebody-move-the-decimal-place distance of 25km of the surface. For comparison, Enceladus is about 500km in diameter, and 237,000km from Saturn.  This is probably the closest Cassini has been to any world since it was launched from the Earth.  Read more here (no, I don't know why they're talking about baseball).

True Facts

This has been a public service announcement.

(Art by Tetsuya Nomura/Square-Enix)

Snowball Over Clouds

Image source with more information
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Here's another vertigo-inducing view of one of Saturn's moons - this time Encedalus, its youthful face hovering over the enormous clouds of its parent world.

Dizzying Mimas

Image source with more information
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

This natural colour Cassini image of Mimas and Saturn whispers something of the mind-blowing scales we're actually looking at. And it's also rather pretty.

Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders: Part 16

Previously: “Our foray into the Twisted Forests had ended with the capture of EON-5's raving head. Now we had a choice: head north to try and reach EON-1, or return to Fortress City to take stock.”

Part 16: The Right Decision

Sigrid eyed the forest dwellers with one hand on her rifle sling. “I still don't trust these guys.”

“Good,” I said. “Don't trust anyone.”

Ahead, the forest was thinning out - warped, occasionally writhing foliage giving way to a spacious grove where the trees seemed to shrink away from the shrivelled flesh of a huge and grotesque toadstool. Thousands of spindly spores descended from above, glittering ethereally in the early morning light. I crouched down to tie a scarf over my mouth and nose. Sigrid did the same.

“Do we know what it does?” she asked.

I pushed aside a branch and brought my small, folding telescope to one eye. “Obviously,” I said, “it twists the Twisted Forests.”

Sigrid peered through her rifle sight. “It's terrifying, isn't it?” she said calmly.

“Yes,” I answered.

If a translucent lobster and a mass-production factory had a child, it might look like this - like the Sky Spider facility that EON-3 had apparently interfaced with. It sprouted up from the ground as if it had grown there - which it might well have done for all we knew - looming over us like a bio-mechanical mountain. At first glance you might think that it swayed in the wind, but comparing its movements to the trees below it was clear that it moved with its own slow, lumbering strength, scattering glowing spores and transparent eggs across the forest canopy. Thick veins coiled down to the ground from between its armour plates, throbbing as they sucked up some fluid from the ground, or injected it into the soil.

“I think I'd go pretty crazy if I had to look into that thing's mind,” Sigrid said.

I watched the skittering shapes that clambered up and down the thing, clutching tiny, limp forms in their pincers. “Tell me about it.”

“Have we made the right choice?” she went on.

“I think so,” I said. “We're not even sure what we've found out at this point. Risking it, when we're not sure how valuable it may be seems foolhardy.”

“Back to Fortress City then,” she said, lowering her rifle. “I have family there, you know?”

I folded up my telescope. “Really? That sounds peculiar somehow. Usually it seems that everybody has wound up dead one way or another.”

She pulled down her scarf and smiled cruelly. “Oh, plenty of them are dead too, but I found a few still clinging to life after I came back from the front. To be honest, it's looking at their lives in Fortress City that makes me so keen to get out beyond the bars of the cage.”

“You're not sorry to go back, though?”

She laughed. “Are you kidding? The grass is always greener. Factory manufacture slop three times a day is always better than never knowing when you'll next get a chance to eat.”

I pointed at the Sky Spider... thing. “Have you seen enough?”

“Me? I don't know what I'm even looking at, doc, so if you're good to go, so am I.”

We turned from the structure and back into the gloom of the woods. Forest dwellers watched us with keen curiosity.

“Aren't you worried,” Sigrid pressed me, “about Unity City? I mean, taking such a big detour. We might even end up back here.”

“Not quite,” I said. “I'm hoping to take us around Unity City in the opposite direction. Up the coast and then west, avoiding the Poison Wastes as much as we can.” I tugged my scarf down. “I question the effectiveness of our protection from noxious vapours.”

Sigrid looked puzzled. “So we're, what, rowing?”

“Not quite. I'm the last surviving member of the Select Committee.”

“I don't know what that is.”

