Fic: The Visitors, Teaser
Been thinking about a non-erotic sequel to Prisoners of War to further link it into the Red Vixen Adventures. I think I've actually got a full plot for the thing. Here's a taste of what its about.
* * *
"All right, Reg," Rolas said impatiently to his old commander. "What is with all this bloody cloak and dagger nonsense. He looked around the concrete walls, which reminded uncomfortably of the prison he'd been held in almost thirty years ago as a young airship engineer. "Secret underground bases, really?"
"Deadly secret," Reg answered, not a hint of his usual humor in his face. "I brought you here to show you something. It's... related to the work you've been doing in Gerwart with those rocket engineers."
Rolas harumphed in irritation. "What, you're finally going to explain why you've been pushing so hard to move from suborbital to orbital vehicles?"
"Yes." Reg unrolled a map of the Mother Country on the table, pressing the index finger of his new molded resin arm at a spot in the highlands, home to beautiful mountain ranges, sheep herding villagers, and not much else. "Two years ago something landed on a plateau in the Skyblue Highlands, in Countess Rivermaster's domain. The flash was seen by a hunter, who called the authorities. At first we thought it was a meteorite, but when we sent a scout team in we.... found something." From his attache case he drew out what appeared to be a tube made of what appeared to several layers of black resin. He pressed one finger against the edge of the tube, and it suddenly unrolled on its on accord to lay flat on the table, a blank, black rectangle about two handspans long and one wide.
"What is that?" Rolas asked.
"It was recovered from the vehicle that landed on the plateau."
"Vehicle?"
"Yes." Reg touched the center of the black rectangle. Letters in an angular script Rolas didn't recognise flashed several times across the center, like some magical conjurer's trick, and then were replaced by a brightly colored picture of a field of strange looking flowers, that filled the entire rectangle, several smaller pictures lining up in a row, overlaying the first picure, some looking like the logos of businesses, other from helpful signage.
"What is this thing?" Rolas demanded, trying to keep his jaw from hanging open in disbelief.
"So far," Reg answered, "it's been determined to be an electronic calculator, a library with several hundred books, a camera that takes both still and moving images, and then edit and project them on this screen, along with a similarly large library of what appears to be entertainment dramas and comedies, along with documentaries. It can also play a wide variety of what we'd call board games, along with other games that appear to be some form of combat and social training insofar as we can determine."
"But... but... who made it? It's like nothing I've ever seen. Not anyone in Gerwart, or the Unallied Nations, surely."
"No, not from them. The Visitors made it," Reg said gravely.
"The who?"
"The crew of the vehicle that landed. The spaceship. The alien spaceship."
* * *
Note: Any resemblance between the plot of this and ADF's Nor Crystal Tears would not be at all coincidental...
* * *
"All right, Reg," Rolas said impatiently to his old commander. "What is with all this bloody cloak and dagger nonsense. He looked around the concrete walls, which reminded uncomfortably of the prison he'd been held in almost thirty years ago as a young airship engineer. "Secret underground bases, really?"
"Deadly secret," Reg answered, not a hint of his usual humor in his face. "I brought you here to show you something. It's... related to the work you've been doing in Gerwart with those rocket engineers."
Rolas harumphed in irritation. "What, you're finally going to explain why you've been pushing so hard to move from suborbital to orbital vehicles?"
"Yes." Reg unrolled a map of the Mother Country on the table, pressing the index finger of his new molded resin arm at a spot in the highlands, home to beautiful mountain ranges, sheep herding villagers, and not much else. "Two years ago something landed on a plateau in the Skyblue Highlands, in Countess Rivermaster's domain. The flash was seen by a hunter, who called the authorities. At first we thought it was a meteorite, but when we sent a scout team in we.... found something." From his attache case he drew out what appeared to be a tube made of what appeared to several layers of black resin. He pressed one finger against the edge of the tube, and it suddenly unrolled on its on accord to lay flat on the table, a blank, black rectangle about two handspans long and one wide.
"What is that?" Rolas asked.
"It was recovered from the vehicle that landed on the plateau."
"Vehicle?"
"Yes." Reg touched the center of the black rectangle. Letters in an angular script Rolas didn't recognise flashed several times across the center, like some magical conjurer's trick, and then were replaced by a brightly colored picture of a field of strange looking flowers, that filled the entire rectangle, several smaller pictures lining up in a row, overlaying the first picure, some looking like the logos of businesses, other from helpful signage.
"What is this thing?" Rolas demanded, trying to keep his jaw from hanging open in disbelief.
"So far," Reg answered, "it's been determined to be an electronic calculator, a library with several hundred books, a camera that takes both still and moving images, and then edit and project them on this screen, along with a similarly large library of what appears to be entertainment dramas and comedies, along with documentaries. It can also play a wide variety of what we'd call board games, along with other games that appear to be some form of combat and social training insofar as we can determine."
"But... but... who made it? It's like nothing I've ever seen. Not anyone in Gerwart, or the Unallied Nations, surely."
"No, not from them. The Visitors made it," Reg said gravely.
"The who?"
"The crew of the vehicle that landed. The spaceship. The alien spaceship."
* * *
Note: Any resemblance between the plot of this and ADF's Nor Crystal Tears would not be at all coincidental...