“Good. All you need to know is that it's a position that comes with a number of significant perquisites - in addition to considerable distrust and back-stabbing. A few years ago, I commandeered an ironclad steamship, and to my knowledge it's the last one in working order. It should still be docked at Portensea after I made the crossing from Ridgeford.”

Sigrid twisted her mouth. “I get sea sick.”

“It's a short journey, I promise. And for all we know, it might not even be necessary. I'm certain the Iron Queen is capable of rational thought and communication. She's shown a strong sense of purpose, and with a little time I think we might be able to unravel just what it is that she knows.”

Sigrid glanced back at the huge structure that was busy reforming the Twisted Forests into something new. “I'm not sure we really have more than 'a little time', doc.”

“Perhaps. But we could at least leave the Iron Queen with people who could focus on studying her, while we leave in search of other options.”

“Back to Fortress City then,” Sigrid repeated.

I nodded, feeling a vague sense of relief at the idea of returning to what passed for civilisation, confident that I had made the right decision. I had no idea that I had far more dangerous enemies in Fortress City than anywhere else in the world...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Next week: A return to Fortress City, and the revelation of strange new dangers! Check back in a week's time for the next instalment of Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders!

What now?

Well, the Demakes competition is over. Thanks to the people who voted for my unfinished game. :-P

During the voting period, I was reluctant to mention publicly just how little fun I had finishing the demo for Freefall Brass in time for the deadline - in particular, most of the plot and writing was the product of my last few hours of stressful slaving over the keyboard.

If I do keep working on Freefall Brass, I'll probably be giving the whole thing a bit of an overhaul. My first brush at a jazzed-up combat screen appears above. Obviously, it doesn't gel very well with the rest of the game, so that'd need sprucing up too.

The plot, as it stands, would also need a thorough rethink. I did my best with the time I had, but my chief concern was coming up with an interesting beginning, and I don't think I came up with something that would provide lasting interest. At least, not lasting interest to me and I'm the guy who'd have to work on it.

In any case, I'm planning on entering a short IF game in the mooted TIGSource Halloween competition, and then I'm going to focus on a project entirely of my own devising. That means I'm giving myself about a couple of weeks to work on Freefall Brass. On the one hand, I look at how much work I've done on it so far, and I think it'd be a shame to not at least stick some interesting prose into the scaffold I've made. And on the other hand I look at the amount of work left until I'd be happy with it, and I think I'd much rather be doing something else...

And finally...

You can now download parts 1 to 15 of Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders as a PDF from here.

I've decided to forego any kind of in-depth recap, since the post I made on the cast serves that function pretty well. And with that, services shall resume as usual. At least, until part 30...

IFComp 2008

The games for the annual Interactive Fiction Competition are now available for download - a frenzied hubbub of text-based games all clammering for your attention.

Meanwhile, voting for the TIGSource Demakes Competition ends on Thursday Saturday, so after that I may have some posts on my personal picks, as well as some hand-wringing about whatever is to be done with Freefall Brass.

(You find a tattered old tourists' brochure, faded and only half legible...)

Welcome to Unity City!

We like to think that this is the one place that can give you everything, from the heights of luxury to the fringes of the arts, but don't forget to visit many of the surrounding jewels of our nation, easily accessible by steam train, electric tram or dirigible, as your budget allows!

Oldcastle

This fantastic historical town has withstood two thousand years of warfare from its commanding position atop high ground, and with a far-reaching view of the sea. Even in these more peaceful times, the Imperial Army maintain a strong presence, and visitors from abroad are encouraged to view its towering guns and regimental guard changing ceremonies!

Portensea

The country's busiest port, and quite possibly the place you first arrived on these shores! Portensea is a vibrant, cosmopolitan place, with much on offer for the curious tourist or serious holiday-maker.

Kingchester

The nation's most recent urban development, this is a towering city of beautiful architecture and businessmen in expensive suits. Don't let that put you off visiting, though, as our tallest 'sky scrapers' will afford the more courageous visitors with breathtaking views!

(name obscured by a rip in the paper)

A masterpiece in functional design, this industrial town is home to some of our most sprawling and fantastic factories. It might not sound that interesting, but most visitors agree that the wrought iron architecture and moving monuments to recent wars make this a more memorable place to visit than you might think!

Smogton

Named for an era of dirty, coal-burning industrialism, the move to filtered boilers and electrical power has made Smogton one of the most modern and vibrant towns in the country! Visitors from across the world flock to the world-renowned art galleries and museums, including the public faces of the Imperial Society of Science, the Historical Preservation Fund and the Academy for Machine Intelligence. A conversation with a humanoid philosophy engine will certainly be one of the most memorable of your life!

Circhester

A small town, steeped in history. The quaint cottages and beautiful aristocratic mansion will charm you, while the peaceful countryside will offer a refreshing breath of air. Not far from Oldcastle, this is the perfect place for a quick day trip when you have nothing else on your itinerary!

High End

One of the most northern cities in the world (don't forget to bring a warm coat!) High End has been the base of operations for many of the most daring and heroic trips to the frozen north. Various museums and monuments showcase the sights and relics of this strange and icy world apart from our own - and on a clear day, you may even be able to see the thin white sliver of the ice caps yourself, far across the sea!

Ridgeford

A safe port of call for as long as records and myth can recall, this is a little out of the way for most visitors, although the brief journey across the Eastern Sea is an attraction enough for many. Ridgeford is a peaceful, friendly town, with--

(the page has been torn away here, leaving a few broken sentences hinting at something north of Unity City)

Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders: Cast

(The main characters and what we know about them so far. SPOILERS.)

It has been five years since the Sky Spiders descended. The world has been irrevocably changed. Most of the remaining free people are huddled in poverty behind the protecting guns of Fortress City. Many others live strange, transformed lives within the Twisted Forests. And then there are those in Unity City...

In this world, five disparate heroes are seeking the one connection, the one potential source of knowledge on the Sky Spiders and their terrible reign. Five heroes hoping that they have not merely found a route to madness, quick death, or worse...

The Supplicants:

Viscount Cyrus of Circhester
Once the designer of formidable war machines, he now relies entirely upon arcane life support equipment. Cyrus hopes to uncover the information learned by the EON units.

EON-2
A humanoid philosophy engine sent to investigate the Sky Spider's analytical machines. A telegram from EON-2 claims that all the EON units but EON-4 possess 'vital information' about the Sky Spiders and are still to be found in the vicinity of their old objectives.

The Five:

Dr Peregrine Gleve
A scientist of the Imperial Society, apparently the only surviving member of the mysterious 'Select Committee'. His polite demeanour holds many dark secrets.

Lady Una
Niece of the Viscount of Circhester, she is familiar with the science and history of these times. Mortally wounded after the arrival of the Sky Spiders, her uncle refashioned her into a hybrid of woman and tank.

Major Fabian Thurlow
An officer of the Tropical Expeditionary Force, he has an intimate knowledge of the madness that lies in the Twisted Forests. His good humour hides a bloodthirsty attitude.

EON-4
The only EON unit to fail to complete its objectives. Polite and good humoured.

Sigrid Phenice
A soldier of the 4th Company Rifles and something of a loner. Straightforward, taciturn and a crack shot.

Supporting Characters:

John Kirkham
Leader of Fortress City, a man who wears a golden mask. He stole Prometheus from the Sky Spiders during the battle for Unity City.

Professor Suzette Layling
The scientist in charge of the thunderous guns of Fortress City. Wife of Dr Frederick Layling, a member of the Select Committee.

EON-5/The Iron Queen
An EON unit dispatched to a Sky Spider structure in the Twisted Forests. She seems to there have lost her mind and refashioned herself as the forest dwellers' 'Iron Queen'. Her severed (but still gibbering) head is now in the possession of the Five.

Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders: Part 15

Previously: “Captured by the raving mad EON unit that was the Iron Queen, a diversion from my friends allowed me to sever her head and attempt an escape. But at the verge of freedom I was confronted by three armed forest dwellers.”

Part 15: A Forked Path

I had one chance as far as I could see: that the forest dwellers would be reluctant to fire at me if it meant possibly hitting the Iron Queen's head as I held it in my hands. But her head was poor cover to shield myself behind. I honestly expected nothing more than the surprising sensation of a bullet passing through my skull.

What happened instead was almost as shocking to me. The three forest dwellers - eyes wide - lowered their rifles. One of them lifted its weapon up by the barrel, raised its elongated head to the sky and let out a triumphant, exuberant warble.

I was unarmed, and they were stronger than me. If I had not been too astounded to even think of resisting, I would still have been unable to prevent them from grabbing me with their hairy, long-fingered hands and pulling me out onto the street, pushing up my arms so I held the Iron Queen's head over me like a sporting trophy.

Cold rain fell on me from above, coalesced into fat droplets as it filtered through broad purple leaves. Around me, forest dwellers taking cover behind the overgrown ruins of an old town threw down their weapons and looked at me with bright, thankful eyes.

It had never occurred to me that the forest dwellers might not be following the Iron Queen willingly. That they might be grateful towards me for having separated her head from her body.

Above me, the Iron Queen remained silent.

*

I sat on the crumbling stone steps of a wrought iron war monument, its inscription long since eroded away by the harsh elements of the Twisted Forests. A soldier of pitted metal stood on the stone, legs apart to support the weight of his wounded comrade. Unearthly vines entwined themselves around his legs, and bright flowers hung from his chest like medals.

Emerging from white mist beyond a spiked fence, Lady Una and EON-4 approached me.

“I'm not sure what happened,” Lady Una said.

I looked up at her and smiled. “What happened is that things are okay. Relatively speaking, at least. Where are the others?”

She shook her head. “Thurlow won't come near this place. The riflewoman disappeared some time ago.”

“She's around,” I said. “I think she saved my life earlier.”

Lady Una made a point of ignoring EON-5's head sitting by my side. “I still have your shoe,” she said.

I looked down at my new tree bark moccasins. “I've got a new pair, but thanks all the same.”

EON-4 knelt down in front of the Iron Queen single eye and looked up at me. “Still functional?”

I laid my hand on her steel crown. “Yes. As functional as it was before, at any rate.”

The Iron Queen's eye clicked and rotated. “Who are you?” she asked. “That is the question of prime importance. Who are you?”

EON-4 picked her up and examined the ragged tear at the bottom of her neck, then held her eye level with his own. “I am EON-4. We are alike, you and I.”

“No,” the Iron Queen said. “I am solid. I am me. You are a mirage. Who are you really? Not shimmering water. Not for this fish.”

EON-4 affected a sigh. “This is not as I had hoped it would be.”

“So it's as we feared,” Sigrid said, stepping out of the fog, her rifle resting on her shoulder. “They've all gone... bananas.”

EON-4 rotated his cylindrical head in an approximation of a shake. “No. EON-2's telegram was lucid. Not at all like this.”

“I was about to say that myself,” Lady Una said. “We've had bad luck with EON-5, but there are still three more left. If we absolutely must, we can journey all the way north to find EON-2 itself.”

“EON-1 is the next nearest,” I said. “Except for EON-3, of course, in Unity City.”

“We should return to Fortress City,” EON-4 said. “It may still be possible to extract sense from... from the 'Iron Queen'. We should not gamble her knowledge, but instead be sure to provide it with adequate protection.”

Lady Una put her hands on her hips. “I disagree. From here, we can easily reach EON-1 while avoiding Unity City, while we'd have to make a significant detour to get there from the fortress.”

Thurlow skulked up to the monument, his rifle butt pressed tightly to his shoulder. “I'm with her,” he said, crouching down near the relative cover of the spiked fence.

Lady Una produced a crooked smile. “Two votes, then.”

I laughed. “So it's come to democracy has it? A new low.”

“I vote for Fortress City,” EON-4 stated, tucking the Iron Queen's head securely into his pack.

Thurlow looked at Sigrid and tweaked his moustache. “Phenice?”

She shook her head. “Leave me out of it. I'm not here to make decisions.”

“This affects you as much as anyone,” Lady Una pressed.

“Okay,” Sigrid said, smoothing back her dew-dotted hair. “I vote the same way as the doc.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Great,” I said. “Thanks for that Sigrid. So it's up to me then? Fortress City or the Poison Wastes? Both places of such opulent luxury that it's hard to choose.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

Next week: What will Peregrine decide? Back to civilisation? Or further into strange lands? Check back in a week's time for the next instalment of Into the Mind of the Sky Spiders